Customer Reviews

Desperately Seeking Paul McCartney

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This film has no involvement, musically or otherwise from the Beatles, except for archival newsreel footage. The idea is that its director will turn ex reporter Ruth Anson's idea to re-connect with Paul McCartney after he made a facetious marriage proposal to her during an interview decades ago into a joke on Anson's age, desperation and "out of it-ness". Supposedly Anson is in on the joke but it seems more like she was too deeply invested in the project and too fearful of not seeming like a good sport to withdraw when it took that change in direction. The positive reviews on this site must have come from people involved in the project. The film is tedious and boring. It is never ever funny and it is despicably mean. To try to ameliorate its cruelty by claiming it to be a mockumentary is a futile and transparent gesture. There is absolutely nothing here for fans of the Beatles, music or film. A complete and utterly vile undertaking that should never have seen the light of day.

This movie won the Audience Favorite award as Best Picture at Mockfest 2008. In part, it may be a mockumentary, but much here is clearly true. In August 1965, live on ABC news, Paul McCartney jokingly proposed to 18 year old TV reporter Ruth Anson. This movie opens with that clip. Many things in Ruth's life changed as a result of the proposal. We see that, too. And we see how, more than 40 years later, Ruth is obsessed over reconnecting with McCartney and finding "closure." A film director backs the mad plan and sends a camera crew along with Ruth on her quest. Much happens, both funny and sad. And there is conflict between Ruth and the director. She wants McCartney; he wants to exploit the situation. The end result reveals what goes on behind closed doors of Reality TV and documentary film making. The ending is not to be believed, but should be. It's true, too. And very insightful. As a bonus, from the soundtrack, 12 original Beatles-like songs in their full-length, with music videos - perhaps the best Bealtes album the Beatles never made!

I saw this at a film festival and loved it. It's a funny documentary, with great original music (that really sounds like the Beatles), and it actually has a story arch - unlike "My Date With Drew" (which people tend to compare it to). Who doesn't wonder, "If only I had (fill in the blank)." Ruth Anson had a good one that she let get away - Paul McCartney asked her to marry him on national TV!!! Forty years later she's thinking about it (probably a mid-life crisis symptom) and happens to mention it to an opportunist director who thinks he can make a fast buck by using Ruth to get Paul McCartney in a film. Ruth is game, as she's desperate to reconnect with Paul, and so the journey begins - but the journey doesn't go in the direction either Ruth or the director think it will. I'm not going to give away what goes on after that, but I will tell you it's funny, it's sweet, it's poignant, and it's got an ending anyone can relate to even if Paul McCartney never proposed to you. I highly recommend this movie.

I am a lifelong, diehard Beatles and McCartney fan, so this film has a hook that was guaranteed to catch my attention. I have now seen "Desperately Seeking...", and it is *really* lame.

It starts with its sole interesting concept, when Ruth Anson is at an open "pitch" session, where people with an idea for a film or TV show try to convince producers that it's a winner. The panel consists of four third-tier Hollywood types, one of whom takes on Ruth's project.

Now a woman of mature years, she was a teenage reporter in 1965 when Paul "proposed" to her in an on-the-fly interview. She had asked if he had any marriage plans, and he replied, "not unless you'll marry me now". Her idea is to get back in touch with Paul to see whether he remembers the exchange.

The rest of the film is structured a series of production team meetings, where the producer (whose principal claim to fame seems to be that he wrote a Star Trek episode) and his gofers desperately seek to make this thing interesting.

It never takes off.

They try going to stars' homes in LA; she meets with the "Paul" from a tribute band; they set up a session for Ruth with a shrink; they stage a make-over for her with a flamingly gay make-up artist to the stars (whom I've never heard of); they try to recruit Ruth's family and friends for an "intervention" to convince her that she looks foolish; and then finally they try to crash the Grammys. Frankly, it's pathetic. I suspect they're only trying to paint some lipstick on this pig by calling it a "mockumentary".

The climax (such as it is) comes during the Grammy sequence, when the cameraman is recognized by one of the legitimate Grammy attendees -- a major porn film producer, the only person of any actual renown willing to have anything to do with this stupid film. He consents to an interview with Ruth, during which she comments that Paul had proposed to her. He looks at her and says, "except he didn't, and anyone who thinks he did is a Fruit Loop!"

It's telling that the single most compelling observation in this entire smeller comes from a porn producer. Skip it entirely. Don't even bother renting it, and please don't spend any actual money on it.

The only thing worth seeing was the 15 second interview footage where Paul replies "only if you marry me" after being asked if he has any plans to marry. My husband is a diehard Beatles fan and was very excited to get this. He loves anything Beatles or Beatle related and very rarely dislikes songs, documentaries, cover groups etc. However, even he was disappointed.

I chose "Desperately Seeking Paul McCartney" because of its title and cover, and I hoped it contained some footage of McCartney that I had not seen before. Something miraculously discovered by a fan on a Betamax video that had been sitting on a shelf for 25 years or more.

Fifteen minutes into the movie, I realized that wasn't going to happen. But what was happening was intriguing. I didn't know where the story was going, but I wasn't about to hit the stop button because the director wasn't fulfilling MY fantasy of never-seen footage. The movie was becoming a mixture of documentary, mockumentary, reality TV and the Jerry Springer show on a tame day. I thought I might catch a glimpse of Gypsy Boots in the bg.

I couldn't decide if Ruth Anson, McCartney's pursuer, was in on the movie's joke. I still honestly don't know... but that isn't important. She is trying to fulfill her fantasy and reconnect with Paul with this outrageous cast of characters - straight out of Dante's Inferno, Queer Eye For the Straight Guy, Harold and Maude and others who live on the margin and follow her on her quest.

While I was a little disappointed that there wasn't a score of Beatle songs, that would have been out of sync with the rest of the movie. The movie was "Desperately Seeking Paul McCartney," not "Here is Paul McCartney." The sound tracks reminded me of some of the Beatle's songs yet sometimes they seemed to conflict with the mood of the scene, at other times, enhance it.

The funniest part of the movie was the unexpected appearance of porn star Ron Jeremy entering the Grammy awards - what a stroke of luck! The director and Jeremy obviously knew each other. The director seems to have taken full advantage of a chance meeting by writing Jeremy right into the script and giving him an important scene with Ruth.

This is one of those movies you keep thinking about after you've seen it because you believe you've missed something but you're not sure what it is. Second viewing required. I wanted to be supportive of Ruth but she is as wacko as the rest of the movie's characters- or is she? At times it seems she is being manipulated and abused by the director. But at any time she could have decided not to cooperate with the director and crew and left the set. Still, you can't help but imagine scenarios of her meeting with McCartney trailed by this Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad cast.

A. Chapman

Desperately Seeking Paul McCartney is a clever mockumentary that appears to be making fun of itself, reality television, and the dreams that most of us harbor. DSPM isn't really supposed to be about Paul McCartney; he's just the catalyst. Come on; did you really think that they would get to Sir Paul? It's showing how a reality show can make a huge deal out of, well not so much, but once the project gets going, it must as they say remain married to the idea that "the show must go on."

Here's a review of the movie from someone who seems to understand what it is really about:
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And the music can be heard here:
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Loved it! A charming, nostalgic story, blended with a surprising look behind the scenes of the contemporary "reality show" genre (that seems to be destroying television these days.) Bitingly satirical, I guess I'll never know how much of it is real and how much was faked. You get the feeling the only one who really knows is Director Marc Cushman, playing his alter-ego, Director Marc Cushman, to maniacal perfection. Ruth Anson's sweetness and charm carries the movie, with dead-on Beatlesque songs by indie wunderkind Alan Bernhoft. Unexpectedly touching and uplifting on many levels.