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In most calendar years this would be the annual big-budget, overhyped
contender for many Razzie awards, but I really can't see this beating out
another even worse Hollywood remake, The Wicker Man.
And that's a shame, because this is the kind of film that truly
deserves Razzies. It manages to incorporate just about every bad element of
Hollywood filmmaking. Some examples:
1. It's an inferior an unnecessary remake of a film which was considered a
classic.
2. It was cast with stars instead of actors. Tony Soprano, Jude
Law, and Kate Winslet don't even seem to realize that they are supposed to be in
a film about Louisiana. Winslet and Law have rich American "r's," drawn-out and
exaggerated, as one might hear eavesdropping on an imaginary plane between
Minneapolis and Dublin. Law and Winslet not only struggle with their
half-Southern, half-Midwestern accents, but their character interpretations are
shallow and boring, although those characteristics seem to be Jude Law's
specialty, now that I think about it. Of all the major actors in the film, only
Patricia Clarkson sounds like she's from any place on the globe within 500 miles
of Louisiana. And she probably would have found a way to screw up the accent for
this movie except that she actually is from Louisiana and it just came pouring
out.
3. The central performance is all strutting arrogance with no
emotional core. Sean Penn, normally a fine actor, turns in a performance of such
superficial and theatrical bombast that it would embarrass Bill Shatner. Richard Burton,
in his foulest and most drunken condition, had more subtlety than this. Forget Burton. It
must be the hammiest performance since Arnold the Pig was featured on Green Acres.
In all fairness, though, I have to say that the film is more interesting when
Penn is on camera than when the focus shifts away from him to the subtler, but
also more boring, Jude Law.
4. One word: voice-over.
The film never achieves a moment of sincere, poignant drama
except when Dr Lecter is on screen. Hopkins didn't make any effort at all to
sound like he was from Louisiana, but he did understand that the story needed
emotional resonance, and he tried to find the human center of his character.
Unfortunately, he lacks sufficient screen time to carry the film.
Worst of all, after all the
histrionics and bluster and melodrama have evaporated into the closing credits,
we come to realize that the film didn't have anything to say, or even an
interesting way to say nothing.
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(2006)
from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy)
