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My LOTR:ROTK EE is in Lexington, KY, in the hands of UPS, who are bringing it to meeee!
[insert obligatory precioussss joke]
Ahem. Right. Moving on.
Last Tuesday evening I finally got out to see Kinsey. J and I were to go on Monday, but at the last minute he had to go home instead to console his boyfriend who'd just been turned down for a promotion. I went by myself, with a five-dollar convenience store dinner (spring water, mozzarella cheese stick, Ritz crackers, and peanut m&ms) in my bag.
The theater was all but deserted; there were only three of us there for the 5:55 show. I settled in to enjoy myself, and I wasn't disappointed.
The previews were quite good, though the only film advertised that I'm seriously interested in seeing is A Very Long Engagement with Audrey Tatou in the leading role and I think the director of Amelie directing. Just the preview for Hotel Rwanda made me a blubby mess, so I think I'll have to miss that.
Many have said it, but I won't let this stop me from saying it myself - Liam Neeson is freaking brilliant in this film.
I don't know that it's exactly a better performance than he gave in Schindler's List, because the roles are so different that it's hard to compare them, but it's certainly as good. It's a showier role than Schindler - Kinsey, in the film, is the sort of man who might in real life be called A Character, with his social and physical awkwardness, his intellectual obsessions, his total impatience and, often, total absence of tact. Showier, but not too showy - Kinsey's not on the autism spectrum (though if he were active on internet message boards today he, or someone else, might cry Asperger's.) Neeson has to strike a balance, to make Kinsey sympethetic enough to hold the audience without disguising the traits that encouraged people to shy away from him, and he does that without letting you catch him acting. He's especially brilliant in the scenes showing his budding attraction first to his future wife Clara "Mac" McMillen and later to Clyde, Peter Saarsgard's character. The first kiss between Prok and Mac is delightful. He presents her with a pair of hiking shoes, and she slips her hands into them and playfully stomps them on his chest, saying "you! oh.. you!" in a shy sort of squeal. He clasps his hands over the shoes, pauses, and then awkwardly leans in and down to kiss her. It's clumsy and sweet and heartfelt.
I'm sure that many, many, many electrons have been spent on the Prok/Clyde (Neeson/Saarsgard) kiss, so I'll just say Yowza! and move along. I really liked the sweetness of Clyde's overture, and the contrast between that sweetness and the more challenging, aggressive statement of his nudity before hand and the ferocity of Prok's response afterward.
I couldn't help giggling at Prok trying so hard to be cool when Clyde propositions Mac, and then while they're going at it upstairs. It also shows, however, how he's learned from his own research. When he proposed and Mac asked for time to think about it, he stormed off in fury, but years later, though it pains him, he can control himself.
Since the film is Based On A True Story, I can't take John Lithgow (as Rev. Kinsey, Alfred's fire 'n brimstone preacher papa) out with a retread of my usual diatribe against anticlericalism in fiction. J and I agree that the character was two-dimensional; he puts the primary fault on the writing, which I agree was weak, while I put equal blame on the acting. It is true that it's the story that gives us the credibility-straining showdown in the general store and the even more difficult Kinsey-takes-his-father's-sex-history scene. Would a character who opens the film with a fervid condemnation of the immoral possibilities of the zipper ever consent even to sit down to such an interview?
All in all, though, an interesting story well told and, for the most part, brilliantly performed. I recommend it, but not as a first-date movie. Or a family outing. Unless your family is very different from mine.
[insert obligatory precioussss joke]
Ahem. Right. Moving on.
Last Tuesday evening I finally got out to see Kinsey. J and I were to go on Monday, but at the last minute he had to go home instead to console his boyfriend who'd just been turned down for a promotion. I went by myself, with a five-dollar convenience store dinner (spring water, mozzarella cheese stick, Ritz crackers, and peanut m&ms) in my bag.
The theater was all but deserted; there were only three of us there for the 5:55 show. I settled in to enjoy myself, and I wasn't disappointed.
The previews were quite good, though the only film advertised that I'm seriously interested in seeing is A Very Long Engagement with Audrey Tatou in the leading role and I think the director of Amelie directing. Just the preview for Hotel Rwanda made me a blubby mess, so I think I'll have to miss that.
Many have said it, but I won't let this stop me from saying it myself - Liam Neeson is freaking brilliant in this film.
I don't know that it's exactly a better performance than he gave in Schindler's List, because the roles are so different that it's hard to compare them, but it's certainly as good. It's a showier role than Schindler - Kinsey, in the film, is the sort of man who might in real life be called A Character, with his social and physical awkwardness, his intellectual obsessions, his total impatience and, often, total absence of tact. Showier, but not too showy - Kinsey's not on the autism spectrum (though if he were active on internet message boards today he, or someone else, might cry Asperger's.) Neeson has to strike a balance, to make Kinsey sympethetic enough to hold the audience without disguising the traits that encouraged people to shy away from him, and he does that without letting you catch him acting. He's especially brilliant in the scenes showing his budding attraction first to his future wife Clara "Mac" McMillen and later to Clyde, Peter Saarsgard's character. The first kiss between Prok and Mac is delightful. He presents her with a pair of hiking shoes, and she slips her hands into them and playfully stomps them on his chest, saying "you! oh.. you!" in a shy sort of squeal. He clasps his hands over the shoes, pauses, and then awkwardly leans in and down to kiss her. It's clumsy and sweet and heartfelt.
I'm sure that many, many, many electrons have been spent on the Prok/Clyde (Neeson/Saarsgard) kiss, so I'll just say Yowza! and move along. I really liked the sweetness of Clyde's overture, and the contrast between that sweetness and the more challenging, aggressive statement of his nudity before hand and the ferocity of Prok's response afterward.
I couldn't help giggling at Prok trying so hard to be cool when Clyde propositions Mac, and then while they're going at it upstairs. It also shows, however, how he's learned from his own research. When he proposed and Mac asked for time to think about it, he stormed off in fury, but years later, though it pains him, he can control himself.
Since the film is Based On A True Story, I can't take John Lithgow (as Rev. Kinsey, Alfred's fire 'n brimstone preacher papa) out with a retread of my usual diatribe against anticlericalism in fiction. J and I agree that the character was two-dimensional; he puts the primary fault on the writing, which I agree was weak, while I put equal blame on the acting. It is true that it's the story that gives us the credibility-straining showdown in the general store and the even more difficult Kinsey-takes-his-father's-sex-history scene. Would a character who opens the film with a fervid condemnation of the immoral possibilities of the zipper ever consent even to sit down to such an interview?
All in all, though, an interesting story well told and, for the most part, brilliantly performed. I recommend it, but not as a first-date movie. Or a family outing. Unless your family is very different from mine.
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