As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

MIRANDA (1 outta 5 stars)Pretty lousy movie about a conwoman (Christina Ricci) and a nerdy librarian (John Simm)who is smitten by her... even when he realizes that her sweet and wonderful character is nothing but an act, he becomes enamored of the bad girl she becomes. Ho hum. She leaves town... he follows her and becomes entangled in some convoluted scheme to embezzle money from some bizarre rich guy character played by Kyle MacLachlan. The actors are okay... but the movie itself is kind of pointless. Also, there is too much weirdness for the sake of weirdness. Eccentricity is no substitute for compelling characters and/or storylines. This is one of those small, independent movies that gives small, independent movies a bad rep.

Spoilers The story line of an old con hand and a young protégéé in a cunning scamp must have been used about a million times. Adding a perverted weirdo and a love-sick guy does not help the plot, especially when there is not much plot to begin with. But this movie has style! First, anything British would have an innate attraction, whether you deny it or not, to the English speaking world. Trafalgar square still has its charm. Then, this is not quite a noir comedy, a shade of gray at the most. There are some hilariously funny lines, such as when the mysterious girlfriend has disappeared for a few days, the guy mumbles to himself `Even Jesus comes back after three days, and he is dead!'. The music is groovy (does this word still exist?). Christina Ricci is perfect for the role from head to toe. And Ricci has not been given her fair share of recognition, more recently, in Monster. While Charlize Theron's own efforts alone fully deserves her Oscar, she owes much to having an equally strong Ricci acting opposite her, to make Aileen Wuornos believable. John Hurt's refreshing role of a shady character takes him one step further next year to Owning Mahowny, in which he plays Atlantic City tycoon Victor Foss. Golden Globe winner Kyle MacLachlan (TV series Twin Peaks in 1990) unleashes some of his dark forces in playing the most noirish figure in this movie. Bottom line: an otherwise dull, utterly predictable flick rendered immensely enjoyable by the stylish filmmaking.

--- A librarian begins a passionate affair with a mysterious woman who walks into his library. When she suddenly disappears he travels down to London to search for her only to discover that she has three identities - dancer, dominatrix and con-woman. But which one is the real Miranda? ---When the pre-written plot summary says it better than I could, there's no shame in cutting-and-pasting. With those sentences, you've know basically all you need to know about Miranda. Fans of Christina Ricci and/or John Hurt should definitely give this one a spin. Others could do worse than to watch this movie, but could also probably do better.Kudos to "Miranda" for trying to be a romantic thriller with comedic elements. I can't think of any movie that pulled off that melding of disparate genres as well as "Miranda" does. But in a way, that's like saying, "I've never met a chef who combined curry powder, peanut butter, and soy sauce as well as this!" On the one hand, it's a creative joining of ingredients; on the other hand, you have to wonder if the ingredients should have been together at all."Miranda" tries for a thriller's plot, starting off confusing and then revealing more and more as the movie progresses. At times, however, it felt too confusing and not coherent enough. It dragged a little in the middle and might could have been edited a just little more tightly. Also, the first ending was a little too climactic to then not have the movie end afterwards.The acting was above average, especially by John Simm, who plays the the librarian. That his utter devotion to Miranda is completely believable is a testament to his skill as an actor. And I could watch John Hurt read the phone book, frankly. (But if you're looking for a good movie with John Hurt in it, I recommend Owning Mahowney instead. He's not the star of that movie, but I loved his performance.) Kyle MacLachlan is obviously having fun playing the bad guy: a perverted investor who seeks to dominate and be dominated by Miranda. There's a scene where he holds her at knife-point, then cuts off a button of her shirt, puts it into his mouth, savors it, and then swallows it. It could be corny and over-the-top, but he's just so into it.As any regular reader of my reviews knows, I'm a big fan of creative camera work. This movie used cuts and focus-fades in creative ways. For example, as John Hurt is having a telephone dialog with Christina Ricci, the camera is on John Hurt's head as he talks into the phone. The camera pans away from him and then goes out of focus as if we're about to do a flashback or fade-out, but instead it cuts back to him, this time from a different angle. There were several scenes where this mechanic--of unnecessary cuts and fades--was used to high artistic effect. I thought it was very creative and novel. Bravo.If only this movie didn't drag a little in the middle, and if only the writing were tight enough to make the plot just a little bit less enigmatic, it would easily get four stars. As is, it's only good enough for three.Overall rating: 3 stars.

That is, meet someday with the girl of your dreams, wish somehow she noticed you too, and confront somewhat what comes next. It may sound cliché, and at some degree that's true, but once you look at Miranda (Ricci) the way Frank (Simm) does, you can care less.So this movie comes down to this:If you're a *true fan* of Ms. Ricci, you will get delightful scenes of her in the movie, and you should watch it.If you're looking a *different movie*, one which mixes romance, drama, a bit of comedy and suspense, then give it a try.If you're too picky, or none of the above, read the other reviews and make your own call. It worked for me, and I believe an IMDb's rate of 6.1/10 is a fair one.