Little Good in This Movie

baho2

YOU'LL PROBABLY NEVER SEE THIS MOVIE BUT IF BY CHANCE YOU MIGHT THEN YOU SHOULDN'T READ THIS BECAUSE IT GIVES AWAY THE PLOT-LINE, BUT YOU PROBABLY WOULDN'T BELIEVE IT ANYWAY.

If I was going to look for an actor to play a sympathetic lead role of a dwarf for a straight-up drama about `little people,' naturally I would turn to Gary Oldman.  Yes, that Gary Oldman.  Dracula.  The Devil.  Pontius Pilate.  Maybe 5'11'.    I guess Al Pacino wasn't available.

This is a bizarre movie.  Matthew McConaughey plays Oldman's brother (not a dwarf), so this Schwarzeneggar and Devito as Twins straight up.  Both McConaughey and Kate Beckinsale turn in reasonable performances, as does Peter Dinklage.  (As an aside, I think this guy is a terrific actor.  In both this and Station Agent, soon into the movie I quit thinking about him as a dwarf.)  However, I was most enchanted by the acting of the little people in the supporting cast.  They brought me inside an inaccessible subculture and often made it very comfortable and believable.

However, Bogie, Bacall and the entire cast of the Wizard of Oz couldn't rescue this movie.  This is an ambitious project with an intriguing premise. And apparently, Oldman is the one that drove the project, and he wanted to play a dwarf.  (The kid that has the football gets to be quarterback?)  But everything else about the movie is … bad.  There were times when the Sundance crowd laughed at loud at some of the directing/editing.  And the script seemed to be pieced together.

More Weirdness:  At the premiere at Sundance, writer-director Matthew Bright scathingly denounced the film.  He didn't watch the movie and said he never will.  (`It's like making love to your ex-wife.')  Bright apparently got into an argument with the financier of the film over creative differences. I think what I heard is that Bright wanted to close with a love scene between Oldman (playing a dwarf) and Kate Beckinsale.  I guess the money-guy just didn't think the American public was ready for this.  Anyway, according to Bright, he was fired from the movie and a bunch of inexperienced hacks who know nothing about the movie business finished the film.  Bright said neither he nor none of the artists were paid a dime and that they didn't support the movie.  Maybe this explains why this was such a disappointing film.

score 5/10

baho2 1 February 2004

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0870755/