comment #1

p.Vice says ...

It's a Marc Forster movie. Was somebody expecting a challenging, perceptive film here?

What I'm waiting to see is just how badly he fucks up the Bond series.

comment #2

BurmaShave says ...

I prefer his earlier, funnier pictures.

comment #3

Breedlove says ...

I thought MONSTER'S BALL was a masterpiece and as powerful as any drama I've seen in years. I had extremely high hopes for Forster. Definitely been very disappointed in FINDING NEVERLAND and STRANGER THAN FICTION as well as his decision to do a Bond film. Lame, lame, and lamer. Maybe this one will be closer to form, although on principle I'm opposed to these annoying Oprah-type faux-literary books that everyone in the country has to read.

comment #4

adaml says ...

"I thought MONSTER'S BALL was a masterpiece"

Breedlove,

Are you for real? Next you'll be saying Halle Berry deserved her Oscar?!

comment #5

p.Vice says ...

Any filmmaker who could look at the script for Monster's Ball and not toss it into the shredder at the first instance of the white-racist-eating-chocolate-ice-cream metaphor is immediately a joke and nothing but.

comment #6

Walter Sobchak says ...

Halle Berry definitely deserved her Oscar for "Monster's Ball".

We didn't deserve her Oscar speech, though.

comment #7

Breedlove says ...

Wow. It's amazing the backlash that builds against some films a few years down the road...Yeah, sorry, I found MONSTER'S BALL, like I said, one of the best dramas I've ever seen. I thought it was incredibly powerful, and the acting and directing were amazing. I thought Halle Berry was a total hack in every film she made before that and since, but she was a revelation in that movie and completely deserved the Oscar.

comment #8

lazarus says ...

Berry's an easy target because of that acceptance speech, and of course all the crap she did afterwards (up until her great work ths year). But who else should have won? Sissy Spacek? Nicole Kidman? It's not like either of them were leagues better. It probably was a fairly close year. Berry played emotional, Spacek slow-burn minimalism, and Kidman had a very showy gamut-running role. Guess which one was likely to appeal most to the Academy.

While I don't dislike Monster's Ball as much as many seem to, I can see why people have a problem with it. I found it very well-acted across the board, from Berry to Thornton to Ledger to Mos Def, and it was enough to keep me involved and relatively moved. Not the worst film of all time.

Bond is usually directed pretty anonymously, I don't see how he could ruin it. We know Forster's talented enough to get good work out of his actors--what more do you want?

comment #9

MovieBob says ...

Dargis is missing the point by a mile here. Of course the film and novel are basically redressing traditional American/Western coming-of-age, purging-of-old-sins mythology in Afghan robes - that's the whole point: Find the familiarity in a thoroughly alien culture. It becomes harder for American/Western audiences to accept the pigeonholing and stereotyping of Muslim/Middle-Eastern characters when you're confronted with them as something you can readily relate to.

comment #10

malibugigolo says ...

I like eating chocolate ice cream.
She's grateful for it.