"Your simple tradgedy is all I wish to hear tonight"
I know, I know -- three posts in three days!!! I swear I don't know what's gotten into me..... but I like it. :-)
So I finally got around to watching "The Fall" today. I rented it like a zillion weeks ago when I really got into my whole Lee Pace addiction but with life being what it is, I hadn't had time to sit down and devote myself to it. (Well, and then I kind of forgot I had it). But today I was stuck at home in bed because the nice doc informed me yesterday that the cold/flu thing I've had for like two weeks is -- SURPRISE! -- actually pneumonia. Just what I wanted for Christmas! And given the lack of anything new on my DVR, I was at loose ends trying to figure out what to do to occupy my time when I remembered it was still sitting on my DVD player just waiting for me.
For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's a kind of period/drama/fantasy film by Tarsem ("The Cell" and the "Losing My Religion" video for REM) about an injured stuntman and a five year old girl who meet at the hospital; he's recovering from a stunt jump gone bad (complicated by a broken heart), while she's recovering from a broken arm that happened when her family farm was burned to the ground that also cost her father his life. It's definitely strange, but visually stunning -- I mean, eye-poppingly, mind-bogglingly stunning -- interesting and often heartfelt and charming. It has some darker moments, but it does meet my one film prerequisite -- and those of you who know me will know exactly what I mean. Anyone who doesn't -- and who doesn't wish to be spoiled to that end -- should probably stop reading here.
For everyone else: Our heroine Alexandria, who speaks broken English through a charming gap-toothed smile, is a bored little girl stuck in the hospital while the break in her arm heals. On one of her tours through the hospital grounds, she comes accross Roy (Lee Pace) who's on-set accident appears to have taken the use of his legs. He begins to weave a magical and strange pseudo-fairy tale for her involving a masked bandit (also played by Pace), an Indian, an Italian explosives expert, Charles Darwin (who communicates seemingly telepathically with is pet monkey Warren), and a rogue slave. The movie switches back and forth between the reality these two are living in and the story as it unfolds in the mind of an imaginative child who has never seen a "moving picture" and often has no personal context for the things Roy describes. The dark underpinning of the story is that Roy is telling Alexandria this story not to entertain her, but as a means to coerce her into helping him obtain the morphine he craves to end his physical and emotional torment. Alexandria eventually finds her own place in the tale but becomes disheartened when Roy's personal pain inevitably leads the story into darker territory where a happy ending seems impossible. The beauty of the story -- and the relationship between the two characters -- is the way that Alexandria, using the same means Roy's been employing to show her how hard life is and that he is beyond redemption and deserves no happy ending, manages to show him that not only can there be a happy ending, there should be a happy ending, and he has the power to make it so. It's less confusing than it may sound and honestly, the interplay between the two actors is so perfect and nuanced that when the two stories collide, it's absolutely magical.
I realize that this story is probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I really loved it. It was interesting and unusual and even funny at times -- but mainly, it was watching Lee Pace interact with little Catinca Untaru (who is so effortlessly charming and sweet and touching that I dare you to not fall completely in love with her) that made me completely love this film. Every time I see Lee Pace in something new, I marvel again at how versatile and completely accessible he is, regardless of the role he's playing. I think, if he gets the right opportunities and continues to pick amazing roles, he could easily be the next big thing in Hollywood. He's got the charm and charisma of RDJ, the sweetness of Hanks or Grant, the off-centered dazzle of Johnny Depp, and the sex appeal of Hugh Jackman. I absolutely believe that there is nothing this man cannot do. He is quickly becoming my favorite actor in Hollywood and it makes me even more bitter than I already was -- if that was even humanly possible -- with the folks at ABC for cancelling "Pushing Daisies." I hope to God that Bryan Fuller is right and that, like the equally brilliant and equally screwed-by-the-networks "Firefly", he can parlay a fantastic show into a brilliant Hollywood film. What I wouldn't give to have Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Kristin Chenoweth, and Chi McBride in all their quirky, brilliant, technicolor glory on the big screen!!!
So anyway, the long and short of this whole blabber here is that I adore Lee Pace. I adore every one of his 6'3" -- and I mean that both literally and figuratively. And if his talent alone wasn't enough reason to love him, I've learned that he's a dog lover, clumsy (like me, which I find adorable), and his middle name is Grinner. How adorable is that? I am now desperately hoping for a Best Buy gift card (or an unexpected Christmas bonus) so I can go out right after Christmas and buy "Wonderfalls" and some of his other wonderful films for my very own.
And I'm going to stop gushing now. I swear.
On a completely seperate note, I am resigning myself to the fact that I will likely not be sending Christmas cards this year. Frankly, I'm just not feeling motivated. Perhaps if I watch some Christmas movies tonight it'll put me in the mood -- but I'm not holding my breath.
So I finally got around to watching "The Fall" today. I rented it like a zillion weeks ago when I really got into my whole Lee Pace addiction but with life being what it is, I hadn't had time to sit down and devote myself to it. (Well, and then I kind of forgot I had it). But today I was stuck at home in bed because the nice doc informed me yesterday that the cold/flu thing I've had for like two weeks is -- SURPRISE! -- actually pneumonia. Just what I wanted for Christmas! And given the lack of anything new on my DVR, I was at loose ends trying to figure out what to do to occupy my time when I remembered it was still sitting on my DVD player just waiting for me.
For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's a kind of period/drama/fantasy film by Tarsem ("The Cell" and the "Losing My Religion" video for REM) about an injured stuntman and a five year old girl who meet at the hospital; he's recovering from a stunt jump gone bad (complicated by a broken heart), while she's recovering from a broken arm that happened when her family farm was burned to the ground that also cost her father his life. It's definitely strange, but visually stunning -- I mean, eye-poppingly, mind-bogglingly stunning -- interesting and often heartfelt and charming. It has some darker moments, but it does meet my one film prerequisite -- and those of you who know me will know exactly what I mean. Anyone who doesn't -- and who doesn't wish to be spoiled to that end -- should probably stop reading here.
For everyone else: Our heroine Alexandria, who speaks broken English through a charming gap-toothed smile, is a bored little girl stuck in the hospital while the break in her arm heals. On one of her tours through the hospital grounds, she comes accross Roy (Lee Pace) who's on-set accident appears to have taken the use of his legs. He begins to weave a magical and strange pseudo-fairy tale for her involving a masked bandit (also played by Pace), an Indian, an Italian explosives expert, Charles Darwin (who communicates seemingly telepathically with is pet monkey Warren), and a rogue slave. The movie switches back and forth between the reality these two are living in and the story as it unfolds in the mind of an imaginative child who has never seen a "moving picture" and often has no personal context for the things Roy describes. The dark underpinning of the story is that Roy is telling Alexandria this story not to entertain her, but as a means to coerce her into helping him obtain the morphine he craves to end his physical and emotional torment. Alexandria eventually finds her own place in the tale but becomes disheartened when Roy's personal pain inevitably leads the story into darker territory where a happy ending seems impossible. The beauty of the story -- and the relationship between the two characters -- is the way that Alexandria, using the same means Roy's been employing to show her how hard life is and that he is beyond redemption and deserves no happy ending, manages to show him that not only can there be a happy ending, there should be a happy ending, and he has the power to make it so. It's less confusing than it may sound and honestly, the interplay between the two actors is so perfect and nuanced that when the two stories collide, it's absolutely magical.
I realize that this story is probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I really loved it. It was interesting and unusual and even funny at times -- but mainly, it was watching Lee Pace interact with little Catinca Untaru (who is so effortlessly charming and sweet and touching that I dare you to not fall completely in love with her) that made me completely love this film. Every time I see Lee Pace in something new, I marvel again at how versatile and completely accessible he is, regardless of the role he's playing. I think, if he gets the right opportunities and continues to pick amazing roles, he could easily be the next big thing in Hollywood. He's got the charm and charisma of RDJ, the sweetness of Hanks or Grant, the off-centered dazzle of Johnny Depp, and the sex appeal of Hugh Jackman. I absolutely believe that there is nothing this man cannot do. He is quickly becoming my favorite actor in Hollywood and it makes me even more bitter than I already was -- if that was even humanly possible -- with the folks at ABC for cancelling "Pushing Daisies." I hope to God that Bryan Fuller is right and that, like the equally brilliant and equally screwed-by-the-networks "Firefly", he can parlay a fantastic show into a brilliant Hollywood film. What I wouldn't give to have Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Kristin Chenoweth, and Chi McBride in all their quirky, brilliant, technicolor glory on the big screen!!!
So anyway, the long and short of this whole blabber here is that I adore Lee Pace. I adore every one of his 6'3" -- and I mean that both literally and figuratively. And if his talent alone wasn't enough reason to love him, I've learned that he's a dog lover, clumsy (like me, which I find adorable), and his middle name is Grinner. How adorable is that? I am now desperately hoping for a Best Buy gift card (or an unexpected Christmas bonus) so I can go out right after Christmas and buy "Wonderfalls" and some of his other wonderful films for my very own.
And I'm going to stop gushing now. I swear.
On a completely seperate note, I am resigning myself to the fact that I will likely not be sending Christmas cards this year. Frankly, I'm just not feeling motivated. Perhaps if I watch some Christmas movies tonight it'll put me in the mood -- but I'm not holding my breath.