Multiple Sarcasms

This might be Timothy Hutton's best performance, and all the acting was great; but the development of why Timothy Hutton and Mira Sorvino truly loved each other was missing.

Yes they knew each other and were friends / comfortable, but love requires the desire. The discussion of fear causing that not to shine might be true, but not in a long standing relationship/ friendship.

So with as deep as the portrayal was and discussions were, the one that was never deep (albeit comfortable) was Timothy Hutton and Mira Sorvino's characters. I don't blame the acting as much as the writing.

..............

I guess it all depends on what one brings to a movie. If I were only going to watch this film once, I would miss most of it. On a film binge, long vacation, I watched 2 other films of other genres before I got to _Multiple Sarcasms_. I wouldn't classify it as a comedy and I got unsorted mush. I even stopped in the middle and went to bed. The next morning I decided to see it through. I will watch it again. Scenes of exceptional beauty, characters that are real, believable (uh, is this a movie or did I get into somebody else's head). Terms one learned at school, well, for example about theater -- for example, "vraisemblance" -- help to "defamiliarize the text". We may have seen movies with bits, tropes, business, cutting and editing like this before, but this one is still original, subtle, and inviting with sufficient refractions with stage and staging to place us both inside it and outside it. Very near the end of the film, the writer places himself as an actor on the stage, then also to one side as editor/actor critiquing the writer/actor. This was not over done. Life into stage or film is very strange and wonderful. There are characters playing the role of audience members whom we have gotten to know during the course of the film. The music was excellent, the scenes, the character development of supporting characters was fine (getting good and drunk with "Eric"). We could probe the messiness of the protagonist's life "as life" with the "vraisemblance" probe (Living out of a suitcase? His dwelling was no suitcase.) By the end of the film we have seen a man's life shuddering into chaos as he takes up writing, and the miracle of the process is that a beautiful coherence emerges. He has become more grounded, centered and real. The process works! I should write a play. This is pretty good film alchemy. India Ennenga's "Liz" was radiant.

This film examines an interesting aspect of life...friendship between men and women without sex or romance. It's something I personally relate to because my best friends are women (and most of them are also close friends of my wife.) It also is a very well written and well directed film. The lines are good and they are well delivered in a very natural and understated manner, almost as though the scenes were improv. The concept of the play within a play, certainly not an original dramatic device, is, nevertheless, done effectively. This wasn't a big buck film, either in its production costs or its box office. But I suspect the people who made it are motivated more by artistry than by avarice.

This film is the story of a man (Timothy Hutton) who seems to have it all, and yet he feels like he's not getting enough out of life. He is an architect. He has a wife (Dana Delaney), a daughter and a lifelong friend (Mira Sorvino), but he just doesn't feel fulfilled. He attempts to write a play, and his work and family start to take a backseat. His wife doesn't appreciate this, and the two decide to split. Timothy Hutton is always brilliant, and this film is no exception, but the script is poorly written. I feel like the dialogue between the adults is juvenile. The story is great and the cast is too, but the dialogue drags it all down. I appreciate the film and I appreciate what the writer/director was trying to do, I just cannot get past the script. I do recommend it as long as you don't mind a few too many lines about the female anatomy that bring nothing to the story.

My wife and I just couldn't muster the energy and will to watch a movie about a man who has everything (wife, daughter and job), and is in a rather enviable position overall. And his problem is... well, we couldn't figure out. He's bored? Doesn't "like his life"? So, let's make a movie about it, shall we?

The premise to this movie is so preposterous, that his audience may be left completely unsympathetic to the main character, or even less sympathetic to the whole enterprise that made the movie possible.

The saving grace of this movie is the good directing - there's a pinch of comedy to give a genre direction to the movie, but apart that, the characters seem rather genuine. Sadly, the whole plot is stillborn and worthless.