Even the great Rebecca Hall could not save this turkey.
_Tumbledown_ is about Hall, the widow and ex-collaborator
of a folksong singer, grieving for him in their Maine
small town enclave. Jason Sudeikis plays a Hofstra University
Professor and fan of her late husband's songs who barges into
her life for materials for his book. Hall is at first icy but
falls for him later. For once Hall gets to showcase her great
personal charm on film; she does as well with the uninspired
material as she could. There is a scene where she discovers
a previously unknown song of her husbands scored to her poem.
Her expressions literally change with each line of the lyrics.
Her work is incredible, especially considering how lousy the
song is. It must have been as hard as playing to a green
screen. The rest of the film, unfortunately, has all the
American Indie characteristics that make you despair of
humanity's future: the aforementioned terrible choice of
songs, the use of Saturday Night Live alums (Sudeikis)
who are dreadful dramatic actors (he barely manages a
single change of facial expression the entire film). Why
the screen-writer thinks that this smart-ass wiseguy
resembles a university professor? There isn't a single
word he utters that does not reek of the hustler toiling
in a write-by-committee sitcom mess hall. Then again,
lots of people, perennially brain-washed by SNL's twitter
feed, probably find Sudeikis adorable and a
genius. _Tumbledown_ has to be endured, minute by painful
minute, with occasional respite granted by Rebecca Hall's
sparkling moments (the film was originally written with
Rose Byrne in mind, apparently). Oh, the horror.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)