Re: RE : RARA-AVIS: Re: movie remakes

From: BaxDeal@aol.com
Date: 18 Feb 2008


In a message dated 2/18/08 3:05:06 AM, IndieCrime@gmail.com writes:

> To be fair, just about everyone in The Black Dahlia was terribly
> miscast. Hartnett and Johannsen were out of their respective depths
> and Hillary Swank is a good actress, but she has zero sex appeal,
> making her wrong for her role as well.
>

also to be fair, the director of the film holds the ultimate responsibility over who gets cast in a film. sometimes certain casting elements are forced upon them for the financial reasons, but that's usually just one, and at most two individuals. and the director has the option of walking away from the project over creative differences, ie: he thinks an actor is wrong for the part

and to be fair to the actors, all of them have done far better work elsewhere. they're capable of it, but in this case, the script gave them dialogue faithful to Ellroy's hepcat patois, and to make that work requires a large degree of finesse and a director's vision of how that's supposed to play

some directors hardly direct actors at all, leaving them to their own devices. usually you'll see performances all over the board with an emphasis on overplaying. I suspect that is the case with DePalma, who clearly makes movies for the sheer joy of moving a camera. it shows in Aaron Eckart's Russell Crowe impression, Hillary Swank's Hepburnesque line readings and Scarlett Johanssen's natural schoolgirl hysteria. only Josh Hartnett fairs reasonably well by underplaying his dialogue as throwaways. you know you're in trouble when Josh Hartnett gives the best performance in your film

John Lau

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