A film and a meme
Apr. 25th, 2026 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annavereThe film was Me and Mrs. Jones, a 2002 Masterpiece Theatre broadcast. Kind of a Roman Holiday remix. There's a reporter (played by Robson Green) who is trying to get the story of his career by befriending a restless head of state, with whom he falls in love. However, he's a tabloid gossip columnist and she's the married Prime Minister (Caroline Goodall) struggling with an election campaign. The film is nowhere near the level of Roman Holiday in direction, screenplay or chemistry of the leads, but it mostly kept my attention. The pair start an affair (it's okay, because her husband is already cheating on her), leading to Robson Green developing feelings and having a change of heart. Or so I guess. This is one of those films where all the big reveals happen off screen, which made all the resolutions feel anticlimactic, and the character decisions feel unearned.
The most entertaining part of the film for me were a couple of supporting roles. Robson's ex (and boss at the tabloid) was played by Keeley Hawes, who was Alex Drake on Ashes to Ashes and brought some of that same spark to this role. Meanwhile, the PM's chief advisor was none other than Peter Firth, aka Arthur Drake the warmonger Immortal on Highlander! This added the only genuine sense of stakes to this slim sugar wafer of a story, because the previous PM had DIED IN OFFICE, and so Caroline Goodall had to fill his shoes. It briefly amused me to consider Drakov up to no good, and a deep undercover Alex Drake trying to maneuver the downfall of the PM in order to oust Arthur Drake from Downing Street.
However, this film had zero interest in politics and was mostly using the setting the way it would the legal scandals of any public-facing celebrity, so it got the worst of both worlds. It didn't say anything pertinent about politics or journalism, and it was impossible for me to root for a politician and a tabloid journalist to get together, so they really should have given Goodall's character a different high publicity job. But it will be one less DVD cluttering the house! Yay, me.
And now, a character meme fromsenmut:
Your choice of character from your choice of fandom:
Since I now have evil Immortals on the brain, I'm going with them as a group.
1. Are they successful by their own standards?
Kronos leaps to the top of the bar in purgatory, but is clobbered off of it by various victims of Duncan MacLeod before he can give his "I am the END OF TIME!!!" speech. Grayson urbanely drops hints which credit himself with the western application of sulfur, and nobody else can really better that (although plenty would surely try, evil Immortals being a comparatively vain lot). Byron, despite being the most justly famous of the bunch, feels like he's one of the least successful.
The real winner among MacLeod's kills would obviously be Sean Burns, who not only did not die in vain, his spirit assisting MacLeod in fighting off the Dark Quickening, but would in fact do some of his best work as a psychopomp, helping the cases too difficult to reach in life to move onward into the hereafter (Ingrid, Alfred Cahill and Michael Moore among them).
2. Are they seen as successful by those around them?
Evil Immortals seem to come in two main flavors: The psychos who completely let themselves go, and don't care what anyone thinks of them (Kanis, Kern, Caspian), and those who put on airs and place themselves above their surroundings (Consone, Ward, Durgan, Xavier). Those in the latter camp would appear to have it all, to be the ones mortals would look up to as winners in the game of life - yet they lived hollow, bitter existences until MacLeod snuffed them out.
3. Is there a regret they have?
"I should never have messed with the Highlander. What was I thinking?"
"Tell me about it."
4. Is there a triumph they treasure?
Another frequent problem with evil Immortals is getting stuck on their past, and chasing the old high of their glory days. An inability to grow and adapt. Kronos can reminisce about the Horsemen, but if he hadn't tried so hard to put the band back together and force a reunion tour to happen, he and his brothers would have lived a lot longer. For the evil Immortal, their triumphs are their downfalls.
5. Would they prefer a fabulous dessert or a sumptuous dinner?
Most of them would go for a sumptuous dinner, for a mix of practical benefit and status symbol, lording it over the peasants with a six-course meal. Nefertiri, though, would definitely be sampling every decadent bon-bon invented since the fall of Egypt, I have no doubt.
Thank you for the fun questions,senmut!
The most entertaining part of the film for me were a couple of supporting roles. Robson's ex (and boss at the tabloid) was played by Keeley Hawes, who was Alex Drake on Ashes to Ashes and brought some of that same spark to this role. Meanwhile, the PM's chief advisor was none other than Peter Firth, aka Arthur Drake the warmonger Immortal on Highlander! This added the only genuine sense of stakes to this slim sugar wafer of a story, because the previous PM had DIED IN OFFICE, and so Caroline Goodall had to fill his shoes. It briefly amused me to consider Drakov up to no good, and a deep undercover Alex Drake trying to maneuver the downfall of the PM in order to oust Arthur Drake from Downing Street.
However, this film had zero interest in politics and was mostly using the setting the way it would the legal scandals of any public-facing celebrity, so it got the worst of both worlds. It didn't say anything pertinent about politics or journalism, and it was impossible for me to root for a politician and a tabloid journalist to get together, so they really should have given Goodall's character a different high publicity job. But it will be one less DVD cluttering the house! Yay, me.
And now, a character meme from
senmut:Your choice of character from your choice of fandom:
Since I now have evil Immortals on the brain, I'm going with them as a group.
1. Are they successful by their own standards?
Kronos leaps to the top of the bar in purgatory, but is clobbered off of it by various victims of Duncan MacLeod before he can give his "I am the END OF TIME!!!" speech. Grayson urbanely drops hints which credit himself with the western application of sulfur, and nobody else can really better that (although plenty would surely try, evil Immortals being a comparatively vain lot). Byron, despite being the most justly famous of the bunch, feels like he's one of the least successful.
The real winner among MacLeod's kills would obviously be Sean Burns, who not only did not die in vain, his spirit assisting MacLeod in fighting off the Dark Quickening, but would in fact do some of his best work as a psychopomp, helping the cases too difficult to reach in life to move onward into the hereafter (Ingrid, Alfred Cahill and Michael Moore among them).
2. Are they seen as successful by those around them?
Evil Immortals seem to come in two main flavors: The psychos who completely let themselves go, and don't care what anyone thinks of them (Kanis, Kern, Caspian), and those who put on airs and place themselves above their surroundings (Consone, Ward, Durgan, Xavier). Those in the latter camp would appear to have it all, to be the ones mortals would look up to as winners in the game of life - yet they lived hollow, bitter existences until MacLeod snuffed them out.
3. Is there a regret they have?
"I should never have messed with the Highlander. What was I thinking?"
"Tell me about it."
4. Is there a triumph they treasure?
Another frequent problem with evil Immortals is getting stuck on their past, and chasing the old high of their glory days. An inability to grow and adapt. Kronos can reminisce about the Horsemen, but if he hadn't tried so hard to put the band back together and force a reunion tour to happen, he and his brothers would have lived a lot longer. For the evil Immortal, their triumphs are their downfalls.
5. Would they prefer a fabulous dessert or a sumptuous dinner?
Most of them would go for a sumptuous dinner, for a mix of practical benefit and status symbol, lording it over the peasants with a six-course meal. Nefertiri, though, would definitely be sampling every decadent bon-bon invented since the fall of Egypt, I have no doubt.
Thank you for the fun questions,
senmut!
