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In most calendar years this would be the
annual big-budget, overhyped contender for many Razzie
awards, but I really can't see this beating out
another even worse Hollywood remake, The Wicker Man.
And that's a shame, because this is the
kind of film that truly deserves Razzies. It manages
to incorporate just about every bad element of
Hollywood filmmaking. Some examples:
1. It's an inferior, unnecessary
remake of a film which was considered a classic.
2. It was cast with stars instead of
actors. Tony Soprano, Jude Law, and Kate Winslet
don't even seem to realize that they are supposed to
be in a film about Louisiana. Winslet and Law have
rich American "r's," drawn-out and exaggerated, as
one might hear eavesdropping on an imaginary plane
between Minneapolis and Dublin. Law and Winslet not
only struggle with their half-Southern,
half-Midwestern accents, but their character
interpretations are shallow and boring, although
those characteristics seem to be Jude Law's
specialty, now that I think about it. Of all the
major actors in the film, only Patricia Clarkson
sounds like she's from any place on the globe within
500 miles of Louisiana. And she probably would have
found a way to screw up the accent for this movie
except that she actually is from Louisiana and it
just came pouring out.
3. The central performance is all
strutting arrogance with no emotional core. Sean
Penn, normally a fine actor, turns in a performance
of such superficial and theatrical bombast that it
would embarrass Bill Shatner. Richard Burton,
in his foulest and most drunken condition, had more
subtlety than this. Forget Burton. It must be the
hammiest performance since Arnold the Pig was
featured on Green Acres. In all fairness, though, I
have to say that the film is more interesting when
Penn is on camera than when the focus shifts away
from him to the subtler, but also more boring, Jude
Law.
4. One word: voice-over.
The film never achieves a moment of
sincere, poignant drama except when Dr Lecter is on
screen. Hopkins didn't make any effort at all to sound
like he was from Louisiana, but he did understand that
the story needed emotional resonance, and he tried to
find the human center of his character. Unfortunately,
he lacks sufficient screen time to carry the film.
Worst of all, after all the histrionics
and bluster and melodrama have evaporated into the
closing credits, we come to realize that the film
didn't have anything to say, or even an interesting
way to say nothing.
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(2006)
