After much anticipation I finally got to see this movie yesterday on it's opening day. I had to make a 5 hour round trip to be able to see it and right until I and my 15 year old daughter sat down with our popcorn and coke I was wondering if it were going to be a wasted trip, especially after reading what the newspaper critics had to say about it. Well, from the start we realised that the critics were 100% wrong, it turned out to be the best cinema experience I have had in a very very long time. Why was this? Well, for a start I, my daughter and the 20 or so others in this afternoon screening didn't stop laughing the whole time and for the first time in many years I have been able to sit and watch a film without anyone else having a conversation somewhere else in the cinema, that's how enthralled we all were with it. Nathan Lane, well, what can we say. He was superb, he should walk away with the Golden Globe and while he won't win the Oscar as comic roles never do, he should at least get a nomination. I know it's sacrilege to say so, but, I prefer him to Zero Mostel as Bialystock, why? Well, Mostel's Bialy had a meanness about him, whereas Lane's Bialy is a lying, cheating no good ageing gigolo, but, he has more charm and you can understand how he manages to fleece these little old ladies. Matthew Broderick, let me tell you, is not as bad as the critics would have you believe, Leo Bloom is actually quite a difficult character to play with all his neurosis es and such like and Gene Wilder did a great job, but, so did Broderick, especially in the musical numbers. "I want to be a Producer" is fabulous, the choreography is outstanding and Broderick is awesome and best of all he looks like he's having a real fun time, his expression throughout that number is just a joy, completely genuine. I could watch it over and over again. Will Ferrel is a revelation, he is superb as Leibkind and again deserves his Golden Globe nomination, but, I think Roger Bart and Gary Beach were equally deserving of a nomination as they were brilliant too, especially Roger Bart. The only weak link was Uma Thurman, she was not terrible, but, she didn't pull off the musical numbers the way the others did. "That Face" was the only musical number I didn't ooh or ah over, but, it was still good. As for the style of the movie, well, I loved it as I am a huge fan of 1950's musicals and I almost felt I was watching it on stage, which for me, was a complete pleasure. Sure, Susan Strohman won't win any awards for her direction she did stage it beautifully and her talents truly shone in the musical numbers. Having watched the mess that was "Moulin Rouge" this was, in my personal view, entertainment at it's best, not pretentious or big and clever but an excellent transferring of Lane/Broderick/Beach and Bart's stage performances. It's not for everyone, as the newspaper's reviews proved, but, everyone left the cinema very happy yesterday and if my local flea pit deign to show it I will be first in line with my daughter, who adored it too and she's not a fan of musicals and she has already called all her friends to tell them to go see it if they can. In summary this is a movie you can enjoy that never tries to do anything but entertain you and succeeds, heck, there are far worse things you can waste £13 and 2 hours on. 10/10
Review of The Producers
