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SPUHOILERS!
Just caught it today, at last, and it's definitely a hand grenade of a movie. I remember expecting to be absolutely floored by the third act (I mean mcKee sets up the Deus Ex Machina in a way where you can pretty much expect anything and I was leaning way more towards Anvil From Sky than Drug Peddling Seminoles) but upon much reflection, it's clearly growing on me. One of the things that most impressed me about BJM was how i sincerely felt for these people in the most (literally) incredible of situations. I was devestated by the end of the film and Stephen's final fate. And it really was due to a complete synthesis of every creative person involved, from Kaufman to Burwell. If you haven't, try and track down the original screenplay, which is way way way way more fantastical and way way way way less emotional than the final product. Unbelievable that someone actually optioned the thing (but wonderful at the same time, obviously).
Once again I admire Jonze's stylistic restraint, really the only director who's come up from videos who is practicing such a thing. When one looks over his body of work, from Jackass to the new Bjork video, one really gets the sense that he can do anything, and 94% of it extremely well. I was also blown away by Cage's performance. I missed him since Raising Arizona. The way he captured Donald's sincere love, admiration, and envy for his brother was remarkable. Just as in BJM, causing a sincere and powerful emotional reaction from the most ridiculous of situations.
Really impressive the way that Kaufman, more than anything, is trying to come to grips with Adaptation, of the book and of himself. The confrontation between Susan at the end is one of the more honest and true portrayals of a writer confronting their work than I've ever seen: occasionally, just pure hatred. "You fucking bitch, why are you doing this to me?? Why can't I just sit at home and eat waffles?? WHY do you make me worry about such perplexing and unknowable things??" Why are you, literally, trying to kill me? I was looking at the third act as much more than "The Hollywood Ending". Charlie was being persecuted, misread, and violently wounded in his attempts at adapting the book into a film, and the Swamp Chase was all a personification of that. When John and Susan have him cornered on either side, I felt like I was looking at one of the most effective metaphors ever captured on screen (although if I was thinking that, I guess it wasn't?).
As far as car crashes go, Paul Thomas Anderson and Spike Jonze are making it very difficult for me to sit through a jaunt on my local thoroughfares. It's a dangerous and random fucking world out there.
And God bless Chris Cooper for sending his performance through the fucking roof. Much praises due to Nicolas, but John is really the soul of the film: free in the ways that pretty much everyone else in the film isn't. Then again, he's had everything taken from him, either by God or by his own free will. Naturally there's something any neurotic would find fascinating about such an existence. "Get your own fucking life," indeed.
More later, possibly, but for now, I've got my own swamps to wade through. |
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