Post by •°o.O emily O.o°• on Jun 23, 2007 22:13:45 GMT
Wow, let me blow the cobwebs from this forum first!
I watched this raved about film with high expectations...and wasn't disappointed. As the newspaper clipping on Lester's desk suggests (and intructs us) it tries to "look closer" at american life and the concept of beauty, and in fact succeeds. With slow zooms and pans of the camera we are introduced to Lester - with a perfectionist and socialite wife Carolyn, typical teen daughter Jane, an unfulfilling job in advertising and the slow disintegration of his life as relationships unravel and he is about to be fired. Kevin Spacey is wonderfully cynical as Lester, who is flawed and selfish but with whom we can sympathise. In fact, all the performances in this film are brilliant (particularly Chris Cooper as the violent but troubled army dad). The shots are interesting and obviously very specific - the camera placement is used brilliantly to show the subtext. In an early scene at Lester's office we see his face reflected in a computer screen where the numbers look like prison bars - its clear what he feels about his job. Then when he goes in to see his boss, the superior man is shot from below with his name plate prominent, while Lester is left in the middle of a wide shot, looking very small. The shots are never intrusive, favouring wider shots with slow zooms and tracks in as the tension rises in a scene, but the relationships are expressed well through the visuals. A great example of this is when the Fittz family, Lester's next door neighbours and Jane's love interest, are sat watching TV. It is shot from just behind the television, while the agressive father sits in the middle of the sofa leaning forward and his diminutive wife is scrunched up uncertainly at the edge. He dominates the sofa - as he dominates her. When their son Ricky comes in the father leans back and tenses slightly, showing us how he is a little threatened by his son. What I love about this scene is that there are no close ups and nothing much happens. But there's still so much going on.
Although not subtle in story (yes, we get that Angela's shallow...I wonder who shot a certain person....etc) the content is sometimes shocking, the characters complex and 3dimensional and the tone often uncomfortably real. The concept of beauty is re-examined along with american suburban life, and a whole load of red + rose related symbolism is thrown in to boot. By the end you have sympathy for all the characters, and it may bring a tear to your eye or make you think. My advice is to watch this film if you haven't already
.emily.
I watched this raved about film with high expectations...and wasn't disappointed. As the newspaper clipping on Lester's desk suggests (and intructs us) it tries to "look closer" at american life and the concept of beauty, and in fact succeeds. With slow zooms and pans of the camera we are introduced to Lester - with a perfectionist and socialite wife Carolyn, typical teen daughter Jane, an unfulfilling job in advertising and the slow disintegration of his life as relationships unravel and he is about to be fired. Kevin Spacey is wonderfully cynical as Lester, who is flawed and selfish but with whom we can sympathise. In fact, all the performances in this film are brilliant (particularly Chris Cooper as the violent but troubled army dad). The shots are interesting and obviously very specific - the camera placement is used brilliantly to show the subtext. In an early scene at Lester's office we see his face reflected in a computer screen where the numbers look like prison bars - its clear what he feels about his job. Then when he goes in to see his boss, the superior man is shot from below with his name plate prominent, while Lester is left in the middle of a wide shot, looking very small. The shots are never intrusive, favouring wider shots with slow zooms and tracks in as the tension rises in a scene, but the relationships are expressed well through the visuals. A great example of this is when the Fittz family, Lester's next door neighbours and Jane's love interest, are sat watching TV. It is shot from just behind the television, while the agressive father sits in the middle of the sofa leaning forward and his diminutive wife is scrunched up uncertainly at the edge. He dominates the sofa - as he dominates her. When their son Ricky comes in the father leans back and tenses slightly, showing us how he is a little threatened by his son. What I love about this scene is that there are no close ups and nothing much happens. But there's still so much going on.
Although not subtle in story (yes, we get that Angela's shallow...I wonder who shot a certain person....etc) the content is sometimes shocking, the characters complex and 3dimensional and the tone often uncomfortably real. The concept of beauty is re-examined along with american suburban life, and a whole load of red + rose related symbolism is thrown in to boot. By the end you have sympathy for all the characters, and it may bring a tear to your eye or make you think. My advice is to watch this film if you haven't already
.emily.