Awful book. So precious and ridiculous with pages of drawings, odd text, etc. The music for this trailer = the usual nonsense. Nothing about the song is relevant, except for the oh-so-clever scenes mimicking what the lyrics are saying. Also, for anyone not having read the book, the trailer doesn’t really convey anything. 9-11 might be the draw here, then again, it might not. I’ll wait for the screener.
Don’t have a strong reaction one way or the other. It’s a bit interesting to see Tom Hanks paired with Sandra Bullock coming off his latest pairing with Julia Roberts, seeing as Bullock is on the upswing following The Blind Side and all, I suppose.
Not crazy about the U2 music video treatment. It appears Hanks and Bullock are supporting the kid … like Billy Elliott goes to NY. I like Bullock, I hope she has some impact with this. The supporting cast looks interesting.
Looks better than ‘okay.’ If you can get past the fact that the kid is way too profound/insightful to resemble any real-life child, it’s probably going to be a decent filmgoing experience. For the record, I’ve NEVER seen an unattended child wandering around Manhattan.
Also not a huge fan of the book. But hey, it’s a book that has potential to be a good film. And it’s got the sort of tone that Daldry could work really well with so long as he doesn’t overdo it.
That is my main positive comment. He could be highly effective in this role, giving off equal measures of the “heartwarming old man” who actually seems genuinely wise. Max von Sydow simply projects those qualities today, so he looks well-cast here.
Great call on Hugo Cabret, Eloi; I nearly pointed that out in my last post but got distracted by the Phillies-Braves game. It’s a little strange how similar the two films seem due to the mutual convergence of the “boy with the magical key” tales.
I would agree with you actionman, but you know the way it is with megastars and megeproducers. They (rightly) do everything they can to safeguard their product, and that means getting out the CVs and seeing who’s…. brilliant but not necessarily suitable for the project. Roth seems right, but Menges as DoP? There’s nothing on show in the trailer that says… WOW! Can you imagine Roger Deakins doing stuff like this? I think it would be like A Beautiful Mind. Well lit… but gimme True Grit.
And as for Rudin doesn’t put his name on crap… yes, but he produced Angela’s Ashes. And The Stepford Wives. And The Village. All projects that before they went into production seemed like slam-dunks.
Don’t get me wrong, Rudin has an incredible record… but like everyone else, he has produced his turkeys.
Rudin does have a pretty remarkable track record. There are a few stinkers in there, such as the Stepford Wives, but on the whole he knows how to pick them.
RE: Chris Menges…He stepped in when Harris Savides, the original DP, fell ill…He subbed for him with Harris’ crew and apparently has done a brilliant job. You can read about it on the Arriflex website. They shot this film with the Alexia.
Rashad, for me The Village was complete affirmation that M. Night was a one trick pony. Two speeds in his gearbox; slow and stopped which all gave way to a phoney twist ending.
With the exception of The Reader I haven’t cared much about Daldry. Then Weinstein managed to sneak that past Doubt, The Wrestler, Wall-e, and The Dark Knight for Best Picture. That has colored my influence of him since.
Not just 4 for 4 Best Picture, he could be 4 for 4 with Best Directing Noms…that’s actually pretty amazing regardless what you think of him or his films.An astonishing statistical accomplishment esp from the fussy Director’s Branch of the Academy.
– Last uttered by no one, ever, anywhere. Three nominations, four nominations, whatever… All the grief Tom Hooper got last year, or Rob Marshall gets, should be multiplied tenfold when it comes to Daldry. I know Jeff (and most here) and big champions of Scott Rudin productions and I’m not saying Daldry’s not a pro or a solid craftsman or a tasteful “storyteller.” But as a DIRECTOR, the MOVIE GODZ are not pleased. You think in 20, 30 years anyone’s gonna be writing theses on the Cinema of Daldry? Think he’s going to some day be recognized as some Sirk/Aldrich/Ray/Boetticher unsung force of nature making beautiful, searing works of art that transcend their time and speak to the universal truths of art and human nature? He’s not a soaper, not a shooter, not a straight-shooter, not a maniac, not an experimenter… Dude should just write some middlebrow BOOKS, because if there’s four people in the world who can point out a STEPHEN DALDRY SHOT, I’d be fucking AMAZED. Yet he’s racked up for Oscar nods than at least 100 guys more deserving of that kind of praise.
He’s like the ultimate director of bullshit you have to hear bandied about for three months at Oscar time, fast on its way to getting flipped past on 2am Cinemax as you opt to watch “Collateral” for the 200th time instead. The only minor exception being “Billy Elliot,” which I’m sure still has its fanbase. But come on. Guy makes John Madden look like Guy Madden.
Daldry’s been sacked, LexG’s now thumping his chest. Lex’s appropriation of “MOVIE GODZ” has a kind of definitive stamp of authority that Jeff himself would rightly envy.
LexG is spot on. The Madden / Madden comparison is hilarious. Personally, I think Daldry is about as singular and inspirational, sorry, insipid as Jason Reitman.
Sorry, disagree with all of you on Daldry. I didn’t care for The Reader which to me was recycled and emotionally unengaging nonsense.
However, Billy Elliott and particularly The Hours are both terrific films. And I can point to several memorable shots that come from Daldry movies, starting with The Hours — Ed Harris going out the window, Meryl Streep collapsing on the kitchen floor, Nicole Kidman wandering into a river and Julianne Moore lying on a bed while a torrent of water rushes in beneath her. That is a memorable movie about the human condition and it’s very annoying to constantly hear it reduced to some sort of braying study of lesbian neuroses, or whatever the party line is.
I’ve never bought the “braying study of lesbian neuroses” crap. It’s a film as you say about the human condition but my complaint is that it doesn’t dig deep. It’s practically all surface, to me at least. The performances are good, but I put that down to a first rate cast. Which brings me to the images you mentioned. Yes they are striking but I didn’t feel they are emblematic of the story/themes. They are just striking.
Wow, lot of negativity here. Guess I’m in the minority, but I thought the trailer was great and the song was perfect for it. Where the Streets Have No Name is a metaphorical song anyway, and the lyrics can absolutely be connected to 9/11, particularly to someone who actually lost someone there. Never read the book, even though I’ve been meaning to, but I think I will now.
As an aside, I love the idea of an Al Queda terrorist seeing this film and either A) being annoyed that we created something beautiful out of something so horrible or B) actually being converted by it. A silly dream, I know, but reading The Kite Runner helped me to understand another people a tiny bit…so not impossible.
I share your sentiments about some thug seeing a film made in the wake of 9/11 and seeing how beauty can be born of tragedy.
But the use of the U2 song? They wrote that song in direct response to the famine in Ethiopia. They went there after Live Aid in 1985 and seeing the despair they wrote of a place, “high on a desert plane…”
But I suppose if U2 are willing to sell their souls for a few more nickels and dimes, so folks are entitled to re-imagine the meaning of the lyrics.
No, I think the performances are very strong. Right across the board. Maybe I’m being churlish towards Daldry, but I’ve always felt whatever strength there is in his directing it comes from the script. Now, ordinarily it could be argued that he finesses the script… but look at the person who wrote scripts/adapted those books. David Hare. Class writer. First. Middle. Last.
I don’t think Daldry really pushes the script beyond what is on the page. He manages it more than directs it.
But hey, I will concede this. I’ve never met the man, never sat in on one of the meetings, never been privy to the decision making.
LexG- Spot-on. I see Daldry’s name as director and my body starts shutting down like around hour 9.25 of a ten hour shift. I particularly enjoyed/agreed with your “ultimate director of bullshit” line.
As for reactions to this trailer, I think it’s pretty weak sauce. Didn’t like how it telegraphs damn near everything…didn’t like the obvious-family-friendly gags or seeing frickin’ TOM HANKS swinging on the playground, or Sandra Bullock looking at the smoking WTC buildings. Didn’t Viola Davis play that same character in OUT OF SIGHT? I expected to see Isaiah Washington looming over her shoulder leering at the kid and going “MOSELLE, who the fuck is it?” Overall it’s a bunch of September 11th BS rolled into an inspirational movie, and it makes me a little nauseous. I wish they’d gone with an unknown/theatre actor as the dad, so that the audience doesn’t get fake jollies saying “That’s TOM HANKS, he didn’t really die in the Towers, I saw him in that Larry Crowne movie!” There’s a way to use big stars in a story, and a way not to use them. (For example, the way Kathryn Bigelow used Ralph Fiennes in HURT LOCKER or Soderbergh used his all-stars in CONTAGION= exemplary.) Nothing against Hanks (though I confess a bias against Bullock) but his Spielberg side is what I see in this trailer, when his star power/charisma is best used nowadays in a role like Charlie Wilson.
I actually never knew what that song was about, and that is the beauty of metaphorical lyrics: they are open to interpretation. I just read them again to refresh my memory and and I don’t think there is any way one could surmise the song is about a famine in Ethiopia without already knowing that fact. Yet, reading them now, the connection to 9/11 seems so obvious, they’re almost too on the nose. Of course, this wasn’t Bono’s intention, as he is not a time traveler (to my knowledge), but a simple synchronicity that a good musical director will recognize and exploit.
Awful book. So precious and ridiculous with pages of drawings, odd text, etc. The music for this trailer = the usual nonsense. Nothing about the song is relevant, except for the oh-so-clever scenes mimicking what the lyrics are saying. Also, for anyone not having read the book, the trailer doesn’t really convey anything. 9-11 might be the draw here, then again, it might not. I’ll wait for the screener.
Don’t have a strong reaction one way or the other. It’s a bit interesting to see Tom Hanks paired with Sandra Bullock coming off his latest pairing with Julia Roberts, seeing as Bullock is on the upswing following The Blind Side and all, I suppose.
Not crazy about the U2 music video treatment. It appears Hanks and Bullock are supporting the kid … like Billy Elliott goes to NY. I like Bullock, I hope she has some impact with this. The supporting cast looks interesting.
Looks better than ‘okay.’ If you can get past the fact that the kid is way too profound/insightful to resemble any real-life child, it’s probably going to be a decent filmgoing experience. For the record, I’ve NEVER seen an unattended child wandering around Manhattan.
The only thing I like is Hanks and Bullock. I can’t get why the kid is looking at old films, rather than a VHS.
Also not a huge fan of the book. But hey, it’s a book that has potential to be a good film. And it’s got the sort of tone that Daldry could work really well with so long as he doesn’t overdo it.
The U2 doesn’t help anything at all.
On the plus side… Max von Sydow!
I love Sandra Bullock. Afterglow nomination no. 2
So this kid was on Jeopardy and got cast as the lead in an Oscar-bait film. Interesting.
“On the plus side… Max von Sydow!”
That is my main positive comment. He could be highly effective in this role, giving off equal measures of the “heartwarming old man” who actually seems genuinely wise. Max von Sydow simply projects those qualities today, so he looks well-cast here.
With this and Hugo Cabret, it’s a good year for magical keys.
The grief bits were actually quite sad, even in the trailer form, so it looks like it could have potential. But his wacky quest looks a bit contrived.
DeeZee says: “Looks like Autumn Rush meets Home Alone 2″
Great call on Hugo Cabret, Eloi; I nearly pointed that out in my last post but got distracted by the Phillies-Braves game. It’s a little strange how similar the two films seem due to the mutual convergence of the “boy with the magical key” tales.
screenplay by eric roth and cinematography by chris menges. pretty nice right there. rudin also doesn’t put his name on crap.
I would agree with you actionman, but you know the way it is with megastars and megeproducers. They (rightly) do everything they can to safeguard their product, and that means getting out the CVs and seeing who’s…. brilliant but not necessarily suitable for the project. Roth seems right, but Menges as DoP? There’s nothing on show in the trailer that says… WOW! Can you imagine Roger Deakins doing stuff like this? I think it would be like A Beautiful Mind. Well lit… but gimme True Grit.
And as for Rudin doesn’t put his name on crap… yes, but he produced Angela’s Ashes. And The Stepford Wives. And The Village. All projects that before they went into production seemed like slam-dunks.
Don’t get me wrong, Rudin has an incredible record… but like everyone else, he has produced his turkeys.
Rudin does have a pretty remarkable track record. There are a few stinkers in there, such as the Stepford Wives, but on the whole he knows how to pick them.
Not interested based on the trailer….and based on Tom Hanks not doing anything interesting….and just not interested in this.
I know there’s no similarity to the story but watching this made me remember PAY IT FORWARD, which is NOT the movie anyone needs to remember.
This feels like that, only the kid doesn’t die at the end, even though after two minutes I wanted him to.
This guy I know recently decided to become a vegetarian solely because of Jonathan Safran Foer. What an idiot. Beef is awesome.
To The Pope:
RE: Chris Menges…He stepped in when Harris Savides, the original DP, fell ill…He subbed for him with Harris’ crew and apparently has done a brilliant job. You can read about it on the Arriflex website. They shot this film with the Alexia.
Alexa camera, typo…sorry.
The Village doesn’t belong with those other two movies
Daviddb,
Thanks for the pointer. I was unaware of that.
The trailer does little to nothing for me.
Rashad, for me The Village was complete affirmation that M. Night was a one trick pony. Two speeds in his gearbox; slow and stopped which all gave way to a phoney twist ending.
Daldry is about to go four-for-four with Best Picture Noms. Sorta amazing since I’ve never wanted to watch any of his movies twice.
With the exception of The Reader I haven’t cared much about Daldry. Then Weinstein managed to sneak that past Doubt, The Wrestler, Wall-e, and The Dark Knight for Best Picture. That has colored my influence of him since.
The Village isn’t about the twist though. It’s what leads these people towards that lifestyle. It’s about fear, and the manipulation of it.
Not just 4 for 4 Best Picture, he could be 4 for 4 with Best Directing Noms…that’s actually pretty amazing regardless what you think of him or his films.An astonishing statistical accomplishment esp from the fussy Director’s Branch of the Academy.
“Cool, a new Stephen Daldry movie!”
– Last uttered by no one, ever, anywhere. Three nominations, four nominations, whatever… All the grief Tom Hooper got last year, or Rob Marshall gets, should be multiplied tenfold when it comes to Daldry. I know Jeff (and most here) and big champions of Scott Rudin productions and I’m not saying Daldry’s not a pro or a solid craftsman or a tasteful “storyteller.” But as a DIRECTOR, the MOVIE GODZ are not pleased. You think in 20, 30 years anyone’s gonna be writing theses on the Cinema of Daldry? Think he’s going to some day be recognized as some Sirk/Aldrich/Ray/Boetticher unsung force of nature making beautiful, searing works of art that transcend their time and speak to the universal truths of art and human nature? He’s not a soaper, not a shooter, not a straight-shooter, not a maniac, not an experimenter… Dude should just write some middlebrow BOOKS, because if there’s four people in the world who can point out a STEPHEN DALDRY SHOT, I’d be fucking AMAZED. Yet he’s racked up for Oscar nods than at least 100 guys more deserving of that kind of praise.
He’s like the ultimate director of bullshit you have to hear bandied about for three months at Oscar time, fast on its way to getting flipped past on 2am Cinemax as you opt to watch “Collateral” for the 200th time instead. The only minor exception being “Billy Elliot,” which I’m sure still has its fanbase. But come on. Guy makes John Madden look like Guy Madden.
Daldry’s been sacked, LexG’s now thumping his chest. Lex’s appropriation of “MOVIE GODZ” has a kind of definitive stamp of authority that Jeff himself would rightly envy.
This is no doubt incredibly mean, but am I the only one who thought the kid in this looks and sounds like a 12 year old Cate Blanchett?
It won’t be 4 for 4 for Best Picture noms. Billy Elliott wasn’t nominated for Best Picture.
Doesn’t look bad but also doesn’t look great. A Hallmark production with an A list team.
LexG is spot on. The Madden / Madden comparison is hilarious. Personally, I think Daldry is about as singular and inspirational, sorry, insipid as Jason Reitman.
Shoot, musealien1 is right. Guess I was thinking of his Director noms. My sentiment stands however.
Sorry, disagree with all of you on Daldry. I didn’t care for The Reader which to me was recycled and emotionally unengaging nonsense.
However, Billy Elliott and particularly The Hours are both terrific films. And I can point to several memorable shots that come from Daldry movies, starting with The Hours — Ed Harris going out the window, Meryl Streep collapsing on the kitchen floor, Nicole Kidman wandering into a river and Julianne Moore lying on a bed while a torrent of water rushes in beneath her. That is a memorable movie about the human condition and it’s very annoying to constantly hear it reduced to some sort of braying study of lesbian neuroses, or whatever the party line is.
bobbyperu,
I’ve never bought the “braying study of lesbian neuroses” crap. It’s a film as you say about the human condition but my complaint is that it doesn’t dig deep. It’s practically all surface, to me at least. The performances are good, but I put that down to a first rate cast. Which brings me to the images you mentioned. Yes they are striking but I didn’t feel they are emblematic of the story/themes. They are just striking.
Wow, lot of negativity here. Guess I’m in the minority, but I thought the trailer was great and the song was perfect for it. Where the Streets Have No Name is a metaphorical song anyway, and the lyrics can absolutely be connected to 9/11, particularly to someone who actually lost someone there. Never read the book, even though I’ve been meaning to, but I think I will now.
As an aside, I love the idea of an Al Queda terrorist seeing this film and either A) being annoyed that we created something beautiful out of something so horrible or B) actually being converted by it. A silly dream, I know, but reading The Kite Runner helped me to understand another people a tiny bit…so not impossible.
So basically then, Pope, The Hours is shit?
Ghost072,
I share your sentiments about some thug seeing a film made in the wake of 9/11 and seeing how beauty can be born of tragedy.
But the use of the U2 song? They wrote that song in direct response to the famine in Ethiopia. They went there after Live Aid in 1985 and seeing the despair they wrote of a place, “high on a desert plane…”
But I suppose if U2 are willing to sell their souls for a few more nickels and dimes, so folks are entitled to re-imagine the meaning of the lyrics.
bobbyperu,
No, I think the performances are very strong. Right across the board. Maybe I’m being churlish towards Daldry, but I’ve always felt whatever strength there is in his directing it comes from the script. Now, ordinarily it could be argued that he finesses the script… but look at the person who wrote scripts/adapted those books. David Hare. Class writer. First. Middle. Last.
I don’t think Daldry really pushes the script beyond what is on the page. He manages it more than directs it.
But hey, I will concede this. I’ve never met the man, never sat in on one of the meetings, never been privy to the decision making.
So no, The Hours isn’t shit.
LexG- Spot-on. I see Daldry’s name as director and my body starts shutting down like around hour 9.25 of a ten hour shift. I particularly enjoyed/agreed with your “ultimate director of bullshit” line.
As for reactions to this trailer, I think it’s pretty weak sauce. Didn’t like how it telegraphs damn near everything…didn’t like the obvious-family-friendly gags or seeing frickin’ TOM HANKS swinging on the playground, or Sandra Bullock looking at the smoking WTC buildings. Didn’t Viola Davis play that same character in OUT OF SIGHT? I expected to see Isaiah Washington looming over her shoulder leering at the kid and going “MOSELLE, who the fuck is it?” Overall it’s a bunch of September 11th BS rolled into an inspirational movie, and it makes me a little nauseous. I wish they’d gone with an unknown/theatre actor as the dad, so that the audience doesn’t get fake jollies saying “That’s TOM HANKS, he didn’t really die in the Towers, I saw him in that Larry Crowne movie!” There’s a way to use big stars in a story, and a way not to use them. (For example, the way Kathryn Bigelow used Ralph Fiennes in HURT LOCKER or Soderbergh used his all-stars in CONTAGION= exemplary.) Nothing against Hanks (though I confess a bias against Bullock) but his Spielberg side is what I see in this trailer, when his star power/charisma is best used nowadays in a role like Charlie Wilson.
This is no doubt incredibly mean, but am I the only one who thought the kid in this looks and sounds like a 12 year old Cate Blanchett?
PPP: “Incredibly Mean and Extremely Accurate”!
@The Pope,
I actually never knew what that song was about, and that is the beauty of metaphorical lyrics: they are open to interpretation. I just read them again to refresh my memory and and I don’t think there is any way one could surmise the song is about a famine in Ethiopia without already knowing that fact. Yet, reading them now, the connection to 9/11 seems so obvious, they’re almost too on the nose. Of course, this wasn’t Bono’s intention, as he is not a time traveler (to my knowledge), but a simple synchronicity that a good musical director will recognize and exploit.