edited by Jonathan Doyle

Mafioso (The Criterion Collection, 3.18.2008) Nino Badalamenti is a supervisor in a car manufacturing plant who hasn't taken a vacation in over two years. On his way out the door to visit his beloved childhood hometown of Sicily -- with his blonde wife and daughters -- Nino is handed a package by his boss and asked to deliver it to a powerful and influential Sicilian gangster named Don Vincenzo. Once in Sicily, Nino has a hoot seeing friends and family, but his wife has trouble fitting in and is unfairly dismissed as a snob by Nino's family. Even more worrisome, Nino finds himself entangled in an intricate web of secret mafioso dealings and is eventually sent on an unexpectedly... elaborate errand. (continued)

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Boy A

Hartnett and "Mozart and the Whale"

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Agreed -- Josh Hartnett gives an exceptional, above-average performance in Resurrecting The Champ (Yari Film Group, 8.24). He plays an ambitious sports writer...I don't want to get into this just yet. (Tomorrow, the next day...it's a good film and all in good time.) What I asked Hartnett about instead was an earlier performance -- the best he's ever given, if you ask me -- in a movie that very few people saw called Mozart and the Whale.

Resurrecting the Champ star Josh Hartnett in 12th floor suite in the Four Seasons hotel -- Monday, 7.30.07, 3:40 pm

I didn't actually see it myself. I saw a sweetened-up version that the producers recut, which they called Crazy in Love in some markets. The real version by director Petter Naess has never been released, and I wanted to know if DVD viewers might one day get a chance to see it.

Here's how Hartnett explained the blow-by-blow. Here's the back-story of this film as it's been told to me, but Hartnett tells it better.

I saw the recut, slightly cheerier version of Mozart and the Whale at the 2006 Santa Barbara Film Festival, and here's my original review. I liked it even though it was "wrong" version, so I'm figuring the "right" version will be even better.

I called it "a Rain Man-type love story with a jumpy heart...jumpy as in child-like, energetic, anxious."

Hartnett played a character based on a real-life guy named Jerry Newport who's afflicted with with Asperger's Syndrome, which is a highly functional form of autism.

"A romanticized, tidied-up version of a complicated real-life love story, Mozart and the Whale is about a youngish couple (Hartnett, Radha Mitchell) with Asperger's Syndrome," I wrote. "And this, viewing-wise, is nervy and provocative in more ways than one.

"It's not calming or swoony like other love stories because the lovers are always in a fairly hyper and unsettled state, which feels a bit challenging, but it seems real and fairly honest and is obviously on a wavelength all its own.
At first you're thinking it needs a regular-guy character (like Tom Cruise's selfish prick in Rainman) to provide stability and perspective, but then you get used to the manic energy of it."

Guider new HR editor<< previous | next >>Antonioni is dead

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 30, 2007 at 06:40 PM

comment #1

erniesouchak says ...

Sorry, Wells, I don't think I'll ever see this movie, because to me Hartnett is the most boring performer on earth, the male equivalent of Julia Stiles. Plus, "The Other Sister" is the best film in this vein.

Posted by erniesouchak at July 30, 2007 07:58 PM

comment #2

Undercover Brother says ...

Since when is a movie with Juliette Lewis and Giovanni Ribisi the best anything?

Posted by Undercover Brother at July 30, 2007 08:26 PM

comment #3

p.Vice says ...

Isn't the phrase "Josh Hartnett's best performance" kind of like "Joel Schumacher's best movie"?

I mean, what are your comparison points? Here on Earth? 40 Days and 40 Nights? Hollywood Homicide?

Posted by p.Vice at July 30, 2007 09:05 PM

comment #4

Mike Schaefer says ...

Take a look at the picture above -- Hartnett is just crying out to be cast as Tommy Lee Jones's son, no? Somebody come up with a script, pronto!

Posted by Mike Schaefer at July 30, 2007 09:15 PM

comment #5

lipranzer says ...

I liked Hartnett in HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE. He's best when poking fun at his looks, as he was in that movie and in THE VIRGIN SUICIDES. Give him a role where he's supposed to be soulful, however, and he's lost, as in THE BLACK DAHLIA. And he's not much better when he's supposed to be calculating, like in O.

Posted by lipranzer at July 30, 2007 09:16 PM

comment #6

jeffmcm says ...

Re: Resurrecting the Champ and "Agreed"...who are you agreeing with?

Posted by jeffmcm at July 30, 2007 09:52 PM

comment #7

MAGGA says ...

Petter Næss is the best Norwegian director. Simply because he is the only director to make more than one or two consistently high-quality movies, which I guess says more about our film bussiness, although his "Elling" was Oscar nominated for Best Foreign. But every director I know of who has left Norway and gone to America has returned after disputes about the cut of the movie, warning everyone about the artist-unfriendly system. Which leads me to believe, based on the results we get in our movies, that meddling from producers etc might sometimes be a good thing... But will give Næss the benefit of the doubt on the basis of how much I have enjoyed his films so far.

Posted by MAGGA at July 30, 2007 10:24 PM

comment #8

lazespud says ...

Wow --

Listening the interview with Hartnett is pretty enlightening. He seems smart, very down to earth, and really dedicated to his craft. Bravo on the interview Jeff... I definately think of him differently... makes me actually interested in seeing that film now. Never thought I'd say that about Hartnett...

Posted by lazespud at July 30, 2007 10:40 PM

comment #9

T. Holly says ...

I wouldn't go that far, Jeff's just a good interviewer.

Posted by T. Holly at July 31, 2007 12:00 AM

comment #10

BurmaShave says ...

Hartnett was chilling in O. It was the thing that made me sit up and take notice of him. I'm surprised he's never really broken through more. He tries to take chances but he hasn't really been given a lot to work with. He was awful in THE BLACK DAHLIA, but I don't think he knew what kind of movie he was in, which is something I blame on DePalma. Agreed on the Tommy Lee Jones thing. God help us let's hope it's not a MEN IN BLACK prequel.

Posted by BurmaShave at July 31, 2007 03:26 AM

comment #11

GLee2112 says ...

This might sound rather Wellsian but I've always been distracted by that huge cocoa puff on Hartnett's neck. Seriously, get that nasty mole removed.

Posted by GLee2112 at July 31, 2007 06:21 AM

comment #12

Breedlove says ...

This guy is the opposite of a movie star. He has the acting ability and the charisma of a can of soup. He should be an extra on 'One Tree Hill.' He somehow comes off as too old and too young at the same time. There's nothing young or sexy or energetic about him, it's like he's an old man, and yet when he attempts gravitas, it's laughable. What i'm trying to get across is, man, I wish I could get one millionth of the pussy he gets.

Posted by Breedlove at July 31, 2007 07:03 AM

comment #13

PhilContrino says ...

wow, two legends in row:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/31/arts/antonioni.1-106295.php

Posted by PhilContrino at July 31, 2007 07:24 AM

comment #14

breadlymoore says ...

Actally, Alan Alda is the best part of a very mediocre CHAMP (too much syrup, not enough heart), not Hartnett.

Hartnett needs an acting coach, should play roles more suited to his age, and should stop acting through his hair. That would be a great start.

Posted by breadlymoore at July 31, 2007 08:14 AM

comment #15

T. Holly says ...

The headline should be: "Josh Hartnet, very diplomatically, tells the producers of Mozart and the Whale to go to hell."

Posted by T. Holly at July 31, 2007 08:56 AM

comment #16

frankbooth says ...

I saw the trailer for "Champ," and the entire thing had a bluish tint, like a cheap day-for-night effect or a bad attempt to make L.A. stand in for some other city with a wintry clime. I kept waiting for it to change, but it never did.

The whole damn trailer looked like that, and it was hard to sit through for a few minutes, let alone the length of a feature. Does the movie really look like that?

Disclaimer: the above comments are not intended to be construed as a personal attack on any persons, places or institutions.

Posted by frankbooth at July 31, 2007 09:54 AM

comment #17