2005 Reviews
4/26/05
A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG is a langourous, Loosiana sorta tune. It takes its sweet old time to tell its tale but it do cotton up a mite to the viewer. John Travolta plays the Bobby Long part of the title, and Scarlett Johannson plays the Love Song part, which is a down home duet composed by her recently deceased mother to bring harmony into acouple of disparate lives. It's a pretty wordy film, with much dialogue lifted from, and quickly attributed to a Bartlett's full of literary lights and philosophers. It's also just a plain pretty picture with always something nice to look at, not the least of which is young Scarlett. She easily elevates her quiet poise into a commanding presence that becomes the premise of the story.
Travolta is also something of a revelation. He glides so easily into his alcoholically stupified, self-destrucive loser that he obliterates all the Vinnys and Tonys and Chilis that came before.
4/8/05
So--what is there left to say about CLOSER that hasn't already been said? How about everything. Okay, the good dialogue and acting have already been well commented upon. But when it comes to the story, the thing it is all about, nobody says nothing. Leastwise nothing pertinent. All the reviewers seem satisfied to masturbate on their keypads while watching the surface sexual quadrille, all the while ignoring the homosexual tango that CLOSER is.
C'mon folks! Dan seduces Larry in an Internet chat room saying his name is Anna and she wants to suck his cock. This exchange causes Larry to meet a real Anna at an aquarium and the sexual a quatre is on. Though I was enjoying the snappy repartee, solid acting and directing, I couldn't really relate to the behavior of the ensemble until it dawned on me that I was attending a closet quartette. Although Anna and Alice are less a part of the quartette than they are interactive accompaniment to the passionate tango being danced byLarry and Dan. Larry very macho and Dan very responsive to his partner's every move and mood. Fortunately, they never embrace their real desires or the movie would end prematurely, like Larry's masturbation scene.
I guess CLOSER is about a few other things that I don't get. Why the aquarium, referred to with such seem significance? But Larry being a dermatologist and Anna a portrait photographer seem to share some brotherhood of interest in surface appearances. So, a watchable film, but as coded as a Cole Porter love song.
A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG is a langourous, Loosiana sorta tune. It takes its sweet old time to tell its tale but it do cotton up a mite to the viewer. John Travolta plays the Bobby Long part of the title, and Scarlett Johannson plays the Love Song part, which is a down home duet composed by her recently deceased mother to bring harmony into acouple of disparate lives. It's a pretty wordy film, with much dialogue lifted from, and quickly attributed to a Bartlett's full of literary lights and philosophers. It's also just a plain pretty picture with always something nice to look at, not the least of which is young Scarlett. She easily elevates her quiet poise into a commanding presence that becomes the premise of the story.
Travolta is also something of a revelation. He glides so easily into his alcoholically stupified, self-destrucive loser that he obliterates all the Vinnys and Tonys and Chilis that came before.
4/8/05
So--what is there left to say about CLOSER that hasn't already been said? How about everything. Okay, the good dialogue and acting have already been well commented upon. But when it comes to the story, the thing it is all about, nobody says nothing. Leastwise nothing pertinent. All the reviewers seem satisfied to masturbate on their keypads while watching the surface sexual quadrille, all the while ignoring the homosexual tango that CLOSER is.
C'mon folks! Dan seduces Larry in an Internet chat room saying his name is Anna and she wants to suck his cock. This exchange causes Larry to meet a real Anna at an aquarium and the sexual a quatre is on. Though I was enjoying the snappy repartee, solid acting and directing, I couldn't really relate to the behavior of the ensemble until it dawned on me that I was attending a closet quartette. Although Anna and Alice are less a part of the quartette than they are interactive accompaniment to the passionate tango being danced byLarry and Dan. Larry very macho and Dan very responsive to his partner's every move and mood. Fortunately, they never embrace their real desires or the movie would end prematurely, like Larry's masturbation scene.
I guess CLOSER is about a few other things that I don't get. Why the aquarium, referred to with such seem significance? But Larry being a dermatologist and Anna a portrait photographer seem to share some brotherhood of interest in surface appearances. So, a watchable film, but as coded as a Cole Porter love song.
posted by BJMe at 11:25 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home