_Professor Marston and the Wonder Women_
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All on Mon Nov 27 19:56:01 2017
_Professor Marston and the Wonder Women_ does not deserve Rebecca Hall.
At least the lead actress of the film gets to showcase her charismatic, boarding-school-head-girl imperious best. Too bad her stellar work is
not showcased in a better film.
Hall plays the wife of the comic book creator Marston. They work briefly
in the Psychology department at Harvard in the 1930s, where she is never allowed a title, or to teach. In their experiments to create a lie-detector test, they enlist Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote), who becomes their
live-in lover. After Marston is laid off due to this scandalous 3-way relationship, he invents the "Wonder Woman" comics, only to die of
cancer soon afterwards. Elizabeth Marston and Olive reconciles after
the former's jealousy has split their family and their children.
Heathcote is more than adequate as the submissive young graduate student
who eventually grows up. Luke Evans is a thick piece of ham all the
way. It is like they are in different universe, he in a sitcom and Hall
a serious drama; their scenes together are painful to watch. Even in his death-scene, and the over-the top, fall-down-the-stair illness-reveal
moment, he is stiff as a suitcase. The worst and most embarrassing scene
has Evans speaking almost directly to audience, pleading with "us" to
have more empathy towards those with alternate lifestyles. (Would
that be lesbianism, or polygamy too? Given the way the film fires off
a throwaway laugh line about Catholicism being evil, one assumes he is
not talking about Mormons.) The speech, supposed to be the film's
climax I guess, is incredibly vulgar and unsubtle.
I slipped out of the theater as soon as the credit rolls, feeling
vaguely dirty to have watched this box-office megabomb. Surely if
any film deserves to be called "identity politics porn," this is
it. By the way, there does not seem to be any documented evidence
that Elizabeth and Olive are lesbian lovers. I don't mind it if
the filmmakers invented that; it is their tone-deaf artlessness that
is unforgivable. (Again, no blame goes to Rebecca Hall.)
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_Lady Bird_ has received almost universal praise. Greta Gerwig's solo directorial debut indeed isn't bad at all. It is honest, heart-felt,
much better photographed than the mumble-core indie films that first
made Gerwig famous. Saorise Ronan plays "Lady Bird" Christine, who
must be inspired by the young and eager Gerwig. The film opens with
a Joan Didion putdown of Sacramento, but ultimately, warms to the drab
capital city of California. Lady Bird has endless conflicts with
the nuns at her Catholic high school, her mother, and her best
friends, but ultimately reconciles with them. It is a very sincere coming-of-age story. Like Hal Hartley, Gerwig recognizes the
learning, humanity, and even the coolness, of the nuns and priests
that populate such small towns. The last scene has the college-bound
Christine coming out of a Catholic Mass in New York City, subtly
looking backwards; it is an incredible grace note that one wish
the director of _Professor Marston_ would be capable of in 100
years. _Lady Bird_ is by no means perfect; Gerwig should learn
to drop the awful, Sundance-regulation, wall-to-wall pop songs
that cheapen so many American indie films. Saorise Ronan doesn't
have the larger-than-life persona or the comic physical gifts Gerwig
possesses either; she is just a bit too ordinary for this role.
But the director is clearly one to watch in the future.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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