Do you like Colin Ferrell?
He's not really my fantasy-figure cup of tea, but I can see how people are attracted to him. He is dark and muscular and handsome and a pretty good actor, so if you like that kind of thing, you might fancy him.
I watched "A Home at the End of the World" last night on DVD. I should say "I watched way too much of 'A Home at the End of the World' before I got sick of it and yelled at the DVD player and turned it off, mad."
The movie is obviously taken from the writer's real life, and I am afraid that they made the mistake of putting a little too much reality in their story.
I once got to spend an evening with Dennis Palumbo, who has written a great book about writing.
He talked about how, if you have a great true story, you don't HAVE to stick to the truth - you can change things, embellish them, make real life BETTER. That's why writing is fun. That's why we keep doing it.
(As long as you don't do a James Frey and claim it is non-fiction.)
But my main problem with "A Home at the End of the World," is that Colin Ferrell is totally misused and I guess miscast in the movie. He walks around wearing a bad wig in the first half of the movie with this stupid moon-pie expression that is supposed to signify that he is a perfect innocent who doesn't see evil anywhere. He is forced to maintain that level of vapidity through the whole stupid movie (or at least the part I was able to choke down).
My message to the moviemakers is: Do not waste the Ferrell, people. It is one thing if a bad actor is cast in a stupid role. But when a good actor is stuck flailing around in the muck of a terrible part, it seems so much more tragic.
I like Colin Ferrell in interviews. I loves me some Irish accent.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing more annoying than paying to see a movie (in theaters or in home) and then having to watch perfectly great actors being written and directed into crap crap crap.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you about that story. I read the book, or, I should say, MOST of the book until I got so sick of it that I gave up. Ugh.
ReplyDelete(Haven't seen the movie, but I suspect I'd agree with you on it, too.)
I heard that the book is much better. And this post only reminded me of my disturbing new love for Daniel Craig.
ReplyDelete"As long as you don't do a James Frey and claim it is non-fiction."
ReplyDeleteI'm a writer and I've chatted with other writers about James Frey. We all believe that he was used badly: by people who wanted to feel superior to someone. Non-fiction is just a story that we pretend is true. Fiction is just a story that we pretend isn't true. Everyone everywhere is always shifting the bits of a story to make a better story. Anyone who asserts otherwise is deluded. We've all had this happen: We experience something with someone. An hour later, that someone relates what happened to someone else.
"Hey," you think. "That's not quite what happened, but I like this telling. It's snappier. It's the truth, but better."
So it goes with James Frey and every other storyteller, whether they're paid or not.