Hey folks, Harry here with a look at GOODBYE, HELLO starring Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon, Holly Hunter and Jake Gyllenhall. From the sound of it, this sounds like a damn fine movie. We'll have to see what others think, including yourself... This was a rough print and seems to have played quite well... Here ya go...
Hey Harry,
I am a UVA student and was at the Virginia film festival this weekend and I got to see the sneak preview of this years festival which was Brad Siberlings Goodbye, Hello. Now I know this guy made Casper and City of Angels, but I had to give him the benefit of the doubt (City of Angels had some watchable moments). I haven't been following this movie before but here are my thoughts anyway.
I have mixed feelings about Goodbye, Hello, but overall I think its a pretty good movie. I certainly dont feel cheated out of my six bucks, which is a good start considering some movies today.
Ill start with a basic plot summary. The movie begins with the funeral for Ben (Dustin Hoffman) and Josephines (Susan Sarandon) daughter, Diane. Joe Nast (Jake Gyllenhall from Donnie Darko) is Dianes fiancee who is living with Dianes parents because they were planning to get married shortly after the day she was shot in a restaurant by a guy who was intending to shoot his wife who was a waitress. Holly Hunter is the DA who is trying to help the family nail the murderer. The rest of the movie is about the aftermath of Dianes death which includes Joe and Ben trying to work together in commercial real estate and more importantly Joe falling for a postal employee and waitress named Burty who is also unable to let go of her missing boyfriend Cal who owns the bar she works at.
The acting is good by and large here. Most of the good acting is done by Susan Sarandon and Jake Gyllenhall. Susan Sarandon really conveys the right combination of vexation, sadness, and concern for her daughter. She really expresses a full range of emotion. One great moment where she expresses the illogical quality of grief by saying that she is mad when people dont call to check on Ben and her and she is mad when they do call. Its in these moments when there is no easy answer to dealing with death where the movie has its quality moments. Sarandons reactions to post funeral visits are very good.Dustin Hoffman did a decent job in the first half of the movie and had some really good emotional moments in the second half. The problem with Dustins acting is that facial expression and dialogue didnt seem to match. He would say the most saddening things and yet be wearing almost a smile on his face. Maybe his quirky expression is supposed to convey some turmoil underneath, but I didnt feel it. Jake Gyllenhall did a great job of looking confused. His face showed that he didnt know how to feel, and when he finally lets it all out either in private or towards the end of the movie in public, it has a strong impact. The actress playing Burty was fine but nothing exceptional. I wasnt quite sure why Holly Hunter was there. She seemed sort of bitchy and tough, but otherwise her appearance in the movie and the whole trial seemed not entirely necessary.
The whole feel of the movie is quirky in both good and bad ways. The strange reactions of the family in grief are sometimes funny or emotionally effective, but on some occasions they seem out of place and fall flat as a result. Hopefully editing will fix some of that. The movie has some funny moments and a lot of solid drama. I like it in its similarity to The Big Chill in dealing with death. Im not saying it is as good as The Big Chill, but it has that feel at times. The ending was cheesy. It just went on preaching too much. The filmmakers clearly want the audience to see that the characters have changed for the better through the truth, but they do this by showing each of the trappings of the characters previous lives stripped away in an effort to repeatedly beat the audience over the head with the movies message.
The director Brad Siberling and the producer Mark Johnson came out and answered questions after the movie. They mentioned a whole lot of stuff which I will mention in random order in this report. The movie has been in the works for 6 years. The cut we saw was a fairly rough cut (the temp soundtrack had bits of the Thin Red Line score on it) and there were minor brightness issues. They mentioned that they already were going to cut 8 minutes from the cut we were seeing including possible cutting of the dream sequence at the beginning where Joe is walking on water. This version with 8 minutes cut will be shown in California on Thursday. Apparently some of the script is from personal experience of losing a loved one, especially the dream sequences. Brad decided to make it set during the vietnam war largely because people during that time had trouble letting go of loved ones like some of the characters in the movie. It cost $20 million and actors and the crew had to take pay cuts on it. Audience reaction was decidedly favorable, though it may be due largely to the presence of the director. A lot of people seemed to like the dream sequences and some of the symbolism of the movie, particularly a psychiatrist in the audience. There was one woman in the back with a sort of artsy crowd who said (with a british accent) that the movie was a perfect movie full of pathos and that the director should not cull it any further. I wouldnt go that far, but it was pretty good. The audience particularly wanted the walking on water scene to stay. One guy complained that he thought Jake Gyllenhalls character was too passive and unemotional early in the movie. Ill be interested to hear other peoples thoughts on this movie.
Goku.
(p.s. I went to the writer's panel and Frank Pierson and Gregory Allen Howard (Ali, Remember the Titans) were both great)
