I should've seen Warrior...
I had one of my boy-less weekends, and apparently what I did with it was…see movies. I’m not entirely sure it was time well spent.
Saturday night D. and I went to see The Help because…well, mostly because it seemed the thing to do. I’m not from the south, though I live here now, so I can’t speak to how well it caught the feel of things. My round-the-corner neighbors, who did grow up here, loved the movie, so that seemed reason enough to see it.
So, the first, and maybe most important thing, to say about it is that Viola Davis is fantastic. Without all that much help from the script or direction she gets you to believe in someone who has no desire to be a hero, is diffident at best about making waves, but who has such a strong personal moral code that when she’s pushed too far, she’s courageous in a quiet but extremely moving way. She’s not afraid to look clumsy or old or abject (though she’s gorgeous) and it’s all shot through with so much warmth and humor. She really carries the movie.
Otherwise, the acting is good, but and I’m all for movies that show the domestic ramifications of political upheaval, but it’s all a little pat. After a while it reminded me of nothing so much-and forgive the irreverence-as Bridesmaids does the Civil Rights Movement, except with a little less emotional nuance.
Also, long. We went to an 8:40 show and didn’t get out of the theater ‘til 11:15.
Then, yesterday afternoon, I saw Midnight in Paris with K. Which was pretty insanely amusing if you get a kick out of Hemingway and Dali impersonations. Which I do. But if you haven’t seen it, you can get the gist of it from this voice recording of Allen’s 2-minute stand-up routine on “The Lost Generation” from the sixties.
And last week, for my sins, I watched the nu!Brideshead Revisted. Remember how taken I was with Ben Whishaw in The Hour? So, then I got curious about how he’d done with Sebastian Flyte. And the answer is, imo, that he does fine, he’s a very good actor, but he’s strangely miscast. I think the thing that stands out about his performances in The Hour and Bright Star is the sheer voltage of energy coming out of a seemingly frail frame. He doesn’t do quite as well with Sebastian’s kind of passive dreaminess. That said, his last scenes, the ones in Morocco, are almost unbearably touching.
As for the rest of the movie, well, all I can say is it makes you miss Jeremy Irons like crazy. The guy playing Charles - Matthew Goode, who I know has gotten good reviews in other things - comes off as a tone-deaf lummox, and he and the Julia kind of galumph around their scenes with minimum charm and grace. Emma Watson is fabulous, but it’s depressing watching her play someone so old. Michael Gambon makes the most of the 30 seconds of screen time he has.
But really, rent the old one, or read the book, if you get the urge.
The weather was gorgeous, and I did manage to swim outside and run in my excellent new Vibram five fingers, so all was not lost to dark cinemas.
Hope you all had a good weekend!
Saturday night D. and I went to see The Help because…well, mostly because it seemed the thing to do. I’m not from the south, though I live here now, so I can’t speak to how well it caught the feel of things. My round-the-corner neighbors, who did grow up here, loved the movie, so that seemed reason enough to see it.
So, the first, and maybe most important thing, to say about it is that Viola Davis is fantastic. Without all that much help from the script or direction she gets you to believe in someone who has no desire to be a hero, is diffident at best about making waves, but who has such a strong personal moral code that when she’s pushed too far, she’s courageous in a quiet but extremely moving way. She’s not afraid to look clumsy or old or abject (though she’s gorgeous) and it’s all shot through with so much warmth and humor. She really carries the movie.
Otherwise, the acting is good, but and I’m all for movies that show the domestic ramifications of political upheaval, but it’s all a little pat. After a while it reminded me of nothing so much-and forgive the irreverence-as Bridesmaids does the Civil Rights Movement, except with a little less emotional nuance.
Also, long. We went to an 8:40 show and didn’t get out of the theater ‘til 11:15.
Then, yesterday afternoon, I saw Midnight in Paris with K. Which was pretty insanely amusing if you get a kick out of Hemingway and Dali impersonations. Which I do. But if you haven’t seen it, you can get the gist of it from this voice recording of Allen’s 2-minute stand-up routine on “The Lost Generation” from the sixties.
Click to viewAnd last week, for my sins, I watched the nu!Brideshead Revisted. Remember how taken I was with Ben Whishaw in The Hour? So, then I got curious about how he’d done with Sebastian Flyte. And the answer is, imo, that he does fine, he’s a very good actor, but he’s strangely miscast. I think the thing that stands out about his performances in The Hour and Bright Star is the sheer voltage of energy coming out of a seemingly frail frame. He doesn’t do quite as well with Sebastian’s kind of passive dreaminess. That said, his last scenes, the ones in Morocco, are almost unbearably touching.
As for the rest of the movie, well, all I can say is it makes you miss Jeremy Irons like crazy. The guy playing Charles - Matthew Goode, who I know has gotten good reviews in other things - comes off as a tone-deaf lummox, and he and the Julia kind of galumph around their scenes with minimum charm and grace. Emma Watson is fabulous, but it’s depressing watching her play someone so old. Michael Gambon makes the most of the 30 seconds of screen time he has.
But really, rent the old one, or read the book, if you get the urge.
The weather was gorgeous, and I did manage to swim outside and run in my excellent new Vibram five fingers, so all was not lost to dark cinemas.
Hope you all had a good weekend!