Monday, January 14, 2008
SHOW BUSINESS
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Films was
This is all bunk of course.
The willingness to suspend disbelief is challenged for most of the film.
And yet it did get a hold on me.
A lot of gay men didn't like the erasure of Shakespeare's homosexuality but oddly it is there right in front of us if we wish to see it.
Having him make love to Gyneth Paltrow as a Lady and then in a trousers part in the theater is surely a reference to sexual ambiguity. And the bisexuality of male/female parts all by males is constantly referred to.
I just make the point as I need an excuse not to have liked it for PC reasons or something.
There are a lot of jokes and a lot of in humor on the whole Shakespeare ethos.
It is nicely done with a lot of good actors who all chew the scenery and scene steal but do so with some degree of brotherly (and sisterly) regard.
Joseph Fiennes is fine as Will and that is good thing because his career never reached this height again.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5. It is good but not as good as it would like us to think it is.
Incidentally, I went back and gave Once a 4 out of Netflix5. It drifted out of my highest rating overnight somehow.
I think that it is thinner than it seems when you are engaged with it.
Not that there is anything wrong with that but distance tells me that I more wanted it to be a 5 than really experienced it that way. Quibbles.
Labels: best films
