This is the memoir of the actor, Emmett James. As a young boy, growing up in a lower class London neighbourhood he recalled his earliest experiences with the cinema. He use to go with his mother and older brother. He usually fell asleep but mange to wake up for the best parts. He enjoyed these family outings, in fact, they are his fondest memories from his childhood. He really liked to observe how his mother and brother watched movies.
The chapters each start with a film that James had seen but the writing within each chapter had very little to do with the mentioned film. This memoir is much more the memoir of Emmett James, actor, rather than his connection to film. He talked about his rough childhood and how he got into acting.
From the description of the book, I expected this to be about how he related to the films he saw and what impact they had on him. This was not the case and I was therefore disappointed. James writing was okay and there were a few laugh out loud moments but there were some boring parts as well. In a book of only 192 pages I really didn’t expect to be bored at all.
At this point in his life, James is not a big star. His biggest part was one of the crew members in James Cameron’s “Titanic”. So far, that seems like the high point of his career. My point is that I don’t quite get why James chose to write a memoir this point in his life. Perhaps he would have had more to tell with more life experience.
As I said above, there were some funny moments . I especially enjoyed the ‘Star Wars’ chapter. James shared the impact the movie and marketing of the movie had on him. He wanted a Star Wars toy for Christmas and asked Santa for it.
2.5/5
Thanks to Lisa Roe Online Publicist for the signed copy of this book.
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