TOO BIG AND TOO LITTLE: Wanted to talk a little bit about two Best Picture nominees and how their problems are mirror images of each other. The first is Life of Pi, which I saw tonight (had wanted to see Zero Dark Thirty, but the showtime I wanted was sold out even though I got there an hour early). Without spoiling anything, it's safe to say that well over half of the movie takes place on a lifeboat with one human character, and is ultimately a pretty small story. That's not inherently a bad thing--indeed, Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks did pretty well with a similarly constrained storytelling tool for Cast Away. However, what Lee (partially in a desire to be faithful to the source material) tries to do is make this story have gigantic cosmological implications, with massive CGI fantasy sequences. He's not exactly helped along by Suraj Sharma, the unknown playing Pi, who isn't really a commanding screen presence. A lot of the imagery in the film is gorgeous (and having seen it in 3D, I can see why several critics said to see it that way), but it left me feeling like it tried too hard.
On the other hand, there's Les Mis. Les Mis is a pretty damn epic story, spanning almost 20 years of major French historical events, massive casualties, sweeping love stories, and the like. However, for the vast majority of the film, the decision's been made to present things in a series of close-ups rather than a broader, more epic standpoint. I'll be the first to admit that there are times this approach pays dividends--Anne Hathaway is going to win an Oscar off a rendition of "I Dreamed A Dream" that was only possible through the decision to focus in on Fantine's personal pain in that moment rather than the more epic scope that song has traditionally been given. However, moments that should have more sweep--"One Day More" and "Red and Black" in particular--wind up becoming so intimate that we don't get the broader importance. Admittedly, the choice to hold back on something sweeping until the finale does help give the finale a little more punch, but I wonder if the film would have been stronger with more evenness in scope and emotion.
FWIW, my current best picture rankings are probably Argo>Lincoln>Silver Linings Playbook>Les Mis>Life of Pi, with 4 left to see (Zero Dark Thirty will definitely be seen, Django and Beasts of the Southern Wild probably will be, but I'm not sure I can manage Amour)--though I'd go Day-Lewis/Lawrence/Arkin/Hathaway on the acting ballot as of now.
In case you haven't seen it, Film Crit Hulk wrote a monstrously wonderful essay on Les Miserables and the failure of the "all close ups all the time" choice: http://badassdigest.com/2013/01/09/film-crit-hulk-smash-hulk-vs.-tom-hooper-and-art-of-cinematic-affectation/
ReplyDeleteDo see Beasts of the Southern Wild. It's not just the best film I saw this year, but one of the best I've seen in the last several years.
ReplyDeleteI am so torn re: Les Miz. I really wanted to love it, which is a set-up for abject failure. While I truly believe there were moments of brilliance (too strong??) such as I Dreamed a Dream, the vast majority of the movie felt like Les Miz greatest hits - which begs the question why the movie was 2.5 hours long. Additionally, any scene with Crowe was a debacle.
ReplyDeleteThat was really great. I learned a lot.
ReplyDeleteFilm Crit Hulk is a really great writer. I've read about half dozen of his essays/articles after this one and enjoyed the hell out of each. Lots of stuff to be learned.
ReplyDeleteI think there's some excellent writing there, but the all caps Hulk gimmick makes it (at least for me) physically hard to read something of great length.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to read it but the ALL CAPS THING is driving me nuts. Does he always do that? Is it part of the "hulk smash" persona?
ReplyDeleteYes. Read this interview he (or she?) did with The Verge about his writing style and origins: http://mobile.theverge.com/2012/11/8/3611344/film-crit-hulk-interview
ReplyDeleteThere's a website mentioned in the interview which will convert the case of text in any other webpage to something easier to read.
http://www.convertcase.net/
ReplyDeleteLes Mis was such a let down, primarily because of the directorial choices. There was NO context for the revolution (outside of an opening line that said, "France had a king, and then the French Revolution happened, but now there's a king again") and a few beggars with syphilis. There was nothing to differentiate the cities Valjean traveled to, and the parallels between Valjean and Javert were not drawn well at all. This film would have benefitted from eliminating some of the songs and inputting connecting scenes or adding montages with the overture in the background. The 25th Anniversary edition where the actors just sing in front of a microphone was more emotional than this movie.
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