hdinin
Joined Sep 2000
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Reviews3
hdinin's rating
To be taken seriously only as political satire. Quite humorous and edgy, with a sharp script, but spotty continuity in the narrative. Almost more a cartoon than a good story.
None of the characters are believable, which is OK, as they seem to be distillations of types. All of the men in this film are horrible--I wouldn't want a friend or a relative among them. Women are treated as victims, more or less, what spare representation there is of women, though both Joan Allen and Anna Paquin are wonderful in these highly stylized roles.
Jeff Daniels's performance, as are those of most of the other men, are masterpieces of underacting. Gary Sinise and Giovanni Ribisi are given grand opportunities to chew up the scenery, which one may have every expectation either will do, literally, at any moment.
It seems to me this is also less about guns than it is about how guns are a horrible and all too real manifestation of those things--far more terrible and dark--that may have become by now an inalterable part of the American (that is, the U.S. American) character. Some other themes, besides casual (and not so casual) violence--twisted attitudes toward sexuality, the vagaries of the over-hot infotech culture, and our inability to perceive our own psychological deficiencies--are not well integrated.
None of the characters are believable, which is OK, as they seem to be distillations of types. All of the men in this film are horrible--I wouldn't want a friend or a relative among them. Women are treated as victims, more or less, what spare representation there is of women, though both Joan Allen and Anna Paquin are wonderful in these highly stylized roles.
Jeff Daniels's performance, as are those of most of the other men, are masterpieces of underacting. Gary Sinise and Giovanni Ribisi are given grand opportunities to chew up the scenery, which one may have every expectation either will do, literally, at any moment.
It seems to me this is also less about guns than it is about how guns are a horrible and all too real manifestation of those things--far more terrible and dark--that may have become by now an inalterable part of the American (that is, the U.S. American) character. Some other themes, besides casual (and not so casual) violence--twisted attitudes toward sexuality, the vagaries of the over-hot infotech culture, and our inability to perceive our own psychological deficiencies--are not well integrated.
Solondz seems tapped into what Freud called the psychopathology
of everyday life. Were more people amused by the pitiful
posturing common mores force so many of us--troubled, confused,
or frustrated as we may be--into, we would be a healthier
country.
I doubt this movie could have been made anywhere else. As much
an inquiry into the American psyche and the zeitgeist--very much
projected into our own time--as It's a Wonderful Life. Funny and
heartbreaking, perhaps shocking and uncomfortable at times, but
never discomfiting, except perhaps to the repressed and the
sanct
of everyday life. Were more people amused by the pitiful
posturing common mores force so many of us--troubled, confused,
or frustrated as we may be--into, we would be a healthier
country.
I doubt this movie could have been made anywhere else. As much
an inquiry into the American psyche and the zeitgeist--very much
projected into our own time--as It's a Wonderful Life. Funny and
heartbreaking, perhaps shocking and uncomfortable at times, but
never discomfiting, except perhaps to the repressed and the
sanct
Seems overly self-indulgent at times, at others brilliantly
hilarious. Big Night created high expectations. One major
problem is that the plot (complicated and convoluted as any in
the zany comedies of the 30s that inspire this) takes too long
in being established and the plot complications that bear the
real fruit of humor don't occur until late in the second act, as
it were. A somewhat reserved recommendation.
hilarious. Big Night created high expectations. One major
problem is that the plot (complicated and convoluted as any in
the zany comedies of the 30s that inspire this) takes too long
in being established and the plot complications that bear the
real fruit of humor don't occur until late in the second act, as
it were. A somewhat reserved recommendation.