Nick Clement, a Connecticut film buff who has always burned brightly and has always celebrated the important stuff in the right way (even when he falls for films that I consider dubious or worse), wrote the following this morning: “I’m just wondering if you can shed any light on WTF is going on with the release of Silver Linings Playbook? It still hasn’t opened anywhere in CT — another weekend comes and goes and it’s still not here…and it seems like it’s crested at around 500 screens total — what are they doing?
“Same goes for Anna Karenina, which isn’t playing in any decent theater in the Hartford area. What gives? Why make these movies, promote them for MONTHS on end in trailer form, and then never release them? There are plenty of people in CT who would watch these two movies…don’t get it, makes no sense — do you know anything?”
Response: I said from the very beginning that the girly-girls who’ve supported generically coy dumbass romcoms staring Kate Hudson, Katherine Heigel and Cameron Diaz may not show up right away for SLP even though it delivers exactly what they like and want because it also traffics in anxiety and meds and sports and therapy and other cross-currents that dippy girls aren’t familiar with and/or feel a little bit threatened by.
I’m presuming that the Weinsteiners are looking to tough it out with SLP in limited release throughout December in hopes of being named Best Picture or snagging Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence) or Best Actor (Bradley Cooper) or Best Supporting Actor (Robert De Niro) trophies by this or that critics group or from HFPA or Oscars noms in January, and then break it wide. But it does seem odd that avid film buffs can’t see it at all in Connecticut or at least in your area, according to your letter.
In fact SLP is now playing in Greenwich, and will break open a bit (i.e., show up in the Hartford area) around Christmas, I’m told by a Weinstein rep.
“Still thinking about how brilliant Killing them Softly is,” Clement adds. “My father and I went to see it over last weekend and we loved it.”
