2007 by the numbers
Dec. 23rd, 2007 12:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gervase_fenI was asked the other day by Red Geraniums to recommend a film, which got me in the mood for a best of 2007 list. But before we do that...
1. The Umbrella Song - apparently the hit summer song of the year.
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - probably because I was fed up with preparing for the launch of book 7
3. Ratatouille - and in digital at my local Odeon too!
4. Heroes - couldn't make it past the sense-of-wonder voice over
5. The Lives of Others - never got the chance to trek into London to see it, alas
1. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters (G W Dahlquist) - despite the prolixity, and the occasional sense of being adrift in a vast, sketched out, steampunk role playing game scenario, this was a great read, and I can't wait for "The Dark Volume" in May.
2. The Tenderness of Wolves (Stef Penney) - a wonderful, sustained, convincing period adventure/travelogue which had me rationing the pages as I devoured it.
3. The Power of the Dog (Don Winslow) - a widescreen crime epic exploring the US War on drugs of the 70s and 80s.
4. Sovereign (C J Sansom - audiobook) - everything that Showtime's "The Tudors" isn't - compelling, authentic, beautifully paced. Anton Lesser's reading captures Shardlake's intelligence, the jeopardy of the times that he lives in and Sansom's eye for visual detail.
5. No Time for Goodbye (Linwood Barclay) - a Harlan Coben-style domestic thriller that impressed me more than Harlan Coben's latest; it's out in hardback next month.
6. The Tiger in the Smoke (Margery Allingham - audiobook) - even more impressive now that I've listened to "The Fashion in Shrouds", which had all the problems I associate with the Campion TV adaptations (too many characters, too much plot, Campion too passive or making deductions from evidence barely obvious from the narrative.)
1. Atonement - first time in a long time that I've gone back to see a film a second time within a fortnight of its release. (I used to do this all the time when I went to the LFF regularly - I'd see the movie in November and then go back and catch it again on release in the New Year; last one was "Walk the Line" in 2005.)
2. Pan's Labyrinth
3. Zodiac
4. Tell No One - terrific until the monologue ten minutes from the end to explain the plot
5. Goldfinger
6. Bridge to Terabithia - a must, Red Geraniums, if you enjoyed Pan's Labyrinth. It knocked me sideways.
7. The Bourne Ultimatum - Waterloo station has never seemed so dangerous
Disappointments -
1. Becoming Jane - James McAvoy, good in "Last King of Scotland", superb in "Atonement", is charisma-by-numbers in this. Anne Hathaway, engaging in "The Devil Wears Prada", is game (and gamine) but wears some of the worst "aged 50 spinster" hair extensions at the end of the film I've forgotten about the rest of her performance.
2. Sunshine - Event Horizon did it better, less pretentiously, and with Sean Pertwee, ten years ago
1. The Umbrella Song - apparently the hit summer song of the year.
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - probably because I was fed up with preparing for the launch of book 7
3. Ratatouille - and in digital at my local Odeon too!
4. Heroes - couldn't make it past the sense-of-wonder voice over
5. The Lives of Others - never got the chance to trek into London to see it, alas
1. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters (G W Dahlquist) - despite the prolixity, and the occasional sense of being adrift in a vast, sketched out, steampunk role playing game scenario, this was a great read, and I can't wait for "The Dark Volume" in May.
2. The Tenderness of Wolves (Stef Penney) - a wonderful, sustained, convincing period adventure/travelogue which had me rationing the pages as I devoured it.
3. The Power of the Dog (Don Winslow) - a widescreen crime epic exploring the US War on drugs of the 70s and 80s.
4. Sovereign (C J Sansom - audiobook) - everything that Showtime's "The Tudors" isn't - compelling, authentic, beautifully paced. Anton Lesser's reading captures Shardlake's intelligence, the jeopardy of the times that he lives in and Sansom's eye for visual detail.
5. No Time for Goodbye (Linwood Barclay) - a Harlan Coben-style domestic thriller that impressed me more than Harlan Coben's latest; it's out in hardback next month.
6. The Tiger in the Smoke (Margery Allingham - audiobook) - even more impressive now that I've listened to "The Fashion in Shrouds", which had all the problems I associate with the Campion TV adaptations (too many characters, too much plot, Campion too passive or making deductions from evidence barely obvious from the narrative.)
1. Atonement - first time in a long time that I've gone back to see a film a second time within a fortnight of its release. (I used to do this all the time when I went to the LFF regularly - I'd see the movie in November and then go back and catch it again on release in the New Year; last one was "Walk the Line" in 2005.)
2. Pan's Labyrinth
3. Zodiac
4. Tell No One - terrific until the monologue ten minutes from the end to explain the plot
5. Goldfinger
6. Bridge to Terabithia - a must, Red Geraniums, if you enjoyed Pan's Labyrinth. It knocked me sideways.
7. The Bourne Ultimatum - Waterloo station has never seemed so dangerous
Disappointments -
1. Becoming Jane - James McAvoy, good in "Last King of Scotland", superb in "Atonement", is charisma-by-numbers in this. Anne Hathaway, engaging in "The Devil Wears Prada", is game (and gamine) but wears some of the worst "aged 50 spinster" hair extensions at the end of the film I've forgotten about the rest of her performance.
2. Sunshine - Event Horizon did it better, less pretentiously, and with Sean Pertwee, ten years ago
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no subject
Date: 2007-12-23 11:10 am (UTC)Yay! I was asking about that at the Malet Street branch last month and they said there was no news of the sequel to TGBotDE. I still don't even own that - am waiting for the paperback, because I really disliked the look and feel of the hardback. (It looked gorgeous in the shop but you could just tell how tatty it would quickly look once the dustjacket got a bit of handling.) Do you know if they plan to repeat the chapbook issue?
I lent Dissolution to at least one friend who promptly ordered the next three, and have given it to my stepmother and mother as well.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-23 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 06:11 pm (UTC)I agree re. Atonement. I'd read the book & I thought they did a fantastic job of adapting the story. Plus it was lovely to look at. I hope James McEvoy gets an Oscar nomination, but Keira Knightly doesn't - she was bearable, but the girl playing her younger sister gave a far better performance.
I will definitely check out Bridge to Terabithia.
Happy New Year to you & congrats on the amazing Christmas eve :-)
Sarah