mlktrout

I saw this movie in the late 1980s. I loved Ben Kingsley, Patricia Hodge, and Jeremy Irons in so many movies, I couldn't see how in the world this could be anything but a beautifully done piece. I was wrong.

I was about five minutes in when I started gagging on the dialogue. It was atrocious! This is an actual dialogue sample, near as I can recall it:

Hodge: "I'm going to tell him." Irons: "You're ... going to ... tell him?" Hodge: "About us." Irons: "About ... us?" Hodge: "Yes. I'm going to tell him about us." Irons: "You're going to tell him about us."

I mean, was there screenwriter strike I didn't know about and they called in a plumber to write that? Or were the filmmakers deliberately trying to destroy the actors' careers and give the audience a lobotomy at the same time?

It just got worse from there. IMDB shows the long (intensely long) quote when Irons declared himself to Hodge. It's disgusting. Something about how she wore white at her wedding and he was the best man, but he should have "HAD" her so it would've been a black wedding. I interpret this as, "I love you, therefore I must pollute you." If only women got as much respect as our planet. We fine people for polluting the planet, and nobody ever says "let me pollute the planet because I love it." What's even funnier is there are people who think that's a great declaration of love. How is declaring that you want to spoil someone and make them impure equal to love on any level? It just sounds selfish and vile. And most of the movie is about these two selfish and vile characters deliberately hurting everyone.

Okay, I can't comment on the "artistry" of the project--most of it was set in a cheap, tacky looking apartment, suitable for a cheap, tacky affair.

I guess it's like the artistry of "Saturn Devouring His Son" by Goya. Yep, that's artistry all right.