Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
This one looks like a 20-something FATAL ATTRACTION/SINGLE WHITE FEMALE clone in the trailer I’ve seen, but I understand it’s based on a solid French thriller, so I’m still curious. Let’s see what this reader thought when he walked in cold:
Last night my girlfriend and I went to an advance screening of the new Josh Hartnett movie Wicker Park at the awesome Arclight theater in Hollywood.
When I was invited to this screening, I was pretty excited, because I had seen the trailer for this movie a few times and was really anticipating it. It looked like an exciting movie where we learn how confusing females are by following the footsteps of fancy pants chick-magnet Josh Hartnett. Obviously, myself being a fancy pants chick-magnet, I would be able to relate very well, and therefor was very excited for this movie.
The line outside was ridiculous, and we had to wait for what seemed like forever to get in. I was starting to get discouraged and started making alternative plans for the night, in my head. Eventually, though, we made it to the front of the line, and got in and found seats, as i heard over one of the employees' walky-talky "we only have 15 more seats left". So i guess we just barely made it in. After all that trouble, though, I was feeling a lot less enthusiastic about the movie.
Before I start, let me just say that I understand this is a remake of another foreign movie, I think French. I haven't seen it.
The movie was a surprise. It takes so many turns and different directions that I never saw coming, which I liked. It got to be a bit much, after a while, though. The beginning of the movie is really the beginning of the movie, there is no real introduction to characters or anything, the story just starts right from the beginning, and we were already making leaps in time, forwards and backwards, within the first ten minutes. The first half hour of the movie was a bit trying, as there's a lot of storytelling through the present and past, back and forth, interweaved within eachother. This got confusing, since through a lot of the beginning I still didn't feel like I knew any of the characters, which made it difficult to stay focused on what was going on. Not to mention that for the first half hour or so, Josh Hartnett's character seemed to be acting super super stalker-y, which made me question if he was actually supposed to be the protagonist. He was breaking and entering, sniffing a pillowcase, and chasing women through lobbies, so it was somewhat creepy. After a while, though, the movie picked up and I was sucked in.
To tell the story in detail would be ruining the experience totally, so I will just give this basic outline. Josh Hartnett's character, Matthew, is an advertising guy finalizing a deal with some people in China, and he's getting ready to leave to China to see the people there and have a meeting with them. He's also in a debate with himself, about whether or not he really wants to marry the girl that he is with, even after going and looking at wedding rings. At the dinner table with some of the Chinese business people (still in America, just before his flight), he is feeling uptight about his girlfriend, who is also somehow involved in his work, as she is his boss's sister. He flips out and runs off to "use the phone", and goes to the bathroom to stare at himself in the mirror, when he hears, from the phone booth next to the bathroom, the voice of a girl that he used to obsess over, spy on, and follow around, and later date, have sex with, and get in a serious relationship with. She disappeared from his life after an important moment, and he had been crushed about it ever since.
He realizes it's her voice, and goes chasing after her, but she is running out of the place at lightning speed, and he's unable to continue pursuit as she runs right past Matthew's business-dinner people, so he curses the moment and hides. Then, he goes back to the phone booth, and finds some items of the woman's, and then starts an investigation, ditches the China plan, and does some creepy detective work, stalking around trying to find the woman again. A few strange exploits later, he ends up at her apartment, and enters on his own. Everything appears to be right, it appears to be the apartment of the girl he still remembers, but when the girl arrives home, it's a different girl, with the same name.
From there, the story twists, turns, and loops around on itself a few times, and it is all awesome and believable. There are lies, deception, and false identities, and yet it all manages to be completely believable. That's one of my favorite things about the movie.. it's all pretty believable. Something might come up that will make you say, "what the hell? why?!" and then a few minutes later, the "why?!" gets explained expertly, and you're like, "oh.. damn..".
The actors and actresses were all excellent. There were no weak links. Josh Hartnett was good; his character was a smart guy with confusing emotions, and was easy to relate to. I even liked Matthew Lillard and his character, as did the rest of the audience. He's the one character in the movie that serves as the "i don't know shit about what's goin on, but hey man, how ya doin, let's hang out!" buddy, and he played it well, and got lots of laughs.
But don't worry, the movie's not a comedy. Although I was under the impression it'd be a heart-pounding thriller, it was not. It's more of a mystery love story. It was really well done. It is really smart, and at times you see something happen, or something that had happened, and then you realize, "Ohhhhh, so THAT's why THAT was like THAT!!" and you feel cool then. I liked the movie, as did the rest of the audience. It's highly recommended from me.
Sorry that was so long, you can clip it if you like. If you use it, i am llephen. Thanks!!
Awesome? Excellent? Matthew Lillard? I’m really curious to see if this is a big load of chlorophyll, or if there’s really something going on with this movie that the trailers just can’t convey. Either way, we’ll know soon enough...
"Moriarty" out.
