The film opens with a cartoon, as another reviewer has stated, and the camera pulls back to reveal a movie theater. One of the theater goers (the main character) leaves, and once outside, begins to cross a bridge in Venice, at which point, the music ("The Golden Striker") starts, with a compelling sense of drama. Unfortunately, that's about the only dramatic moment. The plot is trite and predictable, and the music carries the film. It seems not to be available on DVD, and no wonder: the MJQ's score is the only interesting thing, so you might just as well get the album, which, after 54 years, remains compelling. I still have the vinyl platter in its original cover, but am delighted to have downloaded it from Amazon.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Gone Baby Gone
(2007)
Pathetic
18 March 2008
I find it amazing that viewers seem to like this film. The plot is transparently obvious, so most of the time I found myself just waiting to see what sort of complications would be thrown at us in what seemed a half-hearted attempt to create suspense. There were so many red herrings and so many holes in the plot that the whole thing smelled fishy before it was halfway through, while the second half smelled cheesy. I couldn't decide which was worse--the acting (except for Amy Ryan), the completely unbelievable story, or the even more unbelievable casting. Casey Affleck as a private detective who tracks missing persons? Give me a break! First of all, as his film wife says, he certainly does look too young for the part: but worse, his wiseguy/homeboy character could never get away with the things he's made to say. And sorry, the guy simply cannot act: as the saying goes, he couldn't act his way out of a paper bag, which is exactly what this film was. Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman at times looked like they were embarrassed to be in this thing, but everybody should have been. Reviewers make much of the fact that this is Ben Affleck's "directorial debut." Well, he has a long way to go yet. Back to school, Afflecks: Ben to director's class, Casey to acting.
North Country
(2005)
Tearjerker
29 March 2006
This relentless downer is redeemed only in part by good photography and a great score (okay, I'm a Dylan fan; for me, this worked). Theron is good--as always--but is here given a far too weepy script. McDormand, also reliably good, is given a caricature, not a character. With such strictures, they really deserved awards for perseverance against extreme odds. Woody Harrelson as the plaintiff attorney is a complete joke; what were they thinking? Virtually every other role was two-dimensional and the performances phoned in. The word "predictable" came to mind in scene after scene, except those in the courtroom at the end. These were unpredictable because they utterly lacked credibility, even more than virtually all other Hollywood-conceived courtroom scenes (admittedly, real courtroom behavior is far too boring to be faithfully represented).
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