All-Black STEEL MAGNOLIAS Film In The Works- Page 8

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 2:16pm

Well, I'm sorry more people didn't like the movie or don't like the Queen, but that doesn't change how I feel. Like Robbie, I don't take the original version too seriously, but I'm not going to take offense at those who didn't like this.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 2:36pm

For the record, this is the only version that made me cry.

Now...that may be because of the whole extended 'Let's take her off life support' hitting a little too close to home. But, in general, I felt that this version was much less folksy and home-spun. It felt more 'real.' Mostly because of Condola Rashad (really...great performance). But I was surprised by the depth of what Latifah brought. But only a little...I kinda thought she had it in her.

But can someone confirm something for me? Was the budget so completely blown by the casting of the six women that they had to go to the local homeless shelter to cast all the men??? Every man in the movie was TERRIBLE. I mean...'hasn't mastered a working sense of English' TERRIBLE.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 3:01pm

I liked Condola Rashad a lot too, and felt the same way you did, about her not deserving the reviews she got.

The men were kind of weird, but it took me a while to notice because I was kind of thrown when I realized that this was more or less a remake of the original screenplay than the original play. There was something really off-putting about Drum at first and I thought Spud kind of looked like Seal. Annelle's guy (Sammy? I think) was pretty hot, though.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 3:13pm

I think at LEAST Sam Shepard should have played Spud again.

[BwayBaby18]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 3:38pm

I think the cast was fine. The problem I had is that it was so rushed and serious. Part of the reason the film works so well is you can see that they are having a good time and it feels like it is happening in front of you. As opposed to We need to trim 20 minutes out of this to fit in commercials.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 3:53pm

Yes, for me, tonally, it was somewhat lacking in the joyousness that Harling made the centerpiece. Humor isn't Leon's specialty, and I think the fear that it could turn into slice of Tyler Perry ville made it all a bit reverential. A little more fun, a little less respect wouldn't have hurt. Though it's critical to set up the emotional stakes with the daughter, it's easy to "play the ending," and miss out on the comedy.

But minor reservations. The film did its job, didn't it? I think more people genuinely enjoyed and were moved by it, and will continue to be. It's not faint praise to say it ended up what many expected. Surely that was a goal. Who wants to bet that it has some of the highest ratings in Lifetime history? I think it would've done a smash-up job at the box office.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 4:04pm

You're right about it being a ratings winner, Auggie- 6.5 million people tuned in, which made it the most watched original programming on Lifetime in over five years. It also scored off the charts in all the key demos. A big success for everyone involved.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/10/lifetimes-steel-magnolia-remake-premieres-big-with-6-5-million-viewers/

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 4:05pm

Here is why I hate Steel Magnolias.

As I was watching this movie, one of my best friends in the world turned to me during the hospital scenes and said, 'I mean...it's so weird...here's a guy who's only been married to her for a little bit, but he gets to sign off on turning off her life support...but it's the mother who's been there the entire time, taking care of her.'

This friend, mind you, was in the hospital with me every day when I was signing those same forms for the man with whom I spent 8 years of my life. After I got over the initial, 'Are you really F*CKing saying this to me????' I realized that THAT is exactly what this movie wants you to feel. That men cannot handle these moments. That it's women who do all the heavy lifting, and men will just wilt under the pressure.

I've always been bothered by the raising up of women at the expense of men in this property (at least as a film...I don't think it's as obvious on stage). But these days? I find it offensive.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 4:12pm

Latifah should have taken the forms and started to smack him with them so they get into a knock down fight on the floor and only after security pulls their bloody bodies away from each other do they realize they've unplugged Shelby's machine. They stand there for a moment and give each other a wide eyed look before breaking out into spontaneous laughter and embracing, knowing they've shared a moment that will bond them for life.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 4:13pm

Well, I do think that is what it wants you to think (the stage show, too, since M'Lynn recounts the details of letting Shelby go to the women in the parlor) and yeah, it's a flaw of the work. But I always figured that it must have been how it happened it Robert Harling's life, since the Shelby story is a shrine to his sister.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 4:16pm

So you think Robert Harling is really Chi Chi and that his sister was really his cousin?

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 4:18pm

I think...because there are no men in the stage show, that it generally seems far more palatable. Once you introduce the characters of the men, they kind of need to act the buffoons in order to make the story work.

I felt that the first time I saw the movie...and that one had skilled actors like Skerritt and Shepard and McDermott. But that ragtag collection of hobos and insurance salesmen who were 'acting' in the new one? It made it all the worse.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 4:25pm

Absolutely agree about the addition of the men. They're not part of the original concept, and the narrow focus and the salon-based point of view -- the story's strengths, rather than a liability - make the men feel shoe-horned in. It's impossible to reconcieve the material and make these guys multi-dimensional (and thus worth our time), without scaling back the very heart of the material, its female-based POV. The previous film didn't make a persuasive case for the guys with attractive stars; these fellas, as duly noted in this thread, were low on charisma, charisma and presence requirements to make their cameo-like participation palatable.

Updated On: 10/8/12 at 04:25 PM

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 10/8/12 at 4:29pm

^ Interesting point. And it speaks to what star casting (or at least 'familiar actor' casting can do). If you have a role that's underwritten, casting a known actor shades the role immediately. Some of the work can be done just through casting because the audience will already have preconceived feelings about the actor. When you cast nobodies (who also aren't particularly skilled) you turn a liability into something almost fatal.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/9/12 at 12:03am

I'm watching it now and the biggest problem I'm having is that the cuts are extremely fast and it sounds like everyone is constantly talking over each other so they can get all the dialogue into 90 minutes. It's really distracting.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 10/9/12 at 1:06am

I made it thorough about half an hour, which I think was more than generous.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 10/9/12 at 11:39am

If comedy is tragedy plus time, then Jordan's point about this adaptation is ever more astute. We got ample tragedy, precious little comedy. The filmmakers' fear of turning this into a Tyler Perry movie stifled the comedic instincts of everyone involved. (To me, ironically, it only made the film feel like the last 25 minutes of a Tyler Perry movie, when the can't-we-just-love one another moral patina bathes the farce in Life Lessons.)