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Post by Viced on Aug 17, 2018 1:15:44 GMT
Watched both parts the last two days...... and it's good but I was expecting a lot better. HBO's more recent Maine-set miniseries adapted from a Pulitzer Prize winner was a million times better....
It was very watchable and had some very strong moments, but I'm not sure if it really added up to much for me. And some stuff was just totally weird -- John Voss, William Fichter's strange obsession with Miles...
The cast is definitely great. I'd say the old folks - Newman, Woodward, and Parsons are MVPs. Dennis Farina was his usual awesome self... Ed Harris was good... but I kept thinking to myself that this would have been a perfect role for David Strathairn... was pretty disappointed in PSH.... not a bad performance by any stretch, but he's hardly in it and not really given anything to do. For some reason I always thought he played Ed Harris' brother in this and had a meaty role.... disappointing.
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Post by Martin Stett on Aug 17, 2018 1:40:56 GMT
I'm a huge fan. It gets a little soapy at points, but the pacing is so powerful, just letting the story go where it needs to at its own pace. Even Fichtner's obsession with Miles worked for me, portraying this insignificant man who feels that he should be respected, and takes out his insecurities on the people around him: especially Miles, since Miles so clearly doesn't respect him.
The whole cast is extraordinary, with the old folks definitely the MVPs, but Harris, Panabaker, Lucas, DeMunn, Pucci... is there anyone that isn't fabulous in this? PSH and Wright are adequate, I guess. You could make an argument for Hunt overdoing it, but I liked her.
This is a remarkable tale of glories lost, of scraping by in hopelessness, of familial hatred and love. I adore every minute of it. Terrific book, too.
Thoughts on Nobody's Fool, the other Richard Russo movie starring Paul Newman?
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Post by Viced on Aug 17, 2018 1:49:44 GMT
Martin Stett Good post. I am gonna give the book a try and re-watch the miniseries afterwards... not for a while, but eventually. I've actually had a copy of it for years but was just in the mood to watch the miniseries and did it. Fichtner's character -- it made sense but I don't think there was much of a payoff. And Miles just kind of seemed like a dick in the situation by the end when Fichtner says something like, "Can't you just see I want to be your friend?" His character is a version of a certain guy that everyone went to high school with, who still acts the same way to a pathetic extent... but idk, it just seemed a bit much with him stalking Miles outside of the restaurant all the time. Yeah, Hunt overdid it but it worked for me as well... Big fan of Nobody's Fool. I think it's one of the most true to life movies I've ever seen... authentic characters, situations... everything. A top 5 Newman performance as well.
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Post by Martin Stett on Aug 17, 2018 2:21:36 GMT
Martin Stett Good post. I am gonna give the book a try and re-watch the miniseries afterwards... not for a while, but eventually. I've actually had a copy of it for years but was just in the mood to watch the miniseries and did it. Fichtner's character -- it made sense but I don't think there was much of a payoff. And Miles just kind of seemed like a dick in the situation by the end when Fichtner says something like, "Can't you just see I want to be your friend?" His character is a version of a certain guy that everyone went to high school with, who still acts the same way to a pathetic extent... but idk, it just seemed a bit much with him stalking Miles outside of the restaurant all the time. Yeah, Hunt overdid it but it worked for me as well... Big fan of Nobody's Fool. I think it's one of the most true to life movies I've ever seen... authentic characters, situations... everything. A top 5 Newman performance as well. I get what you're saying about a lack of payoff, but I think that the point of the guy was that he'd always be a loser and never change. And that Miles is a dick. That also won't change. When you despise someone as much as Miles despises that "stupidest goddamn kid I've ever seen" (paraphrasing here, haven't seen the film in ages), you're not gonna change your mind, because you're too set in your own ways. I think the whole stalking thing was probably overdone like you say, but it just isn't one of those things that bothered me. Because he's an idiot. |
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Post by Mattsby on Apr 15, 2021 2:11:43 GMT
I remember seeing this a little after it aired, barely a teenager yet. I watched it for Paul Newman, actually.... I liked him a lot after seeing Cool Hand Luke, Slap Shot, Color of Money, Nobody's Fool. Seeing those listed now, with Empire Falls.... those five movies, that's one per decade! His last perf, it's a very good one. He makes that heedless, crumbed character so funny, so direct, and believable, even. There's joy in him playing it. As for the whole thing, it's good... you can't help but get small-town invested even as it airs out deceptions and tragedy just like, yes, a soap opera. But the scope and secrets of the narrative have an interesting way of curling around it all I thought. Side things too, like why they chose The Principal to be the narrator. Having said that - I kinda wonder how many at the time thought it was a step back for HBO as their first mini after Angels in America. This has tvisms like using scored exteriors as repeated transition... the squat visuals, etc. At any rate, HBO huddled some awesome casts for those two. Even the smaller players here deliver - a spookily onlooking PSH, Josh Lucas in one quick scene as younger Newman, a cool Theresa Russell, a one-armed Aidan Quinn who I always expect will be told that he's actually royalty. As for Fichtner - Viced Martin Stett - I think that subplot is fine. One thing I maybe misread... I'm pretty sure it's implied that he was ordered by the Joanne Woodward character to keep an eye on Ed Harris. That explains why he's stalking him which motivates his personal insecure issues - he's buried all sorts of resentment for anyone with respect, and Harris represents that in specific terms, so he zeroes in on him in a way nobody would expect. That cop car scene in Chapter 5 highlights that. How long was the Fichtner character preparing that horrible ego-padding speech? It's actually kinda sad. Also in that Chapter... Harris has that stirring flashback, following his mother but understanding none of it back then, giving us the major character twist.... I'm too busy gripped and chilled by the revelation to notice that it's so doubtful anyone's memory could be so conveniently vivid. I love the detail there of him going up and up the ladder, reverberating inside... he's getting closer to the truth, yet the top of the church, needing so much scraping, is entirely out of reach. |
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Post by cheesecake on Apr 16, 2021 19:18:55 GMT
I remember seeing this a little after it aired, barely a teenager yet. I watched it for Paul Newman, actually.... I liked him a lot after seeing Cool Hand Luke, Slap Shot, Color of Money, Nobody's Fool. Seeing those listed now, with Empire Falls.... those five movies, that's one per decade! His last perf, it's a very good one. He makes that heedless, crumbed character so funny, so direct, and believable, even. There's joy in him playing it. Same here. Haven't seen it since it aired, but it's such a great swan song for him (voice performance wise he's nice in Cars too  ). Didn't think too much of the series over all, but I might feel different today. |
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). Didn't think too much of the series over all, but I might feel different today. 