Tiny Tiptoes

just saw this at sundance last night. absolutely horrid. people left mid movie in droves. quite possibly the worst acting (save G.O.) i've seen in years. best line-"does it hurt to be a little person?" maybe, maybe not. but it is quite painful to watch this movie.

The beginning of "Tiptoes" is simply excellent and approaches a totally original theme: the painter Carol (Kate Beckinsale) and the firemen instructor Steven (Matthew McConaughey) are a young couple in love. The ambivalent Steven has a deep inner secret: he is the unique normal size man in his family of dwarfs, and he loves his family but he does not live comfortable with this situation. When Carol gets pregnant, coincidently the twin dwarf brother of Steven, Rolfe (Gary Oldman), pays an unexpected visit to Carol. She becomes shocked with the situation, while being introduced to Steven's family. The movie works perfectly up to this point, showing an open-minded woman accepting literally the minorities. However, from the moment when the Jewish parents of Carol are introduced to Steven's family on, the screenplay becomes irregular, corny in some moments, silly in others, and the open conclusion is very disappointing, indeed terrible.

It was good to see Gary Oldman in a sensational role, and the gorgeous Kate Beckinsale playing a really beautiful character, without any prejudice and accepting the imperfections of life. Patricia Arquette is still very hot, but she is very stereotyped in the role of the crazy Lucy. I regret that such excellent original idea being wasted in an awful screenplay. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Na Ponta dos Pés" ("Tiptoes")

I'd watch anything with Matthew McConaughey. Seriously. I've seen Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, I liked it, I've seen The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, it was horrendous, I've seen his courtroom dramas A Time to Kill and The Lincoln Lawyer, love them. He's one of my favorite actors because no matter what genre he does, he's still entertaining as hell to watch. And don't even get me started on Gary Oldman. The Professional anyone? So when I saw the trailer for Tiptoes promising McConaughey and "a performance of a lifetime" by Gary Oldman, needless to say I was expecting greatness. Not really. But there has to be some redeeming value in a movie where two of my favorite actors play twin brothers and one of them is a dwarf, right? Well... no.

Tiptoes is exactly as terrible as you'd expect it to be. The premise alone, like who the hell thought of this? And why in god's name did McConaughey and Oldman agree to this abomination? Did they even read the script? Holy hell it's bad. It has some laugh out loud moments of course, I mean the premise lends itself to some horrifically awkward situations. One of the greatest lines in the movie is McConaughey yelling, "I'M A DWARF!" as his 6 foot tall body looms over Kate Beckinsale. It's classic. And the thing is, the acting is really good. Across the board. How they were able to deliver this dialogue with a straight face I'll never know. I can't imagine what their paychecks were.

There are some truly cringe-worthy moments in here as you can imagine. There's the whole drama over calling little people "midgets" and a pointless story between Peter Dinklage with a french accent and Patricia Arquette, as in it literally adds zero to the plot. And the ending, wow. Let's just say McConaughey got the short end of the stick.

I sat through this movie, you don't have to. Seriously the trailer goes through the entire plot, and it's infinitely funnier being 3 minutes long as opposed to a 90-minute brutal movie experience. In a way I'm glad Tiptoes was made because it's so insane and incredulous of a premise with these fantastic actors, it's like the best punchline of all time. But this movie tries to be serious, and because of that, it's painful to watch. Don't see Tiptoes.

Huge disappointment. Great cast, and it started out really promising, but by the end it was total Movie of the Week. Not sure what they were thinking - the movie seemed nicely offbeat during the first half but then it got bogged down in melodrama. I learned a lot about dwarfism of course, which seems like it was the point, but I didn't enjoy the movie and that's a shame. Kate Beckinsale is a terrific actress who can move effortlessly among genres, but she is ultimately wasted here in a part that a much less talented woman could have played. It was fun to see so many well-known Little People, and they were all excellent, but not enough to save the movie. Too bad, because this could have been something special.

"Tiptoes" had so much potential but as other IMDb reviews will tell you it falls flat quickly. The plot sounds interesting and Gary Oldman never disappoints, though his role is bizarre in this one. The plot quickly loses footing and doesn't know where it stands.

Matthew McCoanughey and his Kate Beckinsale play a couple who find that they'll be having a baby together, only to Matt's chagrin the baby could possibly be born a dwarf just as family. Gary Oldman plays his brother, who accidentally breaks the news. One of the Arquettes plays a weird supporting character that doesn't seem to have any relevance to the story. Peter Dinklage plays Oldman's friend.

Gary Oldman playing a dwarf...what's to be said? His "prosthetics" seem to be simply folding his legs back into his jeans, and nothing is used to hide that fact. McConaughey and Beckinsale do a well enough job, and Peter Dinklage is the only somewhat interesting person in the film. The Arquette is pretty pointless after a while.

It's one of those "I get where they're going, but..." movies. Very hit-or-miss, and for me it was a miss.