Hey folks, Harry here... This film recently pulled out of the Venice Film Festival, for apparently not being ready for screening... Tis a shame, would have been a nice place to publicly unveil, personally I think they were just terrified of screening the film there knowing that Rav was going to Venice. He's a viscious evil man. However, the ol In-n-Out snuck into a testing of the film at The Grove in LA recently... so here ya go...
Hey Harry,
The other night I was fortunate enough to catch a test screening at the (beautiful) theaters at The Grove in LA. Based on Michael Cunningham's book, the film (directed by Stephen Daldry) revolves around the stories of three women in different times, and who all have ties to Mrs. Dalloway by V.Woolf.
There is a lot to this movie, so I am going to try to keep this short, and let someone at AICN write one of those LOOOONNNGGGG reviews that you are all SOOO good at. First off, though, I feel that it is time that I do my part to expel the stigma of the "chick flick". No doubt most people who even take time to read this site agree with me, but it must be said that this movie can easily be (unfairly) written off as a woman's film. Although, it most certainly is that. More importantly, however, this film is a terrific example of one artist using his work to respond to and appreciate another's.
The three women which the story revolves around are Meryl Streep as a book editor in modern day NY, Julianne Moore as a (wonderful) variation on her stiffled wife routine in 50's LA, and an every award imaginable worthy performance by Nicole Kidman as the troubled Woolf herself. Here Kidman is as real as any great "bio" performance (she even detracts attention from her unfortunately colored prosthetic nose).
For me the biggest star of the film was Peter Boyle, whose editing and pace beautifully maintained each story's significance, while effortlessly tying them together, making them inseparable. Each story, too, is laid out across the screen so differently that they may as well have been directed by different people. Stephen Daldry makes excellent use of the visuals allowed by the respective time periods to create worlds that seem completely separate, and which are then edited together seamlessly.
I don't want to speak too specifically about the relationships in this movie (of which there are many), b/c almost all of them are turned on end by the close of the film, which is one of the main things that made the writing of the characters so great.
The film isn't perfect (most people at the screening thought it to be too long and overly dramatic, whatever that means) and I am sure that the print I saw will be slightly altered by the time it hits theaters. Go see it though, and try to ignore some of the over used Philip Glass score, and focus mainly on Moore and Kidman - they alone are worth it.
Hope you dig,
In'n'Out
