Book club. Rather meh. I miss days when Hollywood produces films like Meet the Parents, or even ay Nora Ephron types. Acting was fine in this film, with the likes of Jane Fonda and Diane Keaton, but the lines were just too predictable.
^^^ It was a sign of the time… Leonardo and Claire were the biggest things at the time: Him being Titanic, and she was poised to take over the reign of Winona as the new indie thinking guy’s dreamgirl. Truth was, neither of them were and are good actors— decent at best, but that’s the Hollywood hype machine, and they were The Chosen Ones at the time. I was in grade 9 at the time, and the English department made it a prerequisite to study the film. Everyone likely hated it— and the two actors. I remember skipping it since it was an embarrassment to have to go see it with the class. And I preferred the Zeffirelli version which I told my English teacher, and she was so impressed she excused me for skipping it. I did see this Baz version later, and it was expectedly intolerable-- except for John Leguizamo, who I always had a weird crush on: He’s so odd looking but so damn sexy. And impossibly funny. Lethal combination.
The YSL movie w/ Gaspard Ulliel. As much as I wanted to like this movie, so much of it just seemed too drawn-out for me. I'll stick with the other one instead.
I really didn't get it. Awful performances throughout with the exception of the nurse and the priest, the dialogue doesn't make much sense due to the change in setting and the tone is so inconsistent: at moments it resembles a Nickelodeon film, at times it's closer to a soap opera. I haven't watched the Zeffirelli version but it's got to be better than this mess.