HBO's "The Normal Heart": Your Thoughts — Page 6

I thought the mirror ball was to show the contrast between the sexy fun atmosphere that was there not long ago and the more serious tone that has taken over.

Was a Julie Taymor moment.

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I finally watched this tonight. I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to, because of my general distaste for Ryan Murphy and because the 2011 revival was one of the most powerful theatrical experiences I've ever had and I wasn't sure I wanted to experience this piece in any way other than that one. I'm very glad I did end up watching it, because I really loved it.

The most I can say for Ryan Murphy is that he didn't ruin it. It seems that he left the material alone, which I think was the best we could have hoped for.

The performances were wonderful, with the standouts for me being Joe Mantello and Jim Parsons, who was even better as Tommy than he was on Broadway. I think that the piece as a whole works better onstage. I don't know what it would have been like on film with a decent director at the helm, but part of what gives the piece such an impact onstage is the relentlessness of it. That white backdrop on Broadway with the names continuing to be projected on it until they reached the back wall of the house was so stark that it made it seem like the whole play took place almost in one breath, that Ned/Larry's rants were just continuously happening until you couldn't take it anymore. His eventual expulsion from GMHC makes more sense when you get the feeling that he has just been screaming at everyone in sight for 3 straight years.

Overall, though, I think it's still powerful and it will reach a lot of people and that's important. My mother watched the movie on Sunday night and it was her first exposure to the material and she can't stop talking about it and was begging me to watch it so we could talk about it. I think that's a good thing.

Updated On: 5/29/14 at 01:45 AM

It's added. It's a small-scale adaptation of the ever-growing number of names of the dead, which is a large visual piece of stage productions.

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Not necessarily. In the Broadway revival there was an ever expanding series of lists of the dead that eventually took over the entire set and then spilled into the audience and then over the theater. The play ends with Bruce still alive.

What was really tough was that a lot of the names were real and you might see somebody you knew or knew of, if you were around at the time.

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Sorry for the double post

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Updated On: 5/29/14 at 01:55 PM

Estelle was one of my favorite moments of the film. Reminded me so much of Rev. Zeigler.

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So that's two of us who had Normal Heart dreams. Anybody else?

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I wonder if there was a script doctor?

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Oh and Namo, I couldn't make sense of several of the transitions.

And all of the names in the revival projections were real, no?

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Updated On: 5/29/14 at 04:52 PM

I thought all the names were real too, but just because there were some people I knew.

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"And I still have no idea what emotion she was playing in the aborted dancing scene. Jealousy?"

I thought that scene was astonishingly clear. Roberts plays a woman who has spent most of her life encased in iron (iron lung, wheelchair, leg braces, etc.) and she is shocked by, then gives in to, the sheer joy of being held by another human being. And so she loses herself in a moment that isn't about death and dying.

But Ned--being Ned--is oblivious to the impact on her (and, in fairness, it doesn't have the same meaning for him) and ruins the moment by returning to his fears and rants. The moment spoiled, she throws down her crutches and returns to her chair.

What is so brilliant about the scene is that it dramatizes the profound need most humans have for physical contact with others. And thus it serves as a counterpoint to Emma's logical, but unrealistic, argument that "if you know ****ing will kill you, don't you stop ****ing?"

So, no, it's not that she's jealous. It's just that she had lost herself in a moment of human contact and Johnny Mathis, a moment which Ned proceeded to spoil.

I loved the film and thought that was one of the very best scenes.