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catscradle Mar. 15th, 2004 10:21 am)
catscradle Mar. 15th, 2004 10:21 am)Spent most of my weekend sleeping and willing the dishes and laundry to get done on their own. Or by the fairies. Or by any person off the street with some detergent on them. Or just a bar of soap even.
Friday and Saturday - lost cause. Slept most of those days away. Sunday, in a spurt of energy, I went out to see Secret Window.
I had my doubts about this movie after reading over the Stephen King novella. I had to wonder what drove Johnny Depp to accept this script of a minor King short story that had little grit to begin with. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the story - barely altered from the original text - actually works much better on film than in the written form.
Johnny's portrayal of Mort Rainey is wonderful. He creates a very human, very flawed individual, who is irritable, depressed, angry, compassionate, nice, paranoid, whimpy and psychotically insane, while making it all very believable. Johnny's comic timing is right on the mark. And I must agree with Ebert, Johnny's hair deserved a casting credit all on it's own.
The movie is very much a character study. There's not much action other than what's going on in Mort's head. At first I had some problems with some of the inconsistancies in the other characters - specifically Timothy Hutton and the doubts drawn around his character - but the more I think about it, it works because we never really get out of Mort's head space. The deeper we dive into the story, the less Mort seems a reliable witness. But he's all we've got to understand what's going on.
John Turturro played a great John Shooter. He's a dairy farmer from Mississippi that claims Mort plagiarised his story. This is impossible as Mort wrote his story in 1995 and Shooter wrote his in 1997. But Mort doesn't have a copy of the magazine it was published in with him - it's in his ex-wife's house (and here begins the race to get the magazine and all the hazards that befall Mort in the process). At first Mort brushes him off till Shooter starts terrorizing him - first subtly, then more blatantly. Shooter, himself, never seems too ominous a threat when seen on screen. It's what we don't see that makes us and Mort nervous. In fact, it's Mort's growing paranioa that's far worse than Shooter. At least until the killing begins. But even then, Shooter doesn't feel like much of a threat. It's more of a "Look, I told you this would happen. Why aren't you listening to me?"
What I didn't like, was about the last 15 minutes of the move. 10 of those minutes are taken directly from the book - it's far too close and the material doesn't translate well to film all on it's own. It desparately needs the help of the screen writer - who up to this moment did a tremendous job - but here it all falls apart. We need to see Mort's struggle, and we don't. We hear about it. We know it occurred, but there it ends. And that's too bad for both Johnny and the script who deserved better than that. The last 5 minutes - for reasons I can't begin to imagine - deviates completely from the story. I could see a need to clean it up, but it's completely rewritten, which was unnecessary.
So overall I really enjoyed the movie. But the last 15 minutes could have packed a powerful punch, but fell far too short.
One more note of interest, it's implied that Mort plagiarised once in the past. It's never out right said, but that's the implication. It's pressed upon the viewer that it only happened that one time, but it does a world of damage to Mort's character and how we view him. Perhaps it's the guilt over that incident which leads to his downfall. It's never clearly stated - but the fact that it keeps coming up makes you wonder.
Johnny trivia - see if you can spot the Hunter S. Thompson book lying around his house. Can't read which one it is, but I'm betting it's The Rum Diary. ;)
Stopped at a Super Target after the movie to pick up easter basket stuff for my nephews and niece. Also picked up some workout clothing, that I hope actually gets some use. Super Target, all on it's own, is enough to zap all of my energy, add to it a sinus cold and I was all but in a coma before leaving. So got home, watched the weather, was in bed by 8pm.
Woke up almost every hour on the hour. I somehow developed super hearing and aphids copulating in book bindings was enough noise to keep me awake.
Considering cashing in some comp time to leave early today =P
Friday and Saturday - lost cause. Slept most of those days away. Sunday, in a spurt of energy, I went out to see Secret Window.
I had my doubts about this movie after reading over the Stephen King novella. I had to wonder what drove Johnny Depp to accept this script of a minor King short story that had little grit to begin with. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the story - barely altered from the original text - actually works much better on film than in the written form.
Johnny's portrayal of Mort Rainey is wonderful. He creates a very human, very flawed individual, who is irritable, depressed, angry, compassionate, nice, paranoid, whimpy and psychotically insane, while making it all very believable. Johnny's comic timing is right on the mark. And I must agree with Ebert, Johnny's hair deserved a casting credit all on it's own.
The movie is very much a character study. There's not much action other than what's going on in Mort's head. At first I had some problems with some of the inconsistancies in the other characters - specifically Timothy Hutton and the doubts drawn around his character - but the more I think about it, it works because we never really get out of Mort's head space. The deeper we dive into the story, the less Mort seems a reliable witness. But he's all we've got to understand what's going on.
John Turturro played a great John Shooter. He's a dairy farmer from Mississippi that claims Mort plagiarised his story. This is impossible as Mort wrote his story in 1995 and Shooter wrote his in 1997. But Mort doesn't have a copy of the magazine it was published in with him - it's in his ex-wife's house (and here begins the race to get the magazine and all the hazards that befall Mort in the process). At first Mort brushes him off till Shooter starts terrorizing him - first subtly, then more blatantly. Shooter, himself, never seems too ominous a threat when seen on screen. It's what we don't see that makes us and Mort nervous. In fact, it's Mort's growing paranioa that's far worse than Shooter. At least until the killing begins. But even then, Shooter doesn't feel like much of a threat. It's more of a "Look, I told you this would happen. Why aren't you listening to me?"
What I didn't like, was about the last 15 minutes of the move. 10 of those minutes are taken directly from the book - it's far too close and the material doesn't translate well to film all on it's own. It desparately needs the help of the screen writer - who up to this moment did a tremendous job - but here it all falls apart. We need to see Mort's struggle, and we don't. We hear about it. We know it occurred, but there it ends. And that's too bad for both Johnny and the script who deserved better than that. The last 5 minutes - for reasons I can't begin to imagine - deviates completely from the story. I could see a need to clean it up, but it's completely rewritten, which was unnecessary.
So overall I really enjoyed the movie. But the last 15 minutes could have packed a powerful punch, but fell far too short.
One more note of interest, it's implied that Mort plagiarised once in the past. It's never out right said, but that's the implication. It's pressed upon the viewer that it only happened that one time, but it does a world of damage to Mort's character and how we view him. Perhaps it's the guilt over that incident which leads to his downfall. It's never clearly stated - but the fact that it keeps coming up makes you wonder.
Johnny trivia - see if you can spot the Hunter S. Thompson book lying around his house. Can't read which one it is, but I'm betting it's The Rum Diary. ;)
Stopped at a Super Target after the movie to pick up easter basket stuff for my nephews and niece. Also picked up some workout clothing, that I hope actually gets some use. Super Target, all on it's own, is enough to zap all of my energy, add to it a sinus cold and I was all but in a coma before leaving. So got home, watched the weather, was in bed by 8pm.
Woke up almost every hour on the hour. I somehow developed super hearing and aphids copulating in book bindings was enough noise to keep me awake.
Considering cashing in some comp time to leave early today =P
