Sunday, September 10, 2006
UPTIGHT
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
This is a Merchant-Ivory-Jhabvala project. Therefore, it is lush and beautiful and exquisitely accurate to the time; 1935-45.
One of the lush, beautiful and exquisite features of the film is the performance of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward as Mr. and Mrs.
These are real people of the time. The uptight upper middle class patriarch and his conforming inappropriate wife.
The kids rebel. Two out of three make it out of the orbit.
There is no plot as such. It is a series of vignettes which show the situation rather than tell it.
Some work better than others.
The trouble with these Merchant-Ivory things is that the actors are all caught in the amber of the scenery and set decoration and lighting and all that.
As a result they have to struggle to be seen in the midst of the visual richness.
Many of the people in this film succeed quite well because, I think, Newman and Woodward lead the way. Blythe Danner and Simon Callow stand out.
I liked it a lot but not enough to give it a 5. More like a 4 out of Netflix5.
One of the tough things about this movie is the absence of any sympathetic characters. It is exhausting to experience the arc of this repressed family.
At the same time, it is hard not to identify with some of it from one's own life.
These people are a generation and a half ahead of me. And in another class. And in Kansas City.
KC is a lot further to run away from. I only had a three hour bus ride and I was in NYC.
But some of the stuff is there. It is a bit chilling to see my mother in Ms. Bridge.
I made it out.
But, you can never really get completely away. Some part of it is always there.
That's OK. It is life.
I am still working with it.
