Watching Nights in Rodanthe a few nights ago with my wife, Denise, made me think. What is the attraction of Nicholas Sparks' stories? There is obviously a gender gap. The same way I bristle at the thought of having to see a Bride Wars (or other so-called "chick flick," which I still diligently invite Denise to on occasion), I quake a little at the thought of having to see a movie based on a Sparks' book. I am a romantic, and love movies with a healthy dose of schmaltz, like Casablanca (1942), or to cite a more recent example, Two Lovers (2009). So I'm speaking to something beyond just the whole "guy thing."
I was willing to sample Nights in Rodanthe because it represented the reunion of one of my favorite screen couples, Richard Gere and Diane Lane. I loved them together in The Cotton Club (1984) and Unfaithful (2002). I like them separately, too. Gere is often accused of a certain type of blankness in his performances. While not an incorrect assessment, he seems conscious of this (see the classic performances he's attracted to, and how he misreads the actors' intent in each, next time they run his interview with Elvis Mitchell on TCM), and often works with directors that harness this in such a way that the viewer is able to project a lot onto his "tabula rasa". Lane, on the other hand is a dynamic actress who I've always found fascinating for her slow career transition from ethereal to down-to-earth. She seems even more beautiful today than ever, despite seemingly avoiding some of the surgical enhancements that have strait-jacketed some of her contemporaries (Meg Ryan, Jessica Lange). Here, the two actors do their best to rekindle the natural chemistry they share.
But do I need to even tell you the plot? Isn't it as plain as the film's poster and promotional photos? For those interested, Gere and Lane play two divorcees who have a brief affair in Rodanthe, a charming island town located in North Carolina's Outer Banks. The story is so slight and predictable that one starts to expect the moments that jeopardy looms to complicate matters between the two paramours. You've got the nosy best friend, usually played by a good character actress (Doubt's Viola Davis, in this case) to hide the fact that she is simply a sounding board; a means of delivering exposition; or comic relief. Davis fulfills all three roles. Unfortunately, none of these elements elevate the film.
I'm at a disadvantage because I haven't read a Sparks book and don't plan to. But I will go out on a limb and guess that part of the attraction to his stories is the regional aspect of his novels. Based in North Carolina, he frequently uses the region as a backdrop in much the same way Stephen King relies on Maine for his novels. The village of Rodanthe is used sparingly to spice up the film. It's a missed opportunity, in my opinion. A strong sense of place frequently translates into the difference between a mediocre film and a good one. Casablanca had that, and so did Two Lovers. While we get a few touches of local flavor with the film's depiction of a crab-bake, and an instance when the town fortifies itself for an approaching hurricane, the town so prominent in the novel's title is given short shrift in Night in Rodanthe.
Still provided courtesy of Warner Home Entertainment.
Showing posts with label Richard Gere. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Gere. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Blu-ray Review: Nights in Rodanthe
Watching Nights in Rodanthe a few nights ago with my wife, Denise, made me think. What is the attraction of Nicholas Sparks' stories? There is obviously a gender gap. The same way I bristle at the thought of having to see a Bride Wars (or other so-called "chick flick," which I still diligently invite Denise to on occasion), I quake a little at the thought of having to see a movie based on a Sparks' book. I am a romantic, and love movies with a healthy dose of schmaltz, like Casablanca (1942), or to cite a more recent example, Two Lovers (2009). So I'm speaking to something beyond just the whole "guy thing."
I was willing to sample Nights in Rodanthe because it represented the reunion of one of my favorite screen couples, Richard Gere and Diane Lane. I loved them together in The Cotton Club (1984) and Unfaithful (2002). I like them separately, too. Gere is often accused of a certain type of blankness in his performances. While not an incorrect assessment, he seems conscious of this (see the classic performances he's attracted to, and how he misreads the actors' intent in each, next time they run his interview with Elvis Mitchell on TCM), and often works with directors that harness this in such a way that the viewer is able to project a lot onto his "tabula rasa". Lane, on the other hand is a dynamic actress who I've always found fascinating for her slow career transition from ethereal to down-to-earth. She seems even more beautiful today than ever, despite seemingly avoiding some of the surgical enhancements that have strait-jacketed some of her contemporaries (Meg Ryan, Jessica Lange). Here, the two actors do their best to rekindle the natural chemistry they share.
But do I need to even tell you the plot? Isn't it as plain as the film's poster and promotional photos? For those interested, Gere and Lane play two divorcees who have a brief affair in Rodanthe, a charming island town located in North Carolina's Outer Banks. The story is so slight and predictable that one starts to expect the moments that jeopardy looms to complicate matters between the two paramours. You've got the nosy best friend, usually played by a good character actress (Doubt's Viola Davis, in this case) to hide the fact that she is simply a sounding board; a means of delivering exposition; or comic relief. Davis fulfills all three roles. Unfortunately, none of these elements elevate the film.
I'm at a disadvantage because I haven't read a Sparks book and don't plan to. But I will go out on a limb and guess that part of the attraction to his stories is the regional aspect of his novels. Based in North Carolina, he frequently uses the region as a backdrop in much the same way Stephen King relies on Maine for his novels. The village of Rodanthe is used sparingly to spice up the film. It's a missed opportunity, in my opinion. A strong sense of place frequently translates into the difference between a mediocre film and a good one. Casablanca had that, and so did Two Lovers. While we get a few touches of local flavor with the film's depiction of a crab-bake, and an instance when the town fortifies itself for an approaching hurricane, the town so prominent in the novel's title is given short shrift in Night in Rodanthe.
Still provided courtesy of Warner Home Entertainment.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
DVD Review: I'm Not There - Bob Dylan... Chameleon or Cipher?
by Tony Dayoub
Look up the definition of a cipher. The first definition on Dictionary.com for cipher is simply the word zero. Singer Bob Dylan has been anything and everything but a zero. However, as Todd Haynes illustrates in his paean to Dylan, I'm Not There, Dylan viewed himself as somewhat of an empty receptacle. As he used his chameleon-like abilities to create new personas he could hide behind, friends, fans, and particularly the press, would fill that receptacle with their own preconceived notions of who Dylan really was. Haynes found it so difficult to present Dylan in a straightforward manner, that he instead chose six actors to interpret many of his adopted personas. And if much of the stories told about Dylan or by him are apocryphal, then Haynes found the best way to tell the story. He took the advice of a character in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
Among the personas appearing in the movie are the poet-like Dylan known as Arthur Rimbaud (Ben Whishaw), Rimbaud being the poet whose quotation, "I is the other," is the central thesis of the film. Young African-American actor, Marcus Carl Franklin, plays the Woody Guthrie persona. Dylan had fashioned a background story for himself as a young folk-singing hobo, who spent his youth jumping on trains to travel cross-country, a story later found out to be false. Haynes casting of the 11-year-old Franklin is a wink to viewers, making it obvious that this kid could not possibly be a surrogate for Dylan despite his stories leading one to believe it so. Jack Rollins (Christian Bale) is the Greenwich Village folkie that we closely associate with Joan Baez (or in this movie, Julianne Moore's Alice Fabian). Bale also reappears as Pastor John, the born-again Dylan of the late seventies. Jack Rollins (Heath Ledger) is the self-absorbed movie star Dylan, who's crumbling marriage is symbolized by the trajectory America takes during the Vietnam war. Richard Gere is Billy the Kid, the Dylan that retreats from public view to live a quiet life in Riddle, a town populated by characters from his songs.
The most iconic and spot-on performance, in fact, almost a transformation, is Cate Blanchett as Jude Quinn, the defensive Dylan facing rejection from his folk fans after going electric. Her nomination for an Oscar is well deserved, for at no time are you consciously aware that this is Blanchett acting. You are transfixed by her charisma as the androgynous rock star at the height of his sixties-era confrontational posturing towards the press. Blanchett captures the Dylan that sees himself as a cipher, "One having no influence or value; a nonentity."
Haynes shoots each story in the style of cinema suited to the period and story being covered. For example, Blanchett's segment is reminiscent of Fellini's 8 1/2, and Gere's evokes the westerns of the seventies, like Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller or Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (which Dylan appeared in).
I was enthralled by the enigmatic film on a level that I can't quite explain. It certainly has an emotional effect on the most visceral level. But the enigmatic film resists any intellectualizing. Much of the explanations above were derived from a thorough survey of the special features included on the DVD, in stores now. I am a casual Bob Dylan fan so I did not have any reference points to lean on when watching the film. But the wealth of extras on the disc can serve as a crash-course on the singer's life and work. Special attention should be payed to the writings on the film collected under the title "An Introduction to the Film" on Disc 1. The point is that none of this should hinder enjoyment of the film, as long as you can accept its perplexing metaphorical nature.
"I is the other." As Dylan would say, I is not me... I'm not there. Haynes fractured biopic depicts the nonentity that characterizes Dylan. And perhaps his film consciously exemplifies yet another definition of a cipher, "[a private mode of communication] contrived for the safe transmission of secrets."
Still provided courtesy of Genius Products and The Weinstein Company.
Look up the definition of a cipher. The first definition on Dictionary.com for cipher is simply the word zero. Singer Bob Dylan has been anything and everything but a zero. However, as Todd Haynes illustrates in his paean to Dylan, I'm Not There, Dylan viewed himself as somewhat of an empty receptacle. As he used his chameleon-like abilities to create new personas he could hide behind, friends, fans, and particularly the press, would fill that receptacle with their own preconceived notions of who Dylan really was. Haynes found it so difficult to present Dylan in a straightforward manner, that he instead chose six actors to interpret many of his adopted personas. And if much of the stories told about Dylan or by him are apocryphal, then Haynes found the best way to tell the story. He took the advice of a character in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."Among the personas appearing in the movie are the poet-like Dylan known as Arthur Rimbaud (Ben Whishaw), Rimbaud being the poet whose quotation, "I is the other," is the central thesis of the film. Young African-American actor, Marcus Carl Franklin, plays the Woody Guthrie persona. Dylan had fashioned a background story for himself as a young folk-singing hobo, who spent his youth jumping on trains to travel cross-country, a story later found out to be false. Haynes casting of the 11-year-old Franklin is a wink to viewers, making it obvious that this kid could not possibly be a surrogate for Dylan despite his stories leading one to believe it so. Jack Rollins (Christian Bale) is the Greenwich Village folkie that we closely associate with Joan Baez (or in this movie, Julianne Moore's Alice Fabian). Bale also reappears as Pastor John, the born-again Dylan of the late seventies. Jack Rollins (Heath Ledger) is the self-absorbed movie star Dylan, who's crumbling marriage is symbolized by the trajectory America takes during the Vietnam war. Richard Gere is Billy the Kid, the Dylan that retreats from public view to live a quiet life in Riddle, a town populated by characters from his songs.
The most iconic and spot-on performance, in fact, almost a transformation, is Cate Blanchett as Jude Quinn, the defensive Dylan facing rejection from his folk fans after going electric. Her nomination for an Oscar is well deserved, for at no time are you consciously aware that this is Blanchett acting. You are transfixed by her charisma as the androgynous rock star at the height of his sixties-era confrontational posturing towards the press. Blanchett captures the Dylan that sees himself as a cipher, "One having no influence or value; a nonentity."
Haynes shoots each story in the style of cinema suited to the period and story being covered. For example, Blanchett's segment is reminiscent of Fellini's 8 1/2, and Gere's evokes the westerns of the seventies, like Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller or Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (which Dylan appeared in).
I was enthralled by the enigmatic film on a level that I can't quite explain. It certainly has an emotional effect on the most visceral level. But the enigmatic film resists any intellectualizing. Much of the explanations above were derived from a thorough survey of the special features included on the DVD, in stores now. I am a casual Bob Dylan fan so I did not have any reference points to lean on when watching the film. But the wealth of extras on the disc can serve as a crash-course on the singer's life and work. Special attention should be payed to the writings on the film collected under the title "An Introduction to the Film" on Disc 1. The point is that none of this should hinder enjoyment of the film, as long as you can accept its perplexing metaphorical nature.
"I is the other." As Dylan would say, I is not me... I'm not there. Haynes fractured biopic depicts the nonentity that characterizes Dylan. And perhaps his film consciously exemplifies yet another definition of a cipher, "[a private mode of communication] contrived for the safe transmission of secrets."
Still provided courtesy of Genius Products and The Weinstein Company.
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