bawk

just got home from TWBB, and i have to say: mind not blown. i think my expectations might have been too high. i kept comparing it to No Country for Old Men, which is not necessarily fair, but the movies are similar in several ways: they’re both set against a bleak and expansive landscape; there is one person who feels he must achieve his goals at whatever expense necessary; there are characters that represent a more conscientious moral compass and they are cast aside or destroyed in the course of the story…

i felt much the way i did after “brokeback mountain.” i left feeling as though i’d been shown a story rather than told one. that i’d been kept at arm’s length rather than actual pulled in. i want to lose myself in a movie and this one? just didn’t grab me.

don’t get me wrong; there were definite moments of brilliance, both in the film and in DDL’s performance: the haunting and beautiful moment when the derrick catches fire and daniel and fletcher are shown silhouetted against the glow, celebrating their good fortune (while daniel’s son lay injured in the mess hall); the rare glimpse into daniel the man (as opposed to daniel the oil man) when he’s with henry and when he leaves HW on the train. the first 25 minutes (up to his first trip with HW on the train) were genius. the oil bubbling up from the ground looked so much like blood it was terrfiying.

really, it was DDL’s manner of speaking that first threw me. it was like in “mighty aphrodite” when mira sorvino spoke the first time. I thought it was affected and way too theatrical; i kept waiting for him to speak in his real voice, as opposed to his “oil man” voice. but he just kept it up.

i’m sure DDL will win the oscar (if johnny doesn’t win it, which he should, because his performance was so much better), because the academy loves those bigger-than-life performances that are more about sweeping gestures than they are about subtlety (see “swank, hilary”; “pacino, al”; and “crowe, russell”). but here’s the weird thing: johnny depp in sweeney todd? even with the cartoonish sets and singing, was more believable as his character. his performance was so much more nuanced and understated than DDL was. and i get it, he was supposed to be bigger than life–he was an oil man! he was competitive! nobody could be more successful!! but there didn’t seem to be anything behind it. WHY was he so competitive? who was HW’s father to him? his partner? i get it, he’s monomaniacal, but so was johnny depp in sweeney todd and javier bardem in no country and they still managed to draw you in. ddl painted a picture, the others told a story. (and yes, you don’t learn about anton shigurh, but it’s also made clear that he is a sociopath and that it’s not personal with him.)

the other big comparison with NCFOM was that in that movie? there’s not a second wasted. every shot in every scene serves a purpose. in this one, there’s so much self-indulgent extraneous footage. it’s like he had more money to play with and got all swept up in the landscape and then realized at the end that he had to tie everything up. what the hell with paul? and what was HW doing before he decided to move to mexico? it was ll so grand and then in the last 20 minutes he crammed in the best part of the story (just like american gangster! yes, we GET it. he’s DRIVEN and COMPETITIVE. it’s a HARD LIFE. now get to the interesting story, about the PEOPLE).

also? HATED the score. HATED HATED HATED it. it was so jarring and didn’t set any sort of mood. half the time itwas all dissonance, like a hitchcock score, and the other half it was sweeping john williams-esque music. and neither style seemed related to what was happenig onscreen.

(NCFOM’s score is so subtle, and so well done, that you leave thinking that there wasn’t one. that’s how engrossing it is.)

i found myself shifting in my seat, wondering when it was going to be over. and then it was all of a sudden and i was deeply unsatisfied.

and there was indeed blood. but not nearly enough to justify the title.

my verdict: it’s a rental. go see no country for old men or juno instead.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 at 1:29 am and is filed under pop culture. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your site.