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february 19 - closer, 3:45pm, lido theatre, siam, bangkok ***(.5)
now i got more:
and who doesn't want to be desired is what i am asking you sir or madam. the fact of the matter is, people are fucked up. not on purpose, maaaybe. it's just in our collective inability to improvise, or the complete skill at the art of situational improvisation; the quandary of humanity.
you talk about honesty, truth in love, in life, in sex, and you come up with a small collection of memorable moments when you yourself was true. the one thing which was affecting the most, was the salient dialogue. this has two problems as a film, for me:
a) you have a situation where people who are "in the know" already have judged the movie-version of this play. the characters can be deconstructed and put together, and the very nature of the delivery is liable to come off as a play on film. not that this is a bad thing, but people have a tendency to hold their expectations to high in all things, then come away disappointed without ever letting themselves really experience something.
b) it's not julia roberts. everyone is pooing on julia roberts because she's julia roberts, but if you think that, then why not write off keanu reeves post-bill n' ted, or every other actor who seems the same in every performance? i don't think she was horrid, just miscast. think about if cate blanchette wasn't expecting at the time, and how she would have done in the role of anna. it would've been different for sure. then would you possibly be satisfied? think about it.
you're not thinking. that's okay.
these people are vile and disgusting and dirty and sickening and faulty and tender at odd times and loving and evil and honest and sinful and all of the great things that make up characters. this is what they talk about when they say "hey, them people's is saying what i be thinking." and it's true. they're not honest to a fault; they are the fault, and no amount of their unabashed honesty saves them from being anything but human. yay us!
and yes, anyone that knows me, knows that i dig natalie portman. i don't care if you do to, or don't. or you're the person who wants to make the brash claim that you were the "first one to like her, uh uhhh, no, me i was." i don't care about that too. everyone that is not going out with her feels exactly the same way. but she does come full circle in this piece. she's not amazingly astounding (except that she is), it's that it's nice to see her finally come out and fucking just play. just do it. go. go for it.
risk and hurt and explore, and all of the things actors claim to want to do through the course of their careers. if you're mad at her for her choices or her acting career path or her notoriety, focus on your own issues. you can yell at me or punch me in the arm if it'll make you feel any better. it's not only about what you see and opinionate, it's how you use those experiences to work on your own gig. so get to it.
side note: okay, being male and natalie portman prone, of course i'm going to say the scenes with he at the strip club were beautiful. what else can i say other than i was wide-eyed, captivated, stutterstuck and cotton-mouthed. it's me. what am i going to say here? "i believe that the use of certain articles of clothing in a specific series of cinematic montages were explicitly artistic and suited the characterization as well as fell into the lines of the story, thus negating the apparent 'male-gaze' and decreasing the vulgarity of the patriarchal society that the world over inhabits." i don't have time to say some shit like that. i like her, i liked the fact that she wore a thong, played a teasing stripper with a heart of gold (or fool's gold), and did the splits expertly. can i not be honest also? sue me.
now, what i thought was really brilliant otherwise, was the use of "Cosi Fan Tutte" in the scene with the opera hall. for anyone who doubted the me ushering all of those times at the SF opera house, here's where such knowledge pays off. the opera, written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, deals with swapping of two couples. see? now that's the sort of direct subtlety that garners some mad respect for those who give a shiv. and i do.
so be prepared to hate these people; these characters. these constructs of a number of people you have known or met or have slept with or have hated, loved, kissed, longed for, desired, or kicked to the fucking curb. there are so many moments that i have heard people talk about; those moments that they hate, or can see through, or aren't fully believable (ie - julia roberts wouldn't of come hither just like that onto jude law, man! that was some ole bullshit. even though it's the story and nothing i say would/could change that, it still wouldn't of happened. but that it did, i can surmise that this is what happened. oh no).
even after all of that which went on and through, i didn't leave the theatre mad that julia roberts was in it. i left with a sort of unique nauseousness that feels great when you've seen some real messeded up shit that people do to other people and themselves. you can begin to see that it's not far off from the "real life" that it so attempts to recreate for our viewing pleasure.
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