Spoilers herein.
According to Woody, 90% of success is showing up. If you are a writer, that is a non- trivial commitment. It means that you need to leave your cocoon and take your unprotected self into risky territory. It is the only way to guide the reader. The less risk you take, the less value in general to all parties. Then it is a merely a matter of direction. A common direction is sex, and a common linkage is the so-called passion for life conflated with rich writing.
That's familiar enough. I have a database of literally (double literally!) hundreds of films on this notion. I am astonished at how few of them actually take the kinds of risks they attempt to portray, how few actually show passion -- and quite apart from that, how seldom we encounter a real connection between the emotion risks of sex and those of writing. The gimmick here is supposed to be two warring books, each about the same woman but from entirely different perspectives. Since we cannot experience the books themselves, we are exposed to the perspectives. The trick is engage us in the same way that they are engaged -- to invite an obsession with these three as they obsess with each other.
The problem is that no one involved in this project has sufficient passion, much less the ability to transport it into our souls. Uma tries to look steamy and deep, but is still just a dumb flower child. Ward is horribly miscast and spends all his energy on a faux New York accent and demeanor. In all fairness to him, the real Miller appears to have been similarly occupied.
I was really impressed with Maria de Medeiros' eyes, which had the practiced effect of constant discovery. She really looks the part, but gets lost in Kaufman's apparent confusion about what he wants to do. He already had successfully merged sexual competition and the similar competitions of large politics in "Lightness of Being." But I credit that success in large part to the fearlessness of all three actors. Here we have the same three roles more or less, and his meek guidance is not enough to make up for their meeknesses.
If you want a film based on a real story that is more accurately connected between sex and writing, check out "Nora" and "Beat." Both are flawed but each has passion overlain on the real case. Another real case with a film that actually works is "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" though the sex there is abstract.
Two sex/writing films that really work for me are "The End of the Affair" (Julianne Moore version) and "Pillow Book." Risk there. Dangerous writing, dangerous watching.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 4: Has some interesting elements
According to Woody, 90% of success is showing up. If you are a writer, that is a non- trivial commitment. It means that you need to leave your cocoon and take your unprotected self into risky territory. It is the only way to guide the reader. The less risk you take, the less value in general to all parties. Then it is a merely a matter of direction. A common direction is sex, and a common linkage is the so-called passion for life conflated with rich writing.
That's familiar enough. I have a database of literally (double literally!) hundreds of films on this notion. I am astonished at how few of them actually take the kinds of risks they attempt to portray, how few actually show passion -- and quite apart from that, how seldom we encounter a real connection between the emotion risks of sex and those of writing. The gimmick here is supposed to be two warring books, each about the same woman but from entirely different perspectives. Since we cannot experience the books themselves, we are exposed to the perspectives. The trick is engage us in the same way that they are engaged -- to invite an obsession with these three as they obsess with each other.
The problem is that no one involved in this project has sufficient passion, much less the ability to transport it into our souls. Uma tries to look steamy and deep, but is still just a dumb flower child. Ward is horribly miscast and spends all his energy on a faux New York accent and demeanor. In all fairness to him, the real Miller appears to have been similarly occupied.
I was really impressed with Maria de Medeiros' eyes, which had the practiced effect of constant discovery. She really looks the part, but gets lost in Kaufman's apparent confusion about what he wants to do. He already had successfully merged sexual competition and the similar competitions of large politics in "Lightness of Being." But I credit that success in large part to the fearlessness of all three actors. Here we have the same three roles more or less, and his meek guidance is not enough to make up for their meeknesses.
If you want a film based on a real story that is more accurately connected between sex and writing, check out "Nora" and "Beat." Both are flawed but each has passion overlain on the real case. Another real case with a film that actually works is "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" though the sex there is abstract.
Two sex/writing films that really work for me are "The End of the Affair" (Julianne Moore version) and "Pillow Book." Risk there. Dangerous writing, dangerous watching.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 4: Has some interesting elements