Scoop and Miami Vice
Movie #13 - ScoopI should probably start by saying that I'm not a Woody Allen fan. I don't get the appeal, and the enjoyment of his films often depends on their very Woody-ness. You can look at a lot of them and say, "Well, it's got Woody and it's got the funny stuff," but that's about all it's got going for it. For many people, that's enough. The thing about Scoop is that it's got that off-kilter sense of humor, but it's also got a tricky storyline with some truly unexpected goings-on. The performances from the male principals are all great, but Scarlett "I'll Show You Wooden" Johansson is a little outmatched here. She's required to put out more energy than I've ever seen from her, and she doesn't always pull it off. The film starts out focused on her character, but really doesn't pick up until she meets Woody's. The most illuminating thing for me was the noticeable difference in energy in scenes with Woody and without. Any scenes that don't involve him kind of feel like filler until he comes back. Have I finally seen the light? Maybe I'm just more comfortable with Woody when he's not trying to romance a woman 40 years younger or 40 times sexier.
Movie #14 - Miami ViceSounds like Maya and I had identical experiences with this film. I'm pretty sure I missed half of the dialogue, but I still followed the story OK without it. I wish Jaime Foxx had more to do here, because his character definitely felt secondary to me, and he didn't have much personality. In fact, I would say that is my only problem with the film. I recognize (from other spy/police/military movies or TV shows) that people in this line of work often have to repress emotion, stay strong, blah blah. But I don't think that means that they lose all traces of personality, or individuality, or sense of humor. No one is given definable personality traits other than "tough," "stoic," "smart-ass" or "resourceful." The women in the film were almost interchangeable. Anyway, maybe that was all intentional - maybe Michael Mann wanted to emphasize the psychological impact of living undercover - but it doesn't make for a very interesting cast of characters.
And yet... still totally cool and fun and I would like to see it again. So maybe I'm shallow.
posted by Carrie Ann @ 6:50 PM
2 Comments:
Good point - I forgot to mention that Colin gets way, WAY more screen time than Jamie. Hey, not a problem for me, but some people might complain. And yes, the characters were wooden, but there were hints of expression... for example, the first "boat trip" to the mojito bar, when Colin is sweating bullets and Gong Li is perfectly smooth-skinned and calm.... I thought that was an interesting direction they didn't really follow. Or maybe on repeat viewings we'll start to pick up on the subtlety of the characters? Maybe I'm reading into this too much? Does this movie fall on the "art" side of the art/Hollywood fence?
Well, I think that was the argument I read. And I'm sort of overstating my case here. I do think there were hints of personality from a few characters (including the baddies, who were, as you say, legitimately scary), but definitely not much from Tubbs. Or maybe all the individuality was expressed in the dialogue I couldn't hear or understand.
Well, repeat viewings are necessary for the shower scenes anyway.
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