REVIEW: Silver Linings Playbook

21 11 2012

Over six months later, it appears that I can finally reveal to you the mystery movie that Harvey Weinstein unveiled for me at a screening for international buyers and distributors in Cannes: a rough cut of “Silver Linings Playbook.”  Although had you told me it was a final cut, I would have believed it.  The film felt totally complete and in no need of further tweaking.  In fact, I almost ran my review of that version when the film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, hoping people assumed I was there and saw the theatrical cut.

Now that I’ve seen the movie for a second time, I’m definitely glad I did not run a review on the rough cut.  The film improved by leaps and bounds over the four months in which David O. Russell and company worked out the kinks in the film, and most of the things I would have griped about in my review of the rough cut disappeared.

On the surface, everything is relatively the same: the story still plays out in the same way, the rhythm of the film kept in tact, among other things.  But I noticed a much more complex visual scheme, one that made “Silver Linings Playbook” feel like a David O. Russell film, not your run-of-the-mill romantic comedy.  Rather than the standard back-and-forth, he’s-talking-now-she’s-talking editing, Russell opts to go deeper and use the camera to probe his characters psychologically.  Rather than merely capturing the plot like the rough cut, Russell ultimately found ways to suggest levels of depth extending far below a single shot.

Russell is able to make the performances shine by keying off the wacky family dynamics that made “The Fighter” such a hoot (and also harkening back to the zaniness “Flirting with Disaster” –  for fans of Russell’s early work).  You wonder how these relationships can possibly function in any way other than what Jim Morrison called “mutual wierdness,” or love.  He draws us in with characters who wear their flaws on their sleeves yet keeps us engaged by continuing to show how they motivate the character at their core.

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Categories : Movie Reviews

Marshall Takes Cannes: Day 7

23 05 2012

It’s probably good to look back and remember day 7, such a positive and incredible experience, after the disappointment that was day 8. The crushing blow of today will be recounted later, but I want to hit the high points.

Day 7 – Tuesday, May 22

I was able to get an hour to see a panel comprised of the filmmakers who made “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” the Sundance winner that has taken Cannes by storm as well. Co-writer and director Benh Zeitlin was in attendance, as was co-writer Lucy Alibar, cinematographer Ben Richardson, and producers Dan Janvey and Josh Penn. The whole conversation about the film’s origins, which are hardly discernable from the highly eccentric and distinct project, fascinated me; Zeitlin described the movie as one about “people losing the thing that made them” at their core.

He also shared how he and Alibar worked to wrap the script around the performers, not try to fit them into a pre-packaged good. “Beasts” used all non-professional actors, a fact which only serves to underscore the wow factor of watching the film. They also stated that they auditioned an astonishing four thousand children for the leading role of Hushpuppy, a young girl who has to carry this weighty movie almost entirely on her own back.

Then, after that, it was a quick change into my tuxedo for the red carpet premiere of “Killing them Softly,” the new Brad Pitt film. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the new happily engaged couple, although someone quickly informed me that the former World’s Sexiest Man would be flying solo. But that was hardly going to deter me from standing in line.

I got in the rush line (the line for people without official tickets) beginning at 4:45 P.M. The film started at 7:30 P.M. So that was nearly three hours on my feet waiting. It got pretty brutal at the beginning when there was nothing particularly exciting to look at, but that all changed when the red carpet opened around 6:30 P.M. At 7:00 P.M., the big names began to arrive: Chris Tucker, P. Diddy, Alec Baldwin … and Brad Pitt.

Let me just say, it’s not that I hated or didn’t admire Brad Pitt before the premiere. However, I emerged with a whole lot more respect for him. As soon as he got out of his police escorted car, the first thing he did was greet his adoring fans that had lined up along the Croisette. Pitt easily spent ten minutes signing autographs and shaking hands of the average laypeople before he got anywhere near the red carpet, and that was pretty darned cool. I got a picture of him from afar, but I also did manage to see him from a fairly close proximity. His hair moved as one unit.

I ultimately also managed to get to see the movie, but I did not get to see it in the massive Lumiere with Brad Pitt and the rest of the cast; I had to see a simultaneous screening in the Bazin, a 300-seater across the hall in the Palais. But hey, I saw the star and I saw the film – both were stylish and fun to say I saw in France!


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Categories : Cannes 2012, Festivals