El Cosmico here, fully recovered from Butt-Numb-A-Thon, having had a satisfying dinner of Shrimp and Mayonnaise, and another of Crispy Chicken, at Pao's Mandarin House, with scallion cakes, crab puffs, fried tofu, and, of course, a goodly lot of tea. Like you give a damn.
Anyway, it seems that two weeks ago, I saw THIRTEEN DAYS. Before that, I ate Chick-Fil-A nuggets and a Frosty from Wendy's. Yum. Anyway, it's a Kevin Costner flick, so I was thinking...oh, fuck. But, it was on campus, which meant nubile girlies all around. Good stuff. Chatting with King Beef beforehand, I asked..."I dunno, it's the Costner, after all. What about that?" Response: "Oh, don't worry, he's not the main character."
Well, I call shenanigans on that one. Like hell he's not. He's in more scenes than anyone else and has the most lines. Maybe I missed the definition of "main character" at orientation or something. So, We have Kevin Costner in a Kennedy flick, busting out his skill with accents. Damn.
Apparently, this is necessary because his character is from Boston. Now, I've never been to Villa Frijole, but I imagine it couldn't have been ABSOLUTELY COMPLETELY ESSENTIAL that our man Kevin be asked to attempt a Boston accent. I shit you not, the guy sounds like Elmer Fudd. I wish I was exaggerating. The Beef said that it was okay, because "That's a Boston accent, and he's from Boston, like the Kennedys, so it's necessary."
I KNOW you mofos up in Boston don't sound like that. You couldn't possibly. Not THAT incredibly ridiculous. There would be headlines or film at eleven or something if you did. Every day. No matter the reason, it's distracting as hell, poorly done, and lasts throughout the entire film. Just a stupid choice. No need for it. You want to say he's from Boston? Just say it. Or don't. It doesn't really matter. Costner's character talks about how long he's known the Kennedys, that's all we need to know. Damn, what a disaster. Oh, and another thing, the Kennedys don't have the accent, so why does our man Kevin?
Okay, you get the point. Moving along....this flick absolutely sucked during the first half hour or so, and I thought things were going to get worse. Well, they got better. In fact, they got a lot better. The story began to pick up, performances improved, and by the end of the film, I thought: "Hey, that was actually pretty good." And, it was.
The two actors who played the Kennedys did a decent job...Bruce Greenwood as Jack and Steven Culp as Bobby. I was a little ambivalent about their performances, though, because while they definitely LOOKED enough like the Kennedys, I didn't think they projected quite enough screen presence, and I would have liked to see something of a more powerful portrayal. In any case, I still think they both did a very good job, and delivered memorable performances... and this is coming from a guy who doesn't think much of the Kennedys, to put it nicely. I consider myself a classical liberal (not the modern, twisted liberalism, thank you very much), and I don't buy the hype about Kennedy's heroism. I happen to think it was his weak leadership that got us into the missile crisis mess in the first place. But, enough about that.
David Self's script is the real star of this film. The score is fairly unnoticeable, but the writing is a feat of impressive skill, taking us deftly through the twists and turns of the crisis, and overcoming even Kevin Costner. (Note to Kevin, I know you're a nice guy, and your love of film is obvious, but please just don't try any more accents. I think it would have been quite a good performance otherwise.) There was also some great cinematography, during action sequences, with flyovers of Cuba, and the last U2 flight of the film, which I thought was a very powerful scene. There were quite a few scenes that got to me. After the first half hour, of course. I'm still not sure what happened there, but there's so much about the universe we'll never know.
In the end, then, I think this was a worthwhile endeavor. To be sure, there was room for improvement, but I thought it gave a fine sense of the forces at work, and the decision making process, and I know that it's usually too much to hope that a good script is done total justice on the screen. So, if the subject matter interest you, go check it out. It'll probably be one of the best two to four films showing at release time. Unless you have a good arthouse.
