Showing posts with label The Lovely Bones Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Lovely Bones Review. Show all posts

How 'The Devil Wears Prada' Transformed Careers

Posted by Should I See It on Saturday, February 27, 2010 , under , , , , , , , , , , | comments (0)





So what do you remember most about The Devil Wears Prada? Meryl Streep’s delicious performance? The clothes? New York? Simon Baker without a shirt on?


Or maybe it's the aftermath of this intelligent blockbuster that you remember most? Now you know who Emily Blunt is, and you watch The Mentalist every week and you secretly hope Stanley Tucci will walk away with the Academy Award in a few weeks time.

What ever you liked or didn't like about it, you can't help but notice that after this film the careers of the leading cast members took a turn for the better.

I call it 'The Devil Wears Prada Effect.' Symptoms include increased publicity, more widespread roles, becoming a 'bankable' name, and having greater attention focused on the actor's career. Side effects may include, but are not limited to, above the title billing, increased interest in the actor's personal life and an increase in nominations and awards.

I am in no way suggesting that these actors were nobodies before this film, but rather we can plot a definate upwards trajectory in their careers that got it's boost from The Devil Wears Prada.






 EMILY BLUNT

Now, be honest: Who here had heard of Emily Blunt before she literally stole every scene in The Devil Wears Prada??? Anyone????? Now she does have an impressive list of credits pre-Prada, including a Golden Globe Award for her role in British miniseries Gideon’s Daughter, but Prada sky-rocketed her from relative unknown to the hottest property in young Hollywood.

Prada gave Blunt’s career the attention her talent deserves. She has graduated into and ‘above the title’ actress and has had quite a few nominations for her work in The Young Victoria.

It’s actually hard to believe Hathaway got an Academy Award nomination before her.





ANNE HATHAWAY



Okay, so Anne Hathaway is probably the actor in this list least impacted by The Devil Wears Prada Effect. Hathaway had a pretty good career behind he; She was already well known and a marketable name in Hollywood. But Prada allowed her to move beyond the teeny bopper roles like The Princess Diaries in to more adult territory (yes, I know she was in Brokeback Mountain, but who remembers her in that?!). Since Prada, Hathaway was nominated for an Academy Award in 2009 for Rachel Getting Married as well as winning a number of independent and critics choice awards for that performance.









STANLEY TUCCI



For Tucci, great roles have never been a problem. He has an impressive list of credits and awards including two Emmys Two Golden Globes and an Independent Spirit Award amongst others.

Stanley Tucci has never been the sort of bankable name the way Streep and Hathaway are. He has flown under the radar, while delivering performances worthy of attention.

His turn as over worked/ underappreciated designer Nigel in The Devil Wears Prada is almost like Tucci’s career; great performances, but not widely recognised.

Last year, Tucci delivered great performances in both Julie & Julia and The Lovely Bones. In fact, the journalists predicting the likely candidates for the Academy Awards were torn between which of the two performances would be recognised. Tucci actually scored his first Academy Award nomination for The Lovely Bones.




SIMON BAKER



The Devil Wears Prada is one of the highlights of Simon Baker’s otherwise lacklustre resume. Apart from LA Confidential and season one of The Guardian, there are some pretty embarrassing films on there (Affair of the Necklace, Something New).

His performance in Prada as devilishly charming writer Christian Thompson was (more than likely) responsible for him landing the role of devilishly charming fake psychic Patrick Jane on The Mentalist.

For his work on The Mentalist, Baker has been nominated for an Emmy, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Golden Globe, as well as receiving the coveted title of Sexiest Man on Television.





MERYL STREEP



Yes, even Queen Meryl makes this list. Oh I know she had like thirteen Academy Award nominations before Prada, and is widely recognised as one of the greatest actresses of all time, but I don’t think we should over look the impact of Prada.

Not only did The Devil Wears Prada introduce Streep to a new generation of cinema goers (trust me, Out of Africa was not high on any teenagers must watch list), but it also launched something of an Academy Award nomination spree: three nominations in the last four years (including her work in Prada). And after the massive box office success of Mamma Mia!, it is suddenly hip to be Meryl Streep.














The Lovely Bones Review

Posted by Should I See It on Friday, February 12, 2010 , under | comments (0)






Film: The Lovely Bones
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci and Susan Sarandon.
Plot: Based on the book by Alice Sebold, the film centres on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family - and her killer - from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.



Big things were expected from The Lovely Bones. Mainly because it’s directed by Peter Jackson and written by the same people that brought us The Lord of the Rings and Steven Spielberg is a producer. The film’s stars have either won or been nominated for an Academy Award. So that’s some pretty big cinematic muscle pushing one film. Plus Alice Sebolds book has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. So having high expectations was not unreasonable. And it’s not like it’s a bad film. It’s okay. It’s just that with all those names behind it you expect something great.

In some respects the film really delivers. Susie’s heaven is beautiful. The way the visuals link earth and Susie’s heaven are especially creative. I especially liked the scene where her father (Mark Wahlberg) is running through the cornfield chasing after her killer, and Susie is running alongside him in the gazebo in her heaven. I also loved seeing her father’s ‘boats in bottles’ drift ashore in Susie’s heaven.



 
The Lovely Bones is confronting. But then again, you never really see the ‘violence’ take place; it’s the implication that’s scarier than actually seeing it. The film creates a lot of suspense. I was terrified that Susie’s sister Lindsey (Rose McIver) wouldn’t make it out of Mr Harvey’s house (even though I have read the book, and knew that she would!)

Most of the creepiness comes from Stanley Tucci’s performance. But the creepiness of Mr Harvey comes not because he is out of control, but rather how calculating he is. Mr Harvey plans his murders in detail. One of the scenes that I found the most… I’m not sure of the right word…. Well let’s say when the police officers came to question him about what he was doing the day Susie disappeared, and he hurries to set up a scene for himself- a plate of cookies, an open magazine, he even goes not far as to spread a few crumbs around- I was a little bit freaked out, because that scene showed exactly how sane this deranged man is.



Good performances from Saoirse Ronan and also Susan Sarandon in an uncharacteristically comic role.

The most frustrating thing about the film is the lack of character development.

Actually the character that gets the most attention and development is the dead girl, Susie. But how worthwhile is this character development? I mean, she’s dead!

As for the people still alive, they are sketches of real people: there is no depth or anything to really define them as characters unique to this story.

Rachel Weisz and Mark Wahlberg are forgettable as Susie’s parents. I never once believed them as a married couple or as parents to Susie, Lindsey and Buckley. I’m not sure if this is the fault of the script or the actors… but you would expect actors of that calibre to be able to ‘act’ their way through some of the things the script is missing.


 
While the book is told from Susie’s point of view, the story is really about her family and how they cope, the heaven stuff is just incidental, it helps move the narrative along, as opposed to being the narrative itself. However, the film is too in love with its images of heaven, which while wonderful, get in the way of the story. I understand that the heaven aspect makes this particular story unique. It separates it from all of the other ’my child has been murdered and how will I cope’ movies that we’ve all seen (or can at least imagine!), but there is too much ‘heaven.’ The earth storyline feels empty; there are too many pieces missing to have the audience make a real commitment to the characters that are still alive.

Now, the ending. Some have called it uplifting (Herald Sun, I am looking at you) but I would say that the condensed time frame of the film and the collective way in which everyone deals with their grief, seems forced.



Should I See It?

If there’s nothing else to see, the film isn’t painful to watch or anything like that, but it wouldn’t be my first choice.



The Lovely Bones Official Site here.