e_tippett

Everyone in this movie except for Mark Wahlberg could have been recast, with positive results, and no one would have noticed. Leguizamo is wasted as some geek math teacher with no common sense. Everyone in the movie seems to have inappropriate emotional responses to things not yet in evidence. Some of the time the characters' facial expressions do not in any way match what they are talking about; they talk about very tense, upsetting things with no expression. The leaps of logic that people make are in no way logical, and Elliott's hissy fit screaming "give me a minute! give me a minute! give me a minute!" does not fit with his character, and really, it isn't as if people are harassing him for a decision. There was no chemistry whatsoever between Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel, strangers on a bus could have been more connected than this "husband and wife", even with the purported marital problems that seem to have been exaggerated. The way Elliott talks about Alma to Julian as they exit the school, it seems as if the marriage is hanging by a thread and he almost seems to be setting Julian up to be prepared for Alma to be an angry, distant, mentally unstable twit. Julian for his part treats his child as if she were about to go postal, which she never does either, and at times his character seems forced, as if only thrown in to have another "star" name in the credits.

It lives up to the comic book story and meshes well with modern events in the Middle East. The transformation of Tony Stark from philandering billionaire genius who seems to L-O-V-E his weapon creations a little too much, to a superhero trying to make things right- fills an emotional need for hope in these needlessly war-torn times. The mechanism of his epiphany, however enforced by captivity in a cave, is well developed in the movie. While at first I found Robert Downey Jr to be an unusual choice for the hero of the piece, he assumes the role well, although initially his mustache and hairstyle resembles a 1970s swinger or couch-casting producer.

I found this movie to be far more sensual than sexual, although there is a fair amount of that as well. There was a lot of focus on feelings, both physical and emotional, and a lot of underlying subplots revolving around the interaction and history of each character. Both Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Myers are excellent in their gender-twisting roles. The examination of the relationship between gender, sex, and emotion is very well crafted. Toni Collette is excellent as always, as the wife who moves through a range of emotions and roles from supportive to jealous to accepting to dealing with loss. The movie vividly depicts the free-wheeling atmosphere that led to the birth and flowering of glam rock as well as the decadent times of free love and wild parties. The costumes are amazing as well, spangles and sparkles and feminized menswear.