Friday, May 04, 2007
FREARS BIOPIC
On with the Stephen Frears FilmFest.
Today we saw
This is the story of playwright Joe Orton and his partner Kenneth Halliwell.
It is grueling.
The film explores various levels of their relationship but none so deeply as the dilemma of a marriage where one succeeds, with the help of the other, and the other recedes.
Frears again shows people very much on the outside even when they are inside.
Gary Oldman who has Alec Guinness' ability to inhabit a role so completely is attractive, funny and often cruel as Orton.
Alfred Molina has actually the most difficult part, I think, as the partner Halliwell who is a misfit at many levels and whose only success is the vicarously experienced professional success of Orton.
None of this covers the experience of watching this film. It took me awhile to get up at the end.
You know what is going to happen but that has no bearing on the impact of the unfolding tragedy.
I will give this a 5 out of Netflix5.
Am I going to dislike any of the Frears films that we see?
Highly unlikely.
I have seen many of them before (not this one) and know that I am in the hands of a master crafter.
Incidentally, Orton's plays continue to be performed.
I saw LOOT in London in one of its later productions.
This last season, The Roundabout Theater in New York City revived Entertaining Mr. Sloane with Alex Baldwin.
It got very good reviews.
