Production Year: 2007 - Drama - Director: Giles Nuttgens, Jake Paltrow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Michael Gambon, Martin Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Keith Allen, Penelope Cruz, Bill Johnson, Donna Gigliotti, Simon Pegg, Danny DeVito more
Jake Paltrow directs his sister Gwyneth in this take on the midlife crisis. Gary (Martin Freeman) was once riding high as the member of a successful pop band. Now, seven years... more
The Good Night DVD
Dreaming is believing. Former fallen pop singer Gary is going through something of a mid ... more
life crisis. Currently writing jingles for local radio he is struggling to find perfection in an imperfect world. When he realises that real life does not measure...
GOOD NIGHT
GOODNIGHT - to promote NATURAL SLEEP "Oh sleep it is a gentle thing beloved from pole to ... more
pole" (Coleridge - Ancient Mariner). But gentle sleep can be elusive as many know. Sleepless nights mean restless days, bad temper and generally poor health. To sleep soundly and enjoy a new day is what most of us need to make life happy. Many people worry about taking sleeping tablets for fear of addiction. With natural herbal medicines there is no fear of reliance. The most effective group of sedatives known to herbal medicine make Goodnight the ideal way to induce sleep naturally. Each plant sedative has unique qualities to make the well formulated product effective. HERBS included are:- Vervain - anxiety Hops - soporific, restlessness and sleep disorders Valerian - for difficulty in falling asleep Wild Lettuce - sleeping disorders Passiflora - restlessness, difficulty in sleeping (All information from ESCOP monographs, the British Herbal Pharmacopoeia 1983 and the British Herbal Compendium, Volume 1.) Goodnight can be taken over a long period to relieve a poor sleep pattern by anyone needing help to improve the quality of their rest. GOODNIGHT is a herbal medicine (Product Licence No. 0904/506OR) and is formulated from pure natural herbs to make the stuff of dreams". Always read the label and in-pack leaflet
Good Night Inn, Brig
incl. Breakfast - HRS Rating: 7,68/10 - A modern hotel providing all the comfort in gently ... more
and environement-friendly air-conditioned rooms. The hotel has a large bar and lounge area and provides you with 3 different sized halls. The ***-hotel Good Night Inn is situated in the centre of Brig, nonetheless it is quiet and right beside the river Saltina.
the M1, junction 33. The new rooms have free Wi-Fi and LCD TVs with Freeview.Good Night Inns Rotherham is a converted Grade II listed building convenient for Meadowhall Shopping Centre and Magna. The Sheffield Arena, Don Valley Stadium, English Institute of Sport, Crucible and the City Hall are a 10-minute drive away.The new Two for One bar and restaurant provides an exciting and good-value menu with special meal offers for solo travellers.
Nao Good Night Kiss
Nao porcelain sculptures are hand crafted in Valencia, Spain where pioneers in the ... more
European porcelain industry have been creating timeless works of art since the company's inception in 1953. This blend of old-world craftsmanship and the latest ceramic technology ensures that each individual Nao sculpture is finished to perfection and will be cherished for generations to come. Nao's extensive collection of more than 300 sculptures captures the unforgettable moments of life including motherhood, weddings, childhood, falling in love, the joy of pets, the beauty of nature, religion and much more. Both gift-givers and discriminating collectors alike will appreciate the quality and attention to detail that signifies each and every Nao sculpture. Nao, part of the Lladro group, is sold in more than 122 countries around the world.
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Temporarily out of stock. Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your credit card will not be charged until we ship the item....
Production Year: 1957 - Drama - Director: Leo McCarey - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal - Starring: Cathleen Nesbitt, Deborah Kerr, Cary Grant, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson, Fortunio Bonanova
Production Year: 1981 - Drama - Director: Franco Zeffirelli - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Brooke Shields, Martin Hewitt, Shirley Knight, Don Murray, Richard Kiley, Penelope Milford, Beatrice Straight
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
A review by afy9mab on The Good Night (DVD) February 28th, 2008
Author's product rating:
Did you enjoy it?
Hated it
Story
Very weak
Characters / Performances
Weak
Special Effects
Weak
How does it compare to similar films?
Weak
Advantages:
The soundtrack included some tracks I remember fondly .
Disadvantages:
An appallingly messy, pointless movie from beginning to end .
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
Gary is a former pop star who now works for a friend as an advert jingle writer. He's stuck in an unfulfilling relationship with a former groupie and his only release from his dull everyday life comes in his dreams. There he's successful and has a sexually charged relationship with the beautiful Anna. The worse his real life gets, the more time he wants to spend in his dreams. He goes to a dream guru, who advises him how to control his dreams and get the most out of his sleeping life.
Presumably the only reason writer-director Jake Paltrow got a distribution for this meaningless pile of pretentious twaddle was because he got his more famous sister onboard. The film plays like a first attempt by a new film school graduate, so is more focussed on pointless affectation than telling a story. He throws every available trick at the screen in the hope they will resolve into some kind of style. He shoots hand-held on digital video, which makes the movie look cheap because he can't keep the camera still. It's hardly surprising all the characters are so depressed with the grey world in which they live. It's supposed to be New York, but is doubled unconvincingly by London. A cast of poorly-accented British bit-parters puts paid to any illusions you might have had about the location. There's lots of background noise that is supposed to add to the sense of realism, but doesn't fit when he's had to loop in dialogue later, which suddenly cuts out the incidental sound. He begins with a series of documentary-style talking heads that tell you nothing about the story and are too badly written to have any resonance when you think about them later. They are too stagy to feel real. One seems to exist solely to prove Paltrow can get Michael Gambon to appear in his film.
The most obvious influence on him is the work of David Lynch. You can tell from the early dream sequences that have Penelope Cruz speaking to Martin Freeman either in subtitles or backwards with subtitles. It's a cheap, pointless affectation that just looks pretentious. This is in addition to Cruz gliding in on wheels and appearing as multiple versions of herself in the same scene. The shifts between reality and dreams are often abrupt, so you don't get a sense of Gary losing himself in the dream world and it destroys the possibilities for the audience to be misled. By the time you get to the is-it-or-isn't-it-a-dream finale, the answer is most likely to be "Who cares?" Paltrow won't even allow the audience that little bit of intrigue, throwing in a decisive shot that removes any doubt. Despite being a mere ninety-three minutes long, the film manages to drag interminably.
There are two serious problems with the screenplay. The first is a dearth if likeable characters. Gary is a self-absorbed depressive who treats his girlfriend like dirt, Dora is sour-faced and spends all her time bitching and moaning, Paul is a self-absorbed, misogynistic prick, Mel is an angry little man with no social skills and Anna is merely a cipher for desire and the difference between expectation and reality. The second big issue is a lack of story. The film is simply a series of rambling dreams slotted into a framework. This format doesn't work because Gary's personality isn't informed by them; they're just an escape from disappointing reality. Because there is no real background for the character, it is unclear why he becomes obsessed with his dream-life so quickly. And because he's so desperately unlikeable you don't really care what happens to him one way or the other. The film meanders too much because there's no point to the story; Gary's dreams don't mean anything and they don't do much to change his life for the better. If anything they make him more selfish. Perhaps it would work if it was a five or ten minute short, but there isn't enough story to fill an hour and a half. The dialogue is dreary and peppered with unnecessary expletives and we don't even get a satisfactory explanation of the significance of Gary's dreams.
Martin Freeman plays Gary like an even more depressive version of his character in "The Office". He's a neurotic, rumpled, jealous, flabby and increasingly grumpy sad sack with virtually no redeeming features. It may just be the way the part has been written, but he's too unsympathetic to be likeable. The same can be said of Gwyneth Paltrow as Dora. She's cold, brittle and surprisingly wet as Gary's permanently complaining girlfriend. It only took a couple of scenes for me to want to slap her.
Simon Pegg feels miscast as Gary's smug, self-centred best mate and boss Paul. That being said, he's about the only cast member that appears to be making an effort to breathe some life into his character and he provides the few laughs of the movie. Danny Devito is playing his usual angry little man character as the mean and nasty dream tutor Mel. There's nothing to like about the pretentious and permanently grumpy pseudo-intellectual. Penelope Cruz is little more than window dressing as Gary's dream-girl Anna and her real-life counterpart Melodia. She looks good as the role requires but appears entirely vacuous in both incarnations. The oddest casting is Jarvis Cocker as one of Paul and Gary's former band-mates. Presumably he was employed so Paltrow could get access to Pulp's back-catalogue for the soundtrack.
The original music by Alec Puro is non-existent until Penelope Cruz comes on the scene, as if her appearance heralds the world opening up for Gary. She is represented by warm string arrangements that become increasingly complex as the movie progresses are a strong contrast to the lack of music elsewhere in the film. When reality and dreams collide, the warm string and piano arrangements become discordant as the action turns into a nightmare. The incidental music also includes the dodgy advertising jingles Gary writes, like a "Cheers" theme tune rip-off. The rest of the soundtrack has a distinctly late-nineties' feel to it as it incorporates the instrumental version of Blur's "The Universal" on several occasions and Pulp's "Do You Remember the First Time?" The retro feel continues with T'Pau's "Heart and Soul" and the rather bizarre inclusion of "Happy Talk" from "South Pacific". The overall effect is somewhat disjointed and there aren't enough original compositions to make it feel like a coherent body of work.
"The Good Night" has a title that is the very antithesis of my experience of the film. It is a pointless, meandering, self-indulgent pile of pretentious claptrap that ably demonstrates why some people shouldn't be allowed to make movies. The writing goes nowhere, the direction is messy and the performances sloppy. Had I not made the mistake of paying to see it, I would have walked out and found something, anything, to do as it would have been a more valuable use of my time than wasting ninety-three minutes of my life on this steaming turd of a film.
Advantages: Some interesting topics raised Disadvantages: You cant help thinking "why?"
The Good Night turned out pretty much to be nothing I expected, but then I guess my expectations were minimal. What did baffle me was the use of the word "Comedy" for the most part the film was on a real downer in respect of emotions, and with the exception of one line from Simon Pegg there are absolutely no laughs at all, though I have to admit there are a few highs. The biggest issue with The Good Night is that its a totally disorientating experience, ... ...of the exterior shots being filmed in New York, with others in London (pretending to be New York). The result is that you spend the movie asking yourself if the scene you have seen is in fact London on whether it's Lewisham.
The movie has an interesting cast Penelope Cruz (Vanilla Sky), Martin Freeman (The Office), Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz, Shaun Of The Dead, Run Fat Boy Run), Gwyneth Paltrow (Great Expectations, Shakespeare In Love), and Danny DeVito ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Outstanding writing and direction by George Clooney, exceptional fimmaking all around Disadvantages: Most may not be interested in the real-life events, or may not find the subject matter riveting enough
...*************************************************************
TITLE: GoodNight, and Good Luck.
RATING: ****½
CAST: David Strathairn, Robert Downey, Jr., George Clooney, Patricia Clarkson, Ray Wise, Frank Langella, Jeff Daniels, Tate Donovan, Matt Ross, Thomas McCarthy, Robert John Burke, Reed Diamond, Dianne Reeves, Joseph McCarthy.
DIRECTOR: George Clooney
STUDIO: Warner Independent Pictures
RUNNING TIME: 93 min.
RATED: PG (US) & (PG); mild thematic elements and light profanity.
UK RELEASE DATE: February 17, 2006
*************************************************************
INTRODUCTION
*************************************************************
"Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices, just recognize them." --- Mr. Edward R. Murrow...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Marvellous cast, great true story. Disadvantages: The jazz singer...
...George Clooney was a TV star that became a movie star with some interesting choices. Initially partnering with Steven Soderbergh to produce movies, he started directing in 2002 with "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind". I wouldn't say it was an ascending path but a coherent one, and so it's no surprise all the acclamation surrounding "GoodNight, and Good Luck".
This movie is a very personal project for Clooney, since his father used to be a journalist and an ardent devotee of Edward Murrow, but is also a project that echoes universally, making every sense its production in the XXI century, since it deals with the TV role as the possibility to build a better world. And more: what is discussed in the American television during the 50's is the freedom of speech, ideologies. In one way or the other, let's see the world we live in...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Great performances and assured direction that never condescend to the audience Disadvantages: Some of the subplots are cut off too early
...Wershba, Patricia Clarkson has little chance to come across as anything other than a vague warm and fun presence, but is still eminently likeable.
The soundtrack features little incidental music in the traditional sense. Sung on set by a full jazz band and marvellous soloist, they bring out all manner of swing standards chosen for their ability to comment on the action. So expect plenty of blowsy brass (especially saxophone), double bass and piano with silky jazz vocals over the top of classics like "One for the Road".
"GoodNight, And Good Luck" is a thought-provoking film that marries period setting with current concerns, crediting the audience with having a brain. The direction is smooth and assured, creating creamy visuals that draw you in. Strathairn is amazing in the central role, showing how subtlety can make a performance. Even...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Consumer Advice: Contains strong language and sex references
Video Category: Feature Film
Country Of Origin: United States of America
Plot: Gary was once riding high as the member of a successful pop band. Now, seven years later, the band is no more and he pays the bills by composing mediocre music for commercials. To further add to his unhappiness, his relationship with his girlfriend, Dora, appears to be on its last legs. The only thing Gary looks forward to anymore is sleeping--so that he might have a reoccurring dream about a beautiful mystery woman he calls Anna. He even goes so far as to take dream workshops taught by a scruffy eccentric named Mel, in the hopes of prolonging his experiences in his subconscious. He soon becomes obsessed with escaping into his dreamworld, and his real life begins to fall apart. Depressed and confused, he finally has a revelatory dream wherein he realizes he needs to make a major change and return to reality. He plots a grand romantic gesture to get his life back on track, but the plan backfires with rather shocking and tragic results.
Release details
DVD Region: DVD
Studio(s): MOMENTUM PICTURES; TECHNICOLOR DISTRIBUTION SERVICES, MOMENTUM PICTURES
Languages
Main Language: English
Technical information
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound: Dolby Digital
DVD Description
Jake Paltrow directs his sister Gwyneth in this take on the midlife crisis. Gary (Martin Freeman) was once riding high as the member of a successful pop band. Now, seven years later, the band is no more and he pays the bills by composing mediocre music for commercials. To further add to his unhappiness, his relationship with his girlfriend, Dora (Paltrow), appears to be on its last legs. The only thing Gary looks forward to anymore is sleeping--so that he might have a reoccurring dream about a beautiful mystery woman he calls Anna (Penelope Cruz). He even goes so far as to take dream workshops taught by a scruffy eccentric named Mel (Danny Devito), in the hopes of prolonging his experiences in his subconscious. He soon becomes obsessed with escaping into his dreamworld, and his real life begins to fall apart. Depressed and confused, he finally has a revelatory dream wherein he realizes he needs to make a major change and return to reality. He plots a grand romantic gesture to get his life back on track, but the plan backfires with rather shocking and tragic results.
Martin Freeman gives an endearing performance as the befuddled Gary, and Gwyneth Paltrow is splendidly obnoxious as the nagging, frowning Dora. Viewers should take note, while THE GOOD NIGHT is billed as a romantic comedy, it's definitely not standard fare. It certainly has its share of laughs and feel good moments, but it also has some pretty dark undertones that one doesn't usually find in the rom-com genre.
Professional reviews
Review: An entrancing comedy with a bundle of charm (Sunday Mirror, 20/03/2008)
Few will be able to resist Martin Freeman's appealing lead turn or the wry Brit wit that gives this fanciful confection a robust comic core (Variety, 22/11/2007)
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Listed on Ciao since : 31/01/2008
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