Alright I'm going to confess it - I didn't love the film. I can see why others are moved by it, but it just didn't really do it for me...
But can we just put the reviews aside for a minute and talk about ANNE HATHAWAY's HAIR??? I laughed out loud the first time she appeared in the restaurant wearing that horrible blond wig! Talk about reason number one not to go platinum!
I know everyone in Texas is blond (I'm from there and yes I'm blond) but I just want to know how the producers of BBM let Dynel into their movie...
Updated On: 12/23/05 at 05:47 PM
Her hair was QUITE absurd. I mean, RIDICULOUS :0)
Jake's aging was a bit cornball, too. He ended up looking like the Timmothy Hutton character in KINSEY, and Harvey Korman's Rhett Butler on CAROLE BURNETT SHOW.
But the women were so not caricatures -- Michelle Williams is hearbreaking -- and Jake's performance as older Jack so compelling, I easily overlooked the overdone period details. And actually, Heath's aging seemed dead-on.
Jake's aging was a bit cornball, too. He ended up looking like the Timmothy Hutton character in KINSEY, and Harvey Korman's Rhett Butler on CAROLE BURNETT SHOW.
But the women were so not caricatures -- Michelle Williams is hearbreaking -- and Jake's performance as older Jack so compelling, I easily overlooked the overdone period details. And actually, Heath's aging seemed dead-on.
I didn't mind Jake's aging too much, but Anne Hathaway's constantly shifting hairdos were such a riot that I suspect the humour was intentional.
MB, let the movie seep in awhile. I wasn't bowled over either at first, but the film has been haunting me for days.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/25/05
That didn't bug me as much as this--
Anne Hathaway, whatever her hair color, is STUNNING. How come the actors who played her parents were:
a) old enough to be her grandparents,
b) butt-ugly.
Maybe she was adopted, after decades of unsuccessful attempts?
Jack's parents were butt ugly, too. How they spawned such a gorgeous specimen of hunk is beyond me.
Anne Hathaway actually voiced the lead in an anime I watched last night. The Cat Returns. She's really very funny and talented. Wonder how she got along at Vassar?
And yes, Jake's physical aging was quite comical, especially when you consider that his boyish voice did not change at all. He was also only supposed to be 39.
Updated On: 12/23/05 at 08:15 PM
Part of the problem with Anne Hathaway is that they didn't do any aging to her at all. In that last scene she looked like a high school student doing RUMORS.
Michelle Williams was good, though honestly the female I was most impressed by was the actress playing Heath Ledger's daughter. Completely honest.
I found Michelle Williams's performance to be devestating. But, you're right. The actress playing Alma Jr. was really, really good.
I also thought that Linda Cardellini was fantastic, especially with such a small part.
Updated On: 12/23/05 at 09:44 PM
was it just me? or did hathaway not look and sound a lot like mary louise parker??
ok. Just got back from seeing it. to a bunch of things people have said.
Alma, Jr. was DAMN good! who is she - do we know her from anywhere else?
i actually thought heath's aging was ****ty. Jake's was a lot more convincing than his.
Anne is gorgeous; I think it's hard to make her look old. Haha, and as for the hairdos.. hmm. I'm friend with her brother. I wonder what he thought of them... She was still pretty, though, even with the INSANE wigs.
Definitely an overall good movie. I wanted to cry, though, and I didn't. Hm...
I'm pretty sure the overdone hairdos were intentional. And I really don't get the fuss over Jake's aging. That's how boyish types age. And his mustache was vintage seventies. Like everything else in the movie, it was dead on.
you av is as luscious as your name :)
I can't imagine that Ang Lee and the creative team said, now as the film reaches its powerful climax, lets have Anne Hathaway appear in worse and worse wigs until she looks like Ann Jillian on ITS A LIVING - that will really intentionally drive home the point of the movie.... I think it was just bad makeup/hair on a limited budget.
Think what you like. And I'll do the same. The movie was meticulously made, regardless of it's limited budget. Wigs and makeup aren't exactly the most costly items associated with filmmaking. All I have to say is... Texas + the 70s + southern women of a particular background and class... it all adds up for me. Besides, there had to be some levity in the film.
Born and raised in the south I can tell you that the filmmakers got Hathaway's costumes, hair etc. PERFECTLY. To call them absurd is to call an entire culture of people absurd since that's just the way women there look(ed). Hell, a lot of women to this day still dress just like that.
Yes, I laughed hysterically each time her hair got bigger, but it was that "laughing because it's true" laugh. And her aging didn't bother me one bit. Again, I've known women who were 45 years old who didn't look a day over 25 thanks to their hair, jewelry and makeup.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
"Alright I'm going to confess it - I didn't love the film. I can see why others are moved by it, but it just didn't really do it for me..."
Hear, hear.
As for the "aging," I felt like I was watching a high school play or that dreadful Fox "Reunion" show where plucky 17 year olds are trying to play 40. I was waiting for some baby powder near Jake's temples!
It was ridiculous.
I also had a problem with Jake's aging. The fact that his boyish voice hadn't changed was a constant reminder every time he spoke. Padding the stomach and graying the hair a little didn't work for me either. I also thought the the wigs and makeup, although attempting to recreate the era, looked too amateurish to me for a major Hollywood film. JUST MY OPINION.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
Jane, I thought the same exact thing. I had just seen Prelude to a Kiss on TV the night I went to Brokeback. This was the day after Alec Baldwin had hosted SNL. I remember thinking that in Prelude, which he shot 14 or 15 years before, Alec sounded like he was doing helium hits.
But not Jake. And as for Heath, I'd be willing to bet Larry McMurty recommended he watch every western the great Sam Elliot ever made so that he could get that "laconic" voice, which also never deepened with time.
I'd like to see how the folks who are arguing that Anne Hathaway's hideous look was "authentic" will twist themselves to justify that.
Right, Namo. And while we're on the subject of Heath's voice-did anyone notice that not once during this entire film did his lips move. I'm sure he took lessons from Shari Lewis (may she rest in peace!)
I read an article that said Jake looked like a refugee from a high school drama with that mustache. The makeup department really could've done a better job. Poor Jake!
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
Cue somebody to come in and inform us that that's EXACTLY what guys in Texas looked like back then.
Let's face it, the hair and the make-up in that movie didn't do anybody any favors. And frankly, po-folk in 1963 didn't have orthadontia-perfect Crest White Strip teeth like Jen from Dawson's Creek either.
You guys are a tough crowd. I agree the aging was less than stellar. For me it was almost poignant, didn't mar the movie. But oy, the BROKEBACK backlash has many faces! I'm about ready to go back and read the trashing of MILLION DOLLAR BABY.
Namo, see the other thread. We're about to come to blows, so to speak, over the way Jack is tent-deflowered. Coming and blows have nothin' to do with it.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
People I've spoken to have ASSURED me that the "consumation" is very faithful to the short story. And a very earnest lesbian friend told me "I thought it perfectly captured that thin line between tenderness and violence you guys skate along."
Which is fine. To me it says it helped elucidate somebody who is not a gay man's fantasies about sex among gay men. Nothing wrong with that.
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