Beauty is Fleeting

April being the cruelest month, the other day I was thinking of Liz Taylor.
She popped into my mind.
I was thinking that she must be very old and, given her poor health history, look very bad nowadays. And I thought that when that happens to formerly gorgeous movie icons, the best thing is either to go into hiding, or embrace your life and aged looks with a vengeance. Having said that, let's be honest: nobody wants to see a current picture of Brigitte Bardot, and nobody didn't jump and almost didn't have a heart attack when they saw Sophia Loren at the Oscars recently. What I'm saying is, being an international beauty icon is not easy, because age stops for no one, regardless of surgeons and treatments. Some stars age with class (Audrey Hepburn, Julie Christie) but it's not easy and I feel sorry for them all. If I, who have always decried the use of plastic surgery, am contemplating my drooping eyelids with something approaching horror and botox with something approaching possibility, well I can't imagine what it must be like when your otherwordly beauty is your identity. Must be a bitch. Which is why I'm glad I'm not that gorgeous.
So I did run into a recent picture of Liz Taylor in one of the cheesier tabloids. Oy. I guess that age is only good to you if you don't fight it.
Youth is fleeting. It makes me feel sad.

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

A master class on what not to do. How not to cast actors, how not to write dialogue, how not to rely on unnecessary, deadly voiceover narration, how not to adapt a novel, how not to take yourself so seriously and be pretentious when you do not know how to do things. It was hard going, but I learned a lot. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, if you must know. Doesn't even approach the mediocre competence of hackwork.

Adventureland

This lovely comedy by Greg Mottola (Superbad) is one of the smarter, less scatological current films about males coming of age. It has a sensitive, wistful quality, complicated characters and a biting, bittersweet sense of humor. If it has a formulaic structure, it doesn't show it. It meanders along, more interested in character than in plot, which is so very refreshing. It is beautifully observed.
It's also an interesting portrayal of class angst, of thwarted expectations. I love the setting of the amusement park where people go to have mindless fun, and all the carnies who work there are just miserable misfits. These poor overqualified eggheads, working in a place full of dummies. That's America for you, a huge amusement park that craves entertainment, and is derisive of intellect.
Adventureland made me feel nostalgic for my hormone-riddled youth. Set in the eighties, it makes one wonder what were we thinking ("Amadeus, Amadeus, Amadeus"... ).

I Love You, Man

Or in praise of Paul Rudd, our tarnished era's answer to Cary Grant. Please take this with a grain of salt. Clive Owen is Grant's true heir, and if you've noticed, both Owen and Cary Grant come from the other side of the ocean. Americans, I'm afraid, are not big on suave. Still, for stateside romantic comedians, Paul Rudd is the very best we have. He is the best thing in the movie. Hopefully there will be many more and better. He should do Hamlet. For real. He has the right age, the right smarts, and the right intelligence, he can be very sweet, but he has an edge. He would be a lot of fun. Which is something sorely lacking from most Hamlets.
The movie is funny in spurts, but Paul Rudd's performance as a sweet guy who is totally awkward around dudes makes it work. Not only is his timing impeccable and he is a great comedian, funny and light on his feet, but he is also a damn fine actor, and he imbues the character with true sweetness and true embarrassment. You can feel his mortification. He is delightful. As his partner in this bromantic comedy, Jason Segel is also wonderful as a slacker with initiative. The have a genuine chemistry together. They could be our own version of Tracy and Hepburn. Anyways.
The one thing that I wish we could all get tired of is the projectile vomiting, and all the scatological jokes. They are what the audience loves best, but they get tiresome.

Duplicity

Duplicity was a bit of a let down. Some of it is great, smart fun, but what could have been a classic is marred by too intricate a plot.
It is delightful to see Clive Owen in anything, and here he is utterly winning, charming and wonderful. Praise the Gods of Cinema that because of the likes of him we can still claim to have some old fashioned movie star power in these vulgar and devalued days. He looks like a million bucks, but he also acts like it.
Julia Roberts does a lot with very little, and it is almost disorienting to see a movie star of her caliber, instead of looking more botoxed and plastified, looking normal, and real, with a regular woman's arms (that is, not weapons of kabbalistic mass destruction like Madonna's) and some well earned, lovely wrinkles around the eyes. Good for her. Now if only she relaxed a bit and had some fun, she could truly do wonders.
The movie bites off more than it can chew. I like the idea of a pair of spies trying to game a pair of horrid corporations and being spies, not really knowing how to trust and love. It's a spy caper/romantic comedy and it does sustain an interesting tone of bemused skepticism about love,. This is probably the most hard-hearted romantic comedy ever (except perhaps for The Lady Eve. Roberts' character is called Stanwyck for a reason), which is fine by me. But, because of the frantic cat and mousing, it never really gets to delve into why these two people are in love. We are supposed to believe that spending three full days shagging in a luxury suite in Rome is enough to bring these two mercenaries to love. But there's the rub, love doesn't seem to stand a chance to greed, and the way the movie is written, it never really does. So one settles for the joys of watching two huge movie stars do what they do best.
Another joy is watching the character actors act up a storm in very little time, and nailing it. All praise be to the fabulous Paul Giamatti. What a thrill to finally see him playing a winner, a shark, an Alpha Male. Look at his wonderful impersonation of a smug, arrogant, competitive captain of industry. He just oozes slime. He has a field day, and he is tons of fun to watch.
Carrie Preston does marvels with a mousy travel agent that falls for the charms of Clive Owen. Her five minutes onscreen warrant a nomination, as far as I'm concerned. Who would not totally keel over the attentions of this man? The way he gets mock-excited over her apple-tini is priceless. She falls for it, but with a palpable mixture of bewilderment, trepidation and then total delight and even defiance. Her scene with Julia Roberts is the best in the movie.
The movie is full of wonderfully directed details and punchy dialogue by Tony Gilroy, who should be commended for bringing some urgently needed brains and style to Hollywood, but it is also a very uneven film and slightly exhausting. Some characters are written with great detail, others are totally one-dimensional. Excellent character actors like Tom Wilkinson, Denis O'Hare and Kathleen Chalfant are left to breathe life to stick figures.
I love a movie that makes fun of corporations and marketing, and I wish there had been more biting satire (my favorite detail, the tagline of a corporation: "A Part of Your Life Since 1867"), but again, with a plot so convoluted there was no time to stop and smell the vitriol, which is a shame.
The bittersweet ending is very nice, almost Wilderesque, which is a huge compliment. In Billy Wilder's days, even with silly plots like Some Like It Hot (the greatest romantic comedy ever), there was time to hone in on character, which is why one cares deeply about Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis running around in drag for two hours.
I'm sure guys will get a kick out of the twists and turns of the plot. Us girls probably prefer a little more foreplay, more teasing, more seduction, and less complication.
But more of Clive Owen, always.