The Elephant Man

David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980) is easily one of the most conventional films the director has ever made. Surrealism is almost non-existent and storytelling is rather simple. The flick is based on the true story of a badly deformed man who lived during the 1800's. It is a tale of discrimination and dignity. The film handled its themes properly enough to be satisfying. However, I found some of the characters to be a bit lacking. Even though the main character was well developed, sometimes I couldn't tell whether John Hurt's performance was brilliant or terribly over-the-top.

Lynch's form is very good: the black and white photography was beautiful and menacing and the editing was marvellous.  However, the musical score put me off on a few occasions by being way too dramatic.

Ultimately, The Elephant Man works well in all aspects even though it had its own flaws and it didn't impress me in any special way.

Score: 7 out of 10

The Sea Inside

Alejandro Amenábar's The Sea Inside (2004) is based on the true story of a paralyzed man (Javier Bardem) who fought 28 years for the right to end his own life. Amenábar tackles yet another iffy subject with sentimentality. Luckily Amenábar sentimentality is excellent so that he never does it over-the-top, but handles it carefully. The film's characters are thoroughly explored and examined, which makes it a deep insight on how this man lived and how that affected everyone around him. The film's ethical content is carefully touched upon and it is handled in a great way - to say the least. The dialogue appears as pretentious which it could easily be, and that is due to the good writing and Bardem's magnificent performance. His subdued performance is heartbreakingly spot-on. He really gets to flex his acting muscles here. The form is unsurprisingly as usual for Amenábar. He sticks to certain patterns that are both good and bad. He never takes risks, and it leaves the film a little cold in comparison to its brilliant content.

Score: 7 out of 10