The feisty tough as nails grandmother is hardly new to the cinema, but at this point in time she can now be uninhibitedly foul-mouthed and lesbian.
At some point we are supposed to make the transition of warming to Grandma whose crusty exterior shields and warm loving centre deep down. For me this did not happen. At the start I found Lily Tomlin's character obnoxious and infantile, (and somewhat of a stretch as an academic and a supposed intellectual) – and by the end of the movie I found her even more obnoxious and infantile.
"Grandma" is peopled with an unappealing bunch of caricatures devoid of nuance or subtlety. This is screen writing by numbers. Pushing all the right buttons, and judging from the positive reviews, succeeding in eliciting the required response. I have always found this approach manipulative and insulting.
Lily Tomlin's performance poses no challenge to her at all. It's an extended sketch. Doing cranky is not that hard. It's a pity, because an intelligently written screenplay and an astute director could have given Tomlin a real chance to extend herself.
At some point we are supposed to make the transition of warming to Grandma whose crusty exterior shields and warm loving centre deep down. For me this did not happen. At the start I found Lily Tomlin's character obnoxious and infantile, (and somewhat of a stretch as an academic and a supposed intellectual) – and by the end of the movie I found her even more obnoxious and infantile.
"Grandma" is peopled with an unappealing bunch of caricatures devoid of nuance or subtlety. This is screen writing by numbers. Pushing all the right buttons, and judging from the positive reviews, succeeding in eliciting the required response. I have always found this approach manipulative and insulting.
Lily Tomlin's performance poses no challenge to her at all. It's an extended sketch. Doing cranky is not that hard. It's a pity, because an intelligently written screenplay and an astute director could have given Tomlin a real chance to extend herself.