A preview of West Is West came my way at the weekend...and as much as I could barely recall the happenings in it's predecessor (East Is East, of course) I remembered it as a success, commercially. In addition to this, if I hadn't been over keen on the first film I'm openminded enough to want to see this follow-up. I took a good friend to see it.
We awaited in the Empire cinema (Leicester Square) and in the lovely Screen 1. No trailers, but this is often the case with these advance previews and instead straight into the movie. I won't say it was on time...it wasn't, but hey so long as this didn't play havoc with my waterworks it was fine by me.
The film started with familiar surroundings - of course...why wouldn't it - and this from a guy who could hardly recall the first film from a few years back.
The acting was as good as I could remember and I guess you could say 'better' but perhaps only because I - and I'd guess ALL of the audience - were familiar with, and warmed to these characters.
I must add at this point that although I often don't care if I read the plot of a story, prior to seeing a flick, I did ahead of this showing. Although this was almost to prove a point in an amicable argument I was having with a lady-friend.
Barely had us cinema-goers got used to these familiar settings and a character or two, when suddenly we were taken to a land far, far away. I won't say where, but I'm not going to insult anyones intelligence by pretending you can't guess where...
Off we were...to a new land with new characters, loveable each one of them. I, in particular got pretty emotive in just seeing these backdrops and hearing the music, and I'd guess that many others in the auditorium experienced similar feelings (you'd be hard not to unless you'd never travelled to such a land).
Anyway, my recalled memories from times in India helped me immerse more than perhaps I would have done, otherwise and definitely more than had, let's say, it had been filmed or set entirely in Salford.
Perhaps that's why East Is East didn't gel with my filmic emotions.
The story was sweet, predictable at times and one or two unpredictable moments came our way also.
I never like to give away the story - no matter how easy or complex the plot - so I'll just say (again) that for being immersed in Indian culture, characters and music this film touched my senses. The Britishness shines through, as unpatriotic as I am...so I'm sure it will appeal to everyone here in the UK & maybe throughout the globe.
Women - or emotive men like myself - there are also plenty of small teary moments to give you a slight lump in the throat...
And in the case of this 'gentle-man' I had to bite on my back teeth so as not to well-up - I mean, what kind of a 'man' would I be...?
I must say though that there wasn't the large queues prior to this preview (compared to other/s I'd attended on a Sunday morning) but by the time the movie started the room was pretty full. Surprised? Why? After all, the 'West [End] Is the West [End]'...
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