Several of the positive professional critical responses to this film began with something gushing about Jeff Bridges'performance and really, Jeff Bridges in general. I agree. And that's where I and the critics part ways. I read the book several years ago and I've never been much impressed with Irving's fiction, except for the comedic aspect. To me, he's a John Grisham for the comedy genre--only he needs to think more about screenplays when he's composing his novels--Grisham's forte. There are no genuine characters (Irving tapes on some idiosyncrasies for the appearance of real character) and everything is as neatly contrived as it is in any legal/love story. Following a pattern of more skilled writers, however, Irving will allow an unhappy ending--that's the kind of thing that gets a positive review in the NY Times Book Review.
So, the movie was doomed from the get-go. My own bias is that I prefer small movies about real people. I like characters and their development. I don't need a lot of effort on fancy plots and I don't need for a striking set of coincidences to occur to remind me that I'm watching a (stupid) movie. Again, Irving loves coincidence--it's his form of empty faith, empty because it is without a philosophy. At any rate,the filmmaker never finds a tone that works and therefore skips around melodrama, angst, light comedy, perhaps so that we'll be so confused that we won't notice the absolute lack of character.
There's not any particularly interesting camera-work in this movie save one shot in which three characters are framed like one of the pictures in the upstairs hall. This was so out of the ordinary in the film, however, that it was jarring rather than seamless. The cinematographer's job in this movie was to make it look "tony" as one reviewer said. It's just another Hollywood movie in which despicable people live their unhappy lives in the kinds of places where normal people would have to pay for a tour. Maybe it's the audience's own masochistic fault that we like to grind our noses in stuff we can't have.
Also, Kim Basinger is one of the most overrated actresses in the history of film. I've never, not one single time, seen her on screen when she didn't look as if she'd just come from a fresh beating. She embodies victimhood in the way that Julia Roberts embodies charm. Basinger cringes into each frame and delivers her typically flat (thudding) lines as if she wishes to be anywhere else but on a movie set. Someone, anyone, needs to introduce her to the idea of acting and character. Maybe pretending to be someone else would cheer her up.
So, the movie was doomed from the get-go. My own bias is that I prefer small movies about real people. I like characters and their development. I don't need a lot of effort on fancy plots and I don't need for a striking set of coincidences to occur to remind me that I'm watching a (stupid) movie. Again, Irving loves coincidence--it's his form of empty faith, empty because it is without a philosophy. At any rate,the filmmaker never finds a tone that works and therefore skips around melodrama, angst, light comedy, perhaps so that we'll be so confused that we won't notice the absolute lack of character.
There's not any particularly interesting camera-work in this movie save one shot in which three characters are framed like one of the pictures in the upstairs hall. This was so out of the ordinary in the film, however, that it was jarring rather than seamless. The cinematographer's job in this movie was to make it look "tony" as one reviewer said. It's just another Hollywood movie in which despicable people live their unhappy lives in the kinds of places where normal people would have to pay for a tour. Maybe it's the audience's own masochistic fault that we like to grind our noses in stuff we can't have.
Also, Kim Basinger is one of the most overrated actresses in the history of film. I've never, not one single time, seen her on screen when she didn't look as if she'd just come from a fresh beating. She embodies victimhood in the way that Julia Roberts embodies charm. Basinger cringes into each frame and delivers her typically flat (thudding) lines as if she wishes to be anywhere else but on a movie set. Someone, anyone, needs to introduce her to the idea of acting and character. Maybe pretending to be someone else would cheer her up.