Audience Member
One of the worst movies I've ever rented from Netflix. Caroleen Feeney single handedly ruined this pic.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/25/23
Full Review
sean l
A fun concept piece that asks seventy unrelated Irish women to describe the most important man at that particular moment of their lives. With subjects that reach across every lifestyle, age and demeanor, the tone and context of every two-minute conversation varies wildly. Bubbly younger girls describe their fathers as everything from herculean supermen to strict, chore-demanding slave drivers. Teens vary their focus from their dads to the flirts and love interests of adolescence. Young adults begin to yearn for longer-term relationships, thirty-somethings discuss their kids and older women touch on the rigors of rut-riding and, eventually, crippling loss. I found the ambitious, carefully-arranged cinematography to be every bit as interesting as the variety of faces and their tales. In a way, it's a talking picture book; a photo essay on the slow, inevitable evolution of a thorough life. Though we don't spend long with any subject, that doesn't stop their stories from connecting in a very real, emotional way.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Well, that was a sweet little movie.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This film takes ordinary women in the Irish midlands as its subject, gathers a collection of small moments, and turns them into a fascinating narrative. It is remarkable how frank, open, and honest the participants are, and the result is poignant and often hilarious. I can't help but feel this could only have worked with Irish women, who seem to have a unique way of telling their story.
Wardrop does a wonderful job of establishing continuity through the film, by careful assembling the interviews from young to old, giving the impression of a life being described. His lighting and cinematography are first-class and give the film a seamless feel where it could have been disjointed. It's all the more remarkable since he shot every interview on one roll of film; about ten minutes per woman including all the cutaway shots.
All in all, this was a joy to watch and I'm looking forward to checking out more of Wardrops work.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Beautiful in its simplicity, this series of talking heads starts with the Irish adage "a man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best and his mother the longest". From here we see, one by one, little girls talking about their Dads, progressing to teenage girls aflutter with their boy crazy infatuations, through to women talking about their weddings, babies, grown sons and finally to older women speaking of the men that may or may not still be in their lives. The cumulative effect is disarmingly moving. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/25/23
Full Review
Audience Member
What would happen if you got a bunch of women, ranging in age from late teens to nearly 100, to express their views on the men in their lives, the nature of their relationships and the effect on their lives? From this extraordinarily simple premise His & Hers is born. Film-maker Ken Wardrop takes 70 women and 80 minutes to explore the very nature of the male/female interaction. The women talk about their fathers, their lovers, their sons and their brothers, giving a vibrant and emotionally powerful picture of live, love and everything in between.
The women, who all come from the Irish midlands, are the stars of the show. Each one a character in their own right, some melancholy, some hilarious, some just plain mad, but all engaging and real. The younger girls show the flush of youth, the optimism, the naivety and the scaredness that accompanies first love and loss. The older women show the maturity, understanding, compassion and remorse that comes from a fuller live. All are open in their responses, eager even to instil their wisdoms and experiences unto others.
The director has taken these women's stories and shaped and moulded them into something beautiful. The tone is always optimistic, even as women talk of the death of loved ones, and there's an emotional undercurrent that grips the audience and holds on tight. Documentaries often suffer from the need by their creators to skew the events/stories to suit their predefined plans, but this never feels like that. It's as if Wardrop took his dailies and saw a conscious pattern emerge that would frame his film perfectly. His use of humour after strong emotional scenes restores balance without puncturing the narrative. This takes a very fine film-maker indeed.
I hope that this movie gets the audience that it deserves as it is easily the best Irish made film in years. Some men will find a documentary focusing solely on women a little off-putting but it shouldn't be. What Wardrop has made here is a film that resonates with both genders and shows us exactly how much we mean to one another. Hope for humanity lies within.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/08/23
Full Review
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