![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Movies you may not have seen #7
Nov. 11th, 2005 09:34 amOne of the cool things about purging all my old tapes as I move things onto DVD has been this trip down memory lane that I'm taking, especially with movies I haven't watched in years. As I was getting rid of some favorite characters' actors' other projects tapes, I came across one of my favorite little movies, Getting Married in Buffalo Jump, starring Paul Gross pre-Due South (and what a luscious, creamy-dreamy young man he is, too).
I was happy to discover it was on DVD and that Netflix carries it -- it was not easily available on VHS in this country, and was just called Buffalo Jump at the time, a title I'm certain would make it even less appealing to unfamiliar audiences. Not a very good-looking film -- it was obviously made for TV with lots of closeups when they could have gone for long shots with the spectacular landscape, and filmed on flat, colorless 16 mm -- it's nonetheless a very honest movie, and one where the romance is never played with for the audience's sake. It also has a fairly realistic depiction of rural western life, which I find rare in modern movies.
It stars Wendy Crewson, whom Due South fans will know as the bounty hunter in season 3 (probably only one of two S3 eps I ever liked) and everyone else would probably only know as the First Lady in Air Force One. She plays a lounge singer, Sophie, who returns home after her father dies, and wants to take on the ranch, much to her mother's consternation (she wants off their ranch, badly). Paul Gross plays Alex, whom she hires to run the ranch. It's clear they find each other attractive at the get-go (god, who wouldn't? They're both gorgeous), but what is so great about the movie is that it's just there and they move along. Alex wants to be invested in something, and he makes her a business proposal of marriage so she can keep the ranch and he can have one. The rest of the movie is about them finding each other through friendship and fights, truth and lies, disapproval and gossip. It's not a smooth road, and maybe even bumpier than it should be just because they both try to push aside feelings for business.
Gross is really wonderful here, playing a very taciturn guy who's accused at times of dishonesty or passivity, and you never really know for sure what he is until the end, other than a very nice guy who doesn't always know how to do or say the right things. He makes Alex's out-of-his-depthness very endearing, but you can also easily see why others are frustrated by him. He isn't someone you can pin down with a definition, and I like that because all too often, the hunky ranch hand is just way too easy a role and there's nothing complex about it. He's at turns sharp and dim, angry and vulnerable, and sometimes even kind of rude, but he's never uninteresting. Nor unappealing -- to say that he is stunning in this is such an understatement it makes me laugh. Characters all comment on how gorgeous he is, and he struts around in sweaty, dirt-streaked tees and tight jeans, with axle grease on his biceps... he is guh cubed.
And Wendy is pretty hot herself. I've always loved her, and I especially like her here because she doesn't always do the right thing or react in the way you want her to. She dosn't have all the answers to her life, and she's confused by what she wants from Alex. Very few actresses ever look to me like they come from a rural, horse-or-cattle-ranch environment. They never seem even remotely believable, but she does. The woman clearly knows how to ride a horse, she acts as if equipment and large animals were her way of life, and I really valued that. She's also just really beautiful with a great sense of humor and curiosity, and Sophie is the kind of character you wish could be your best gal pal.
It's a sweet, gentle movie that respects its characters. Not a gorgeous film with a breakout story, but one that kind of sticks with you and warms your heart.
****
Happy birthday to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sweetestdrain, who definitely knows how to appreciate Paul Gross's charms.
I was happy to discover it was on DVD and that Netflix carries it -- it was not easily available on VHS in this country, and was just called Buffalo Jump at the time, a title I'm certain would make it even less appealing to unfamiliar audiences. Not a very good-looking film -- it was obviously made for TV with lots of closeups when they could have gone for long shots with the spectacular landscape, and filmed on flat, colorless 16 mm -- it's nonetheless a very honest movie, and one where the romance is never played with for the audience's sake. It also has a fairly realistic depiction of rural western life, which I find rare in modern movies.
It stars Wendy Crewson, whom Due South fans will know as the bounty hunter in season 3 (probably only one of two S3 eps I ever liked) and everyone else would probably only know as the First Lady in Air Force One. She plays a lounge singer, Sophie, who returns home after her father dies, and wants to take on the ranch, much to her mother's consternation (she wants off their ranch, badly). Paul Gross plays Alex, whom she hires to run the ranch. It's clear they find each other attractive at the get-go (god, who wouldn't? They're both gorgeous), but what is so great about the movie is that it's just there and they move along. Alex wants to be invested in something, and he makes her a business proposal of marriage so she can keep the ranch and he can have one. The rest of the movie is about them finding each other through friendship and fights, truth and lies, disapproval and gossip. It's not a smooth road, and maybe even bumpier than it should be just because they both try to push aside feelings for business.
Gross is really wonderful here, playing a very taciturn guy who's accused at times of dishonesty or passivity, and you never really know for sure what he is until the end, other than a very nice guy who doesn't always know how to do or say the right things. He makes Alex's out-of-his-depthness very endearing, but you can also easily see why others are frustrated by him. He isn't someone you can pin down with a definition, and I like that because all too often, the hunky ranch hand is just way too easy a role and there's nothing complex about it. He's at turns sharp and dim, angry and vulnerable, and sometimes even kind of rude, but he's never uninteresting. Nor unappealing -- to say that he is stunning in this is such an understatement it makes me laugh. Characters all comment on how gorgeous he is, and he struts around in sweaty, dirt-streaked tees and tight jeans, with axle grease on his biceps... he is guh cubed.
And Wendy is pretty hot herself. I've always loved her, and I especially like her here because she doesn't always do the right thing or react in the way you want her to. She dosn't have all the answers to her life, and she's confused by what she wants from Alex. Very few actresses ever look to me like they come from a rural, horse-or-cattle-ranch environment. They never seem even remotely believable, but she does. The woman clearly knows how to ride a horse, she acts as if equipment and large animals were her way of life, and I really valued that. She's also just really beautiful with a great sense of humor and curiosity, and Sophie is the kind of character you wish could be your best gal pal.
It's a sweet, gentle movie that respects its characters. Not a gorgeous film with a breakout story, but one that kind of sticks with you and warms your heart.
****
Happy birthday to
sweetestdrain, who definitely knows how to appreciate Paul Gross's charms.
