I recently rented this film adaptation of what's arguably the most significant Broadway play of the 1990's. It seemed to win every major award that it could last year, and it is indeed quite a production. It's a shame that so much of the best stuff on film these days is only available to people who have HBO - but you've got to laud HBO for creating so many excellent productions. Now I should say that there are parts of it that I think work much better on stage. But if you were going to make a film version of it - this is excellent. Most surprising to me was just how good the cast was. Jeffrey Wright, Patrick Wilson and Mary Louise Parker are perfect from begining to end, and Justin Kirk and Meryl Streep also turn in excellent performances. It's really remarkable how good they are. However, I was not thrilled with Al Pacino. To me, he's too frequently hammy. And really I think Wright does better work in the scenes they have together. I'm also not entirely thrilled with the guy who plays Louis. And ... well, I have some issues with the script. I prefer Millenium Approaches to the second half, and I really dislike the epilogue at the Angel of the Waters fountain (though I love seeing that every chance I have). But really these are relatively minor complaints. On the whole, this is a very impressive piece of work, and if in the transfer to the screen it perhaps looks a little too slick - so what? It's still one of the best movies of last year.
Posted by armand at December 18, 2004 02:56 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Culture