| Author |
Message |
|
| Marj |
 Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 6:03 pm |
 |
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
|
I'm glad to hear it also, Bart. I happened to see State of Play the other night and was really taken by Crowe's performance - especially how he and Rachel McAdams work off of each other.
He was not in good shape in this film either. For some reason it made him more endearing. I don't normally like overweight performers, so why this is, I don't know.
Billy--I really want to know your opinion of Fair Game. I hope I get to see this in a movie theater! Btw, say "Hi" to my cousin. Just yell her name - it's Priscilla. She'll hear you. |
|
|
| Back to top |
   
|
| lshap |
| Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 6:48 pm |
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 4248
Location: Montreal
|
| Marjorie - Agree with you on State of Play. Crowe and McAdams were both good. Helen Mirren was also in it, though she looked like a fish-out-of-water, as she did in the current Red. Interesting that even an actress as fine as Mirren can't depart from her nationality as well as Aussie Crowe. He's been equally fabulous as a modern New Yorker and a 19th century cowboy. |
_________________
"Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?" |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marj |
| Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 10:02 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
|
| Lorne - Excellent point about Helen Mirren. While we easily forget Crowe is an Aussie, I doubt I'd ever be able to forget that Mirren is British. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Earl |
| Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:56 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 09 Jun 2004
Posts: 2621
Location: Houston
|
Fair Game
Even less-than-hardcore news junkies already know most of this story before walking into the theater. That's a bit of a liability for the movie because it's left with the task of providing new information or showing a new angle on things already known. And Fair Game mostly succeeds, I think, by choosing the latter.
The movie begins by quickly immersing us in the world and work of CIA covert agent Valerie Plame. The urgency of her work is convincingly portrayed by Naomi Watts, as Plame, and by the screenplay which has Plame working an undercover operation to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. These early scenes are important because later, when Plame's cover is blown, the repercussions of that are powerfully felt. Plame had assets (i.e., people) in the field whose lives were in immediate danger when it became known that she was a CIA operative.
It was surprising for me to see a Hollywood movie in which the CIA is shown as being peopled by earnest patriots conducting an honest investigation and going wherever the truth leads, while the White House is portrayed as a den of lies and corruption. So often it seems, on screen anyway, to be the other way around.
Sean Penn is adequate, neither bad nor great, as Joe Wilson, Plame's husband. I'm not sure how much of this is Penn's fault, though. At times during the movie Wilson's anti-war rhetoric sounded much like things I've heard Penn say over the last few years. In certain moments it felt as if Penn broke character and started talking on his own. That couldn't have been the intention of either Penn or the screenplay, but it still was a distraction for me.
Fair Game is also much less effective when it strays from the leak case at the center of the story and focuses on Valerie and Joe's marital woes which followed.
Recommended, but not strongly.
==============================
{A sidenote: While I was walking into the screening room an older couple was behind me. The man said, "This is a true story, I think. The main character is a woman named Valerie Flame. Sounds like a great name for a stripper." I considered correcting him, but decided to let him live with the fantasy for a few more minutes.} |
_________________
"I have a suspicion that you are all mad," said Dr. Renard, smiling sociably; "but God forbid that madness should in any way interrupt friendship." |
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 9:42 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
|
| Yours is kinder than the review I read a while back, which came down harder on Penn, and the story construction generally. Now I'm curious, but probably can WFV. Especially as I'm joining in a semi-boycott of the local theater monopoly, which has raised ticket prices twice during the recession. Not sure how you can justify a price increase in the middle of a recession, but it didn't help that they also eliminated discount second-run movies which put theater viewing out of range for many struggling families. To put it as delicately as I can: fuck them. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 1:23 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| Copping out on Fair Game screening. Getting ready to fly tonight and too much to do. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 3:07 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
|
"Ou est la WC?" All you need to know.
I'm trying to think of bad Crowe, or at least Crowe in a role that disappointed me. But I can't. From "Bud" in LA Confidential onward, he has convinced me of the details of his character and supplied me with the warm human core to go with them. I was thinking back on lesser films, like Proof of Life, but no, he pretty much nailed the hostage negotiator (though getting the sexual tension right with Meg Ryan was something of a cheat, since they were dating offscreen at the time, unless you ascribe that to one man's dedication to Method acting....) in that one, even as the script and plot wavered around him. I don't know if Crowe is the greatest actor in the biz, but as I sit here gushing, I'm pretty sure he is near the top of my "watch him read the phone directory" list. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 3:55 pm |
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
| I can't think of a bad Crowe performance, either, though he's been in a few bad movies, like Body of Lies. (Crowe shouldn't attempt a southern accent.) |
_________________
Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 4:18 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| It's all opinion, of course, but I thought Crowe was ghastly in Gladiator (I absolutely detested the movie), too actory in A Beautiful Mind (I absolutely detested the movie), and deadly dull in Proof of Life (I sort of disliked the movie). He was sensational in Romper Stomper, L.A. Confidential, and The Insider. Haven't seen Body of Lies. |
Last edited by billyweeds on Mon Nov 22, 2010 4:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 4:24 pm |
|
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
| He's also great in 3:10 to Yuma. I strongly disagree with you about him in A Beautiful Mind. I consider that and The Insider to be his best performances. |
_________________
Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 4:38 pm |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
|
A Room and a Half is a richly inventive biographical film about Joseph Brodsky. It mixes childhood flashbacks, a middle aged Brodsky writing his memoirs, some documentary footage of the actual Brodsky, and even animation involving his cat, crows who represent his dead parents, and fantasy such as floating musical instruments. And a good deal of Brodsky's writings are used as voiceovers.
It took a while for the film (or for me) to find its rhythm, but then it becomes effective and affecting.
I liked how the film slowed down for the final quarter and became more elegiac. It has a sadness but also a playfulness, something like Fellini's musings on art and death.
Brodsky at one point muses that it would be best to know what books politicians have read.
He surmises that "one is less likely to shoot another person if one has read Dickens."
The director, Andrey Khrzhanovskiy, is a longtime Soviet animation director, which explains the animation interludes throughout the film. |
Last edited by gromit on Mon Nov 22, 2010 4:57 pm; edited 1 time in total
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 4:43 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Syd wrote: He's also great in 3:10 to Yuma. I strongly disagree with you about him in A Beautiful Mind. I consider that and The Insider to be his best performances.
He is terrific in 3:10 to Yuma, and also pretty good in that thing with Denzel Washington (I mildly detested the movie). |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 11:00 pm |
|
|
Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
|
Am particularly partial to Mr.Crowe in The Sum of Us, L.A. Confidential and The Insider.
At last night's Taper opening of the Randy Newman revue Harps and Angels, our Variety colleague/drama-crix-prex antecedent waxed emphatically at intermission about how and why, in his view, obviously, The King's Speech is The One To Beat, with Colin Firth a Master Thespian shoo-in, ditto Helena Bonham-Carter for Supphose Actress (he'd seen the advance screening for deadline publications on Saturday, opened the colloquy with "The Oscar race is over.") Also thinks Halle Berry will pulverize all competition for Prima Donna in Frankie and Alice. So, another county heard from. |
_________________
"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
|
| Back to top |
|
| jeremy |
| Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 2:14 am |
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
|
| I agree with Billy about Proof Of Life. It was though Crowe was trying to channel Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter, but couldn't replicate the inner turmoil, the repressed desire, not just for a woman, but for a life forestalled. By all accounts he was making Meg Ryan's tralier rock on its suspension, not that we'd have known from their on screen chemistry. Which begs the question, does Crowe struggle two convey inner contradictions. Is he too much the straight of the sheep station, straight Aussie? |
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 10:01 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
|
| As Weed says, it's all opinion. I didn't find him too actorly in ABM, but I realize how easy it is to parody any actor who takes on a mentally ill character. And once you withdraw your belief, the seams are going to show. And I guess I'm in the minority that liked Body of Lies, where Crowe is DiCap's wrangler. The "film with Denzel" is American Gangster, another recent film where he manages to give us domestic pudginess and round shoulders, yet fire in the belly. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
