Roman Polanski
Two nights, two movies back to back !
It was HYSTERICAL – CARNAGE (spoiler alert)
With the title CARNAGE, you don’t exactly expect to howl throughout the movie. However, that’s what happened as the audience roared, laughed, snickered and giggled all the way through to the credits. Roman Polanski‘s latest film is a not- quite-dark adaptation of a darkly humorous play. Actually, instead of the black farce is was meant to be, I found it to be more light gray.
Fifteen minutes into the movie, I thought I was watching a comedic version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe? . I’m not sure it was meant to be quite that funny but it was. I wondered if it was hysterical because the characters were more like caricatures? Maybe, but for that matter, Martha and George caricatures. No one laughed out loud watching Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton turn a social evening into a knock-down, drag-out verbal battle waged throughout the night.
Shot in the style of a Woody Allen film, four people are figuratively locked in the Brooklyn living room of Penelope (Jodie Foster) and Michael (John C. Reilly) Longstreet, the parents of Ethan. Presumably an amiable meeting is to take place between Nancy and Alan, the parents of Zachary who attacked Ethan and disfigured him by knocking out some teeth. These graphic descriptive accusations are sharp retorts from the horrified Penelope. She is just so shocked by the parenting skills or lack thereof of Nancy (Kate Winslet) and Alan (Christoph Waltz). Nancy and Alan just want to avoid a lawsuit and get the hell out of there! NOT an easy task ! Although they make it out the door a couple of times and even get as far as the elevator, they cannot leave. They are repeatedly pulled back into the web of guilt woven relentlessly by Penelope.
Jodie Foster was well-cast as the uptight, self-righteous, know-it-all Bohemian mother hen. She is so brittle, you’re sure she will crack and crumble the next time she tightly wraps her arms around herself. She was believable as Penelope up to a point. However, by the end of the movie, Jodie is shrieking like a banshee with her face contorted like an appopletic lunatic. I blame Mr. Polanski for this over-the-top performance. A shame, because prior to this melt-down, Penelope and her shoulds were amusing.
Kate Wynslet delivered a superb performance as the resigned wife of a rude, self-involved attorney a la Betty Draper (Mad Men), right up to the blonde French twist hair-do. The audience roared when the prim and properly groomed Nancy tosses her cookies onto the coffee table and all over Penny’s precious Oskar Kokoschka book – OH the horror of it all!!
The films best lines were all Alan’s, with his omnipresent cell phone. After the 15th annoying ring, I lost count. A rude, crude misogynist, bored with his wife, his life and certainly this ridiculous charade of meeting. The cobbler doesn’t do much to assuage his ennui, but the single malt scotch is right on.
Michael morphs from Mr. Nice Guy into a blustering insensitive boor who openly admits to freeing or murdering (depends on who’s speaking) his daughter’s hamster. I felt the transition was not clear or obvious, again this is the work of the director.
And the hamster lived happily ever after!
I was going to comment on It was Historical – A Dangerous Method but this post is already long and it’s after midnight, so check back in a day or two!
Read Full Post »
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
Pbenjay's Blog 
Two Nights-Two Movies-It’s All About Love and Relationships
Posted in From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, tagged Anton Yelchin, Clint Eastwood, Felicity Jones, Helen Gandy, Hoover, J. Edgar, Jacob, Judi Dench, Leo DiCaprio, Robert Kennedy on November 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »
The Federal Bureau of Investigagtion
Not necessarily healthy, mature love or balanced, equitable relationships negotiated between two or more adults. No, instead it was more about obsession, control, immaturity, desperation, loyalty, fidelity, commitment.
Let’s start with LIKE CRAZY. Superbly acted by Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin, LIKE CRAZY is a love story about two young college students who think they are in love. They probably are in love or at least as they define love. It seemed to have a lot to do with sex, fantasy and a disregard for life as it is with rules and boundaries as only two young people wrapped up in their own world perceive it.
Really it’s about love, that beautiful precious emotional gift, mishandled by two immature kids. Basically that’s the problem here – Jacob and Anna are just too immature to grasp what love and commitment really mean. Patience! That one word engraved on the bracelet given to Anna by Jacob was the key to creating a deep and lasting relationship. They talked the talk, but couldn’t walk the walk. Maturity knows patience, maturity understands that it isn’t necessary to indulge your every desire in order to be happy.
Final thought: Anna’s parents came off as way too liberal psuedo-hippies from another era.
J. Edgar
Now here is tale or two of twisted love….a doting mother whose love was controlling, compulsive and suffocating and lavished on a son eager for Mommy’s approval in all things. Dame Judi Dench embodied the role of this overbearing and obsessive mother. Edgar was her favorite, Edgar was destined to be a great man and she was the stage mother in the background, directing and advising on everything from the clothes he wore to commanding him to find the Lindberg baby. Edgar was devoted to his mother, turning to her for counsel, revering her and escorting her to political functions as his date. The only other woman in his life was Miss Gandy, his personal secretary who was not only the gate-keeper, she was also his trusted secret-keeper.
And then Clyde Tolsen is introduced to the Director of the FBI and in a swift series of meaningful glances, we know that Clyde is destined to be in Hoover’s life. Almost laughably transparent in his intent, Hoover arranges for Tolsen to be accepted into the Bureau even though as a candidate, Tolsen has none of the desired qualities. But he is tall and good-looking. In this day and age, homosexuality is understood, acknowledged and acceptable in most circles. NOT in those days. It was apparent that J. Edgar was somewhat conflicted, alternating between assuming an almost asexual ascetic life and craving the companionship that Clyde so eagerly offered. Although there were moments of tenderness between Tolsen and Hoover, their relationship was not consumated, at least not in this depiction. Poor Clyde was ever the faithful puppy dog sidekick, thankful for any random ear-scratching that Edgar rarely bestowed.
We don’t know how much of this movie is based on fact or historical fiction. After all, Hoover appeared to be a very private man and the only two people who could know the intimate side of him (Miss Gandy and Clyde Tolsen) did not talk!
Overall I found the movie interesting because it was a biopic, but I didn’t think it was an exceptionally good movie. I expected more from Clint Eastwood than a laundry list of Hoovers triumphs and failures. Of course it was hard for me to spend 2 hours in the life of a man who I believe was misguided by his obsessiveness and evil in his vindictiveness. Also not for a minute was I not aware that DiCaprio was the actor behind the make-up. I don’t know if that’s because of mis-casting or bad acting – I believe it to be the former.
Related articles
Rate this:
Read Full Post »