Hey folks, Harry here with a look at the long unreleased O... a film with Columbine.... San Diego... Kids in School shooting Kids in School issues... So due to a cowardice that spreads further every day due to a Societal Gestapo that governs that which we are allowed to see and hear... Sigh... Well were they doing us a favor this time? Let's read and see....
Hey Harry-
I saw the World Premiere of Tim Blake Nelson's "O" at the Seattle Film Festival the other night. Here are my thoughts:
Let me actually start by saying that I am fairly familiar with Shakespeare's "Othello," on which "O" is based. "O" puts the story in an all-white southern prep school; O is the one black student in the school and a star basketball player dating the daughter of the dean (instead of the one moor in the Italian court). The Iago character is Hugo, played by Josh Hartnett, the son of the basketball coach (a scenery-chewing Martin Sheen). Plotwise, the movie totally works -- Hugo's manipulations are fairly complex, and the movie manages to pull them all off in a very satisfying way. The ending works especially well. It's not at all like "10 Things I Hate About You," which started with the premise of "Taming of the Shrew" and then went its own way for the ending. "O" follows Shakespeare's plot closely, and makes it work in a modern setting with modern dialogue.
The problem is the first half of the movie. It's always dangerous to have the main character be despicable -- it's hard for the audience to find a way in to the story without a sympathetic main character. Hugo is the one moving the plot along, but O is the guy we're rooting for. We can't see the movie through O's eyes, however, because we always know more than he does -- we know that Hugo is lying to him in order to wreck his relationship with Julia Stiles' Dez. And the movie shies away from Hugo -- he doesn't have all that much screen time right off the bat. So the audience is left without a real sense of whose eyes we're seeing the story through, which makes everything that happens seem distant and therefore less significant. We don't get caught up in it until the final act. My suspicion is that the only way to solve that problem would have been to let us get much closer to Hugo, even though he's a bastard. To really let us inside the workings of his fucked-up mind (the way Shakespeare did with Iago by having him talk to the audience directly). "O" makes some stabs at this, but doesn't really commit until too much time has gone by.
Still, the ending is great. Most movies fall to pieces in the last act; this one comes together. Which is nice to see.
It also doesn't help that a lot of the dialogue is pretty lame. There were a few unintended laughs at big dramatic moments. Josh Hartnett mumbles all his lines (as always), and the sound system at the Egyptian in Seattle wasn't good enough to overcome that. Much of the acting is pretty good, though, if a little overly precious. Mekhi Phifer does great with the big dramatic moments (especially one scene in which he loses it at a slam-dunk contest), but seems a little awkward with some of the love scenes with Julia Stiles.
Tim Blake Nelson and Brad Kaaya (the screenwriter) answered some questions after the showing. TBN joked about how long it took to get released and told the story about how it was filmed in 98 (before Stiles and Hartnett were big stars), and then kept getting delayed by Miramax after Columbine, until finally Lion's Gate picked it up. He also said that the actors rehearsed for two weeks, during which they actually worked on Shakespeare's play, which seemed pretty cool to me. Then during filming he shot most of the dramatic scenes with a minimal crew on the set, in order to maximize the sense of intimacy.
All in all, I'd say "O" is a very interesting movie with a fantastic payoff, but ultimately isn't something that's going to really blow people away. Even though the plot starts in right away, it takes a long time for the movie to get us really deeply involved.
So there ya go.
Lorrimer.
Hey folks, Harry here... here's another look....
I just got back from the world premier of Tim Blake Nelson's version of
Shakespeare's Othello. Just to get this off my chest I've never read the original and all I knew about it going in was that pretty much everyone would be dead by the end and it would all have something to do with a scarf. Another teen flick based on Shakespeare doesn't sound like it would have much potential, but ala this site I heard that there would be no sugar coating and man, 10 things I hate about you this ain't. It's easy to see why Miramax was hesitant to release the thing.
It opens at an elite private school in the south. Odin, the only black student in the entire school, scores the game winning 2 points just as the buzzer rings. Then we see Hugo, who isn't about to lift Odin up on his shoulders with the rest of the team. He stares at him coldly-quick cut to a hawk(the team's mascot).
Hugo is the son of the coach, played pretty well by Martin Sheen. Well, after Odin is unanimously named team mvp and some more hawk imagery it's clear to see Hugo is extremely jealous.
Hugo manipulates a friend Rodger, who's got a thing for Desi Odin's girlfriend and the daughter of the school's dean, into helping him try and break the couple up. It doesn't work at first, and it's a good thing Hugo remains more of a silent partner because Rodge gets his ass kicked a couple of times.
When Hugo's manipulation of Desi and her father falls flat, he dusts himself off and tries again this time trying to convince Odin that Desi is having an affair with one of Odin's best friends. Ofcourse he does it so slyly that Odin believes Hugo is the only person he can trust.
Then, I guess this won't be news to anyone who has read the play, things get real ugly. Hugo gets a hold of a scarf that Odin gave to Desi and uses it as proof positive she is cheating and then, after a scarily easy pawn shop purchase, gets a gun and convinces Odin to get in on a pretty nasty plan, which later goes terribly wrong.
The whole murderous plot would be pretty unbelievable if everything wasn't handled so seriously. Anyone going for the draw of teeny boppish acts like Julia Stiles and Josh Hartnett are going to be in for a surprise. They both, along with Mekhi Phiffer, turn in powerful performances and the filmaker does a good job of keeping things tense even before they get into some life and death (mostly death) situations.
Anyone avoiding this movie like the plague because of such teeny boppish acts as Julia Stiles and Josh Hartnett thinking this might be a sugar coated, everyone sings along to motown song film are in for a surprise as well. Besides the violence, a sex scene between Desi and Odin leads to a pretty graphic and wrenching conclusion that leaves Desi wondering if she has been raped.
O is a powerful film and by the way, thankfully, they don't speak in the Shakespearean dialogue.
If you use this call me B.O.B.
