My thoughts on ALL MY SONS (long)

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 10:56pm

I hate being late to the party. See, tonight I saw the best-produced movie I've seen in a long time.

It's called "Arthur Miller's ALL MY SONS" and is directed by Simon McBurney. Tt's not playing in a theater near you and the cheapest ticket costs $66. Still, it's worth seeing. The movie is chock full of everything you want in your Hollywood (by way of England) big budget extravaganza: celebrities and special effects. From the moment a tree is uprooted in a Michael Bay-esque explosion sequence, you can really tell you're about to get your money's worth.

Of course, I'm being incredibly facetious. This, of course, is not a movie, but a Broadway show masquerading as one. Unfortunately, this production is an epic mismatch of play, director and cast.

The genesis, apparently, is like this. Miller, before he died, saw "Mneumonic," McBurney's triumphant piece of theater-making. They got to talking, one expressed interest in tackling the other's work and yada, yada, yada, the result is this.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all for a radical reimagining. Rupert Goold's MACBETH was a great example of style, substance and an expert cast going hand in hand in hand. ALL MY SONS isn't much of a reimagining as it is a production of the play with a whole lot of distracting style. The cast is game, but only one person is giving a performance worth noting.

He is Patrick Wilson. With his All-American good looks, Wilson has a real handle on Chris Keller. It is a stunning example of carefully calibrated acting. His explosion, the cathartic moment, is well-deserved and warranted.

Dianne Weist is too one-note and far too calculated. John Lithgow is entirely out of his element and entirely wrong for the role. He plays one character well: an upper class WASPy gentleman. Joe Keller is a working class fella who isn't very bright. Katie Holmes is certainly beguiling and she glows so bright that if I didn't know any better, I'd say she was pregnant. But she can't act her way out of a paper bag and she delivers every line with the same girlish inflection. You know the kind: it's the same as you'd hear from the 7th grade girl who's playing Juliet.

Still, there's an electricity to the Joe-Chris fight scene in the second act, and that is the one truly impressive and jaw-dropping scene in the entire show.

The design concept is what makes it a movie. A well-produced movie. Lots of projections (distracting), they are what the characters are thinking of. In a film, it would be a flashback. Musical accompaniment: Too Twilight Zonian. It's supposed to be the music playing in their mind; that's pretty clear. But why are they all thinking of the same song, and why is it inappropriate to the dialogue?

And then there was reflection time: when each character would leave through the patio door, stare at the wall for a few seconds and then move along. Just bizarre.

Paul Anderson's lighting is pretty; Tom Pye's sets and costumes are simply appropriate.

They get an A for effort, but if I wanted to see a movie, I would have.

Updated On: 12/23/08 at 10:56 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/23/08 at 11:10pm

One thing I forgot to include:

The line about how Keller wishes his factory were more like General Motors - funny for a whole 'nother reason.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/24/08 at 8:18am

bump

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 12/24/08 at 11:22am

Thanks for the review Yankee. Its a shame this top notch cast doest execute as well as they could have.

[Parks]

Posted: 12/24/08 at 11:28am

Sorry you didn't like it. I loved it, personally. :-/

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/24/08 at 12:20pm

I'm with Parks. While I do agree with you, Yankee, that it was a lot like a movie, I thought it was a brilliantly acted, designed, directed, and produced production of a classic play.

Diane Wiest blew my mind. What an absolutely incredible stage actress. Very restrained acting that reminded me a lot of more (appropriately) exaggerated version of Cynthia Nixon's portrayal of a grieving mother in RABBIT HOLE.

Lithgow and Wilson were equally terrific. And I thought that while Katie Holmes didn't give any breakthrough type of performance, I thought she was just fine. I totally believed her portrayal, and she completed the foursome just perfectly. It's the smallest of the four roles, and I don't feel like the actress playing the role needs to shine at the level that the other three do here.

The projections and music were what made it a movie, as you noted. I found that they all assisted in moving the story forward and did not distract from the acting on stage. Personally, they kept me engaged by the story and at the edge of my seat at all times.

Overall, I found the production to be brilliant, and I'm thrilled it had a successful run on Broadway. I look forward to seeing all of the cast members in their next projects.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 12/24/08 at 12:24pm

This show is a great example of "you either love it or you hate it." I've yet to meet someone who is just in between. Literally.

I loved it and I know others who loved it, but I also know a great number of people who very strongly disliked it. Definitely a "matter of opinion" show.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/24/08 at 12:35pm

Of course you loved it.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 12/24/08 at 12:47pm

You literally posted on a completely different board just to mock me? Wow. How fabulous.

Regardless, yes, I did love ALL MY SONS. I thought it was an interesting production that did something very new with a modern classic. It's one of my favorite pieces of theatre with three of my favorite actors and I was moved by it. Some weren't. That's the only point I was trying to make. I think Yankee's reasons to dislike it are every bit as justified as the reasons why I don't dislike it.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 12/24/08 at 12:48pm

I did literally post. If I had posted figuratively you wouldn't have been able to read it.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/24/08 at 8:25pm

My biggest problem: It left me cold.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 12/24/08 at 10:07pm

I've kind of been mulling this over and I thought it was kind of weird. Anyone who didn't like it or it "left them cold" probably wouldn't really get my point, but that's okay. While it is designed to be very movie-like and the cast is made up of mostly big screen actors, any impact in the stage production would fall completely flat on film. All the power I felt from it was completely from it being a theatrical production. If it were on film, I doubt I would feel even nearly as affected despite it being a highly Hollywoodized piece of theatre.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 12/24/08 at 10:18pm

But it's NOT supposed to be movie-like. People aren't supposed to walk out of it thinking "I just saw a movie."

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 12/24/08 at 10:20pm

Well, regardless, that's how it was sort of built. If not movie-like, then highly theatrical.