If you haven't seen "The Visitor" yet, put it on your queue right now. This film played with my emotions like no other recently. I was happy and sad and worried and more. I identified very much with meeting a group of new people and just falling absolutely in love with them. It's happened to me a few times: summer camp in '96, Philippines in '01, Hawaii in '09. It's excellent, and I highly recommend it.
It was directed by Thomas McCarthy, who previously did "The Station Agent". Check that one out, too. Both films share the same themes of loneliness and friendship. Thomas, by the way, is the actor playing that lying reporter on the last season of "The Wire". Add that HBO series to your queue as well.
"The Visitor" didn't get nominated for Best Director, and I think it should have been. One film that did that year was "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". I read that short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and I found it more fulfilling than the film. The movie was kind of soulless, in my opinion.
Sometimes film shouldn't be made from short works. Another example is "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". I believe the filmmakers thought the audience would recognize those words on the title and associate the movie with other successful franchises. Apparently, it is not the sequel to "The Sorcerer's Stone". Or "The Vampire's Assistant". It's a whole other thing.
Other examples are "The Polar Express" and "Where the Wild Things Are". I'm sure there are more, but they don't come to mind right now. How do you make a two hour film out of a storybook with a handful of pages? It's not easy, it seems. There are probably some successful ones though (and you might disagree and argue that the previous ones work well enough), but they don't come to mind right now.
Speaking of soulless, by the way, "The Spirit" totally lacked, well, spirit. If you're a big fan of the comic book, read the comic book. Or you can watch "Hellboy" or "Hellboy 2" instead. Or "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World".
Anyways, I'll leave you to it. I have to finish my screenplay. It's about a guy who changes moods real fast. It's called "Bipolar Express".
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