torayume Reviews

The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)

The tone is all wrong.

[3/10 · 6 January 2007]

I seldom comment on these things, and even more rarely to express disapproval, as art is always difficult, and one wants to commend the attempt...but, long-term fan of the writer though I am, I found myself in parts of this wondering if Oscar Wilde was really as funny as I had always found him. But of course he is. ( Why, Pacino and company found rich depth of humor in Salome...I had never even suspected...) The fault here lies with the filmmakers, and rests most particularly with Mr. Parker's curious decision to confine his attempts to be funny to self invented scenes of tattooing and ballooning and such, and play most of the actual Wilde as a drama. The line readings are slow, the Polonius light character of Lady Bracknell is given to Judi Dench, an actor of tremendous gravity, the basket scene is played as if it were the unmasking of Oedipus - I kept expecting references to pinioned feet. I haven't even mentioned the anachronistic song number, which wouldn't have worked even had the piece been set in the twenties. Just appalling.

I shouldn't complain, I suppose. The piece does have a curious, unintended virtue. The actors, in playing for subtext, and meaning (Lady Bracknell understands the personal transformation Firth intends to symbolize speaking of the death of Bumbury, as she looks deeply into Firth's eyes...I am not making this up), in playing for depth...render Wilde's piece completely clichéd and superficial. It's much deeper as froth. As an interpretation of Wilde's play, "The Importance of Being Ernest" is an utter failure. But as an illustration of certain of his aesthetic theories, it's priceless...

Masked and Anonymous (2003)

a beautiful mind

[15 May 2004]

yes, this is a film about cousin bob. this is the authorized bio of captain Dylan...most of the humor, the comedy of it is centered around the archetypes of humanity dying to know or, believing to know this man they want to know. hardcore Dylan fans have come out to say a resounding 'no'. and why not? when was this man ever pegged down? every actor is endowed with great lines and greater motivation, the screenplay is awesome for an actor: there is a deleted scene where goodman tells Wilson about Alexander the great that is, like most scenes, profound but hilarious--it is a tight rope to walk. and in the background of that scene, there is again the vision of the giant rabbit. it's quite possible that the logic of this film confounds more than a few because it is expected to make sense like the sense we have been relying on for centuries... but sense was never really established concretely. the pitfall of this film is to expect something from it, to not realize the little things: Luke Wilson says 'the glass is always empty, so is the place where the money should be.' ribisi's speech on changing sides; goodman says later to Dylan 'i'm on your side' and Dylan counters 'you have to be born on my side, sweetheart', dylans lines about what cows can digest. and this film is chock full of wonderful, little things... mickey roarkes speech after the president dies, the montage of friend grilling fate, they are all hysterical, the whole script is so dead on, you cannot hold back the laughter. this is a tragic comedy if ever there was one. if one were to witness the last of a species, a specimen that had never been seen before, it would appear strange and without a base, a reason; this film is that. every character is carefully written, carefully acted to breathe life into the archetypes they represent and they all want something from fate and they use whatever wiles they have to get it, but fate does nothing but let them choose their fates, respectively. he is the thing they want and cannot have. the thing, that if only they could nail it down, it could be done and buried. but fate says he has a few songs left. the story of his life, right?