Hi all!
Welcome to dysfunctional family day here at Sundance. Saw two movies today – both with emotionally disturbed characters, which made for quite the depressing movie-going day.
The first flick of the day was called "Birds of America" which I saw with my friend, Michelle, who was in Park City for a few days. (Hey Michelle!) The movie dealt with a family lead by Matthew Perry who had begun raising his younger siblings (Ginnifer Goodwin and Ben Foster) when he was 18 and their father died. It's now years later and they all have lots of issues to deal with. That would have been fine if any of the characters were likable, but that wasn't the case. Lauren Graham costarred as Perry's wife and she had a few humorous scenes. Hilary Swank was also poorly cast in a role of an overbearing, somewhat fake, next door neighbor. The audience laughed at this dysfunctional comedy much more than I did. I guess I just didn't get this one. 2 stars (out of five).
I went from that one (where I did at least smile every once in a while) to "Downloading Nancy" which was just dark and depressing through and through. It stars Maria Bello as Nancy who is in an emotionless marriage with Rufus Sewell. Nancy contacts Louis (Jason Patric) through a chat room and they begin a disturbing, masochistic affair. The time frame jumps around to different points of the story, but you know from the beginning that things are not going to turn out well. The movie is shot in cold, blue tones (adding to the depressing nature) and the acting is powerful. But it's just not an entertaining or enjoyable film to watch. 2 ½ stars.
I really need to a see good comedy tomorrow.
Until the next missive…
Your Sundance correspondent,
Ted
No comments:
Post a Comment