The Curious Case of the Movie That Went Nowhere

[intertext]

I have never found Brad Pitt attractive. I know we’re supposed to - he represents that brand of “all American” clean cut wholesome good looks that is the “ideal” for the rest of us - but there is something curiously bloated about his eyes and his lips that has always repelled me. And there is nothing going on behind his eyes. I would far rather

Comments

[sartorias]

I loathedForrest Gump for its smug aphorisms taken as 'wisdom' and this one sounds like an even worse turnoff. I mean, when the postmodern crowd is cooing that at last a director "gets to" kill a baby on screen, I'm thinking, is THAT its best moment? Avoid.

[wordweaverlynn]

I hated Forrest Gump, too, and found it curiously ambivalent. Didn't anybody notice what a freaking tragedy it was? Or that Gump wasn't supposed to be an entirely admirable character? Then I looked at the book and realized that a bitter social satire had been turned into a feel-good movie. Kinda like turning A Modest Proposal into a film lauding the efforts of the innovative butcher who solved Ireland's hunger problem.

[heleninwales]

Thankfully I have managed to avoid seeing Forrest Gump. Just the little clips that I've seen on film review programmes on TV was enough of a turn-off.

[heleninwales]

I've just Googled and found the original short story online. Having read it, though there was a certain poignancy to the ending, I really don't get what F. Scott Fitzgerald was trying to do with the story. I wonder what, if any, point he was trying to make?

[wordweaverlynn]

Haven't seen the movie, but it sounds like it would be a Bad Idea to give an Oscar to Brad Pitt for it. It would be especially insulting an a year that includes Sean Penn as Harvey Milk and Frank Langella as Richard Nixon. Penn in particular did a brilliant job.

But we know the Academy has its issues. I'm still infuriated about Malcolm X, which deserved a raft of Oscars but wasn't nominated for any major awards.

[tree_and_leaf]

Count me in the 'doesn't fancy Brad Pitt' camp. As a teenager, I sometimes wondered if fancying neither Brad Pitt nor Leo di Caprio meant I was a lesbian. Though I eventually realised that if I was, I'd probably be more interested in girls than I was....

[brinian]

Thanks for the review. Yours are always helpful (as opposed to the ones I read in the paper!) But...

I would far rather sleep with Angeline Jolie

eeewww... She just gives me the creeps. Brad has his moments although I generally fancy older men if I'm going there...

[egretplume]

Thank you so much for this review, because now you have spared me the trouble of seeing it. I was on the fence, but the connection to the loathsome Forrest Gump movie is enough to decide me against it.