August 6, 2003

I don’t have a lot to write about Freaky Friday…

It works. This is Jamie Lee Curtis’ best role in a long while and she does a very good job. Annette Bening would have taken it to another, perhaps even more compelling place. But JLC deserves a lot of credit for the third defining performance of her long career (Halloween and Trading Places were the others.) Mark S. Walters delivers a solid, if unimaginative, piece of direction… that, again, works. Lindsay Lohan is not quite as movie starlet movie starletty as Amanda Bynes or Hilary Duff, but she is probably the best actress of the lot.

The thing that works about Freaky Friday is much the same thing that works about The Italian Job, 28 Days Later, Bend It Like Beckham and the upcoming S.W.A.T and Lost In Translation… they are quite retro in their storytelling. Even with the digital nature of 28 Days Later, it is the characters, not the effects that make the movie work.

Freaky Friday has all the requisite “modern” touches, a great “updated retro” soundtrack, and the courage of its convictions. Love conquers all. Simple. But it works.

It is fascinating to watch how Disney is really becoming a split company… Disney family product all summer and Touchstone adult product all fall (with the exception of Brother Bear and The Haunted Mansion). Unfortunately, I don’t think the Touchstone name has any value at all and given that there is a distinct structure to the release pattern, perhaps it is time for Walt Disney Pictures to signify the kids stuff and just Disney to be the front for the more adult product. A movie like Calendar Girls or Under The Tuscan Sun should enhance the Disney brand. As it is, under Touchstone, it gets neither the benefit of the studio name nor does it build that brand any further.

A BIT MORE GIGLI: A fellow named John Shea wrote in with some details about the screenplay for this now infamous title. He writes:

“The script for Gigli was much smarter than the dreck that appeared in the final release. Larry Gigli is written quite a bit more savvy than the movie makes him appear. There is a nice bit after the opening scene where he stops to relax and find his happy place, a virgin tropical beach, before going to meet with Louis. It makes it clear he doesn't like his work and wishes for something better. There was also more to the scene with his mother where she talks to Ricki about Larry's father which goes a long way towards explaining his macho bluster. He's not a bad or even dumb guy but he's had a rough life, leading to his attempt to seem far tougher than he is. That ties in with the scene in the movie where Ricki tries to find out why he's so angry/sad. Also missing from the movie is a scene where Larry intimidates someone behind him in traffic honking at the light. The scene makes it clear he's not dumb, merely one with poor social skills that are starting to improve under the influence of Ricki. You can see that he's starting to absord some of Ricki's ideas now though and that might lead to him looking for a better life.

"Ricki really is a lesbian in the script. In the movie she's more of a bisexual woman who has given up on men until the right one comes along to straighten her out. The script Ricki is not a mob enforcer. She's a stripper who was dating Robin, a real enforcer. Seeking an escape from Robin she basically assumes her identity to grab this job. She is a very sharp person also looking to improve her life. She's absorbed a ton of reading and needs to put it to good use. She came to LA as a songwriter but ended up pole dancing when her career went nowhere. The two have definite chemistry, thus leading to sex but obviously they can never be a couple. The ending differs wildly from the film.

"One of the things that bothered me about the movie is the way they treat Brian. The character is virtually identical to the script version but the behavior of his kidnappers is different. Larry starts out irritated with him but slowly starts to like him and discovers that there is a person lurking below all the mental handicaps. As he starts to respect Brian he starts to respect himself a bit. The movie version starts Larry out rather abusive, physically and mentally, and has him move toward affection. The movie's ending however keeps that relationship from reaching any sort of respectable conclusion.

"Christopher Walken's character appears several times in the script. He's like a demented Columbo, always popping up with one more question. He stays in Larry's face and keeps him nervous. Walken is perfect for the part but there should have been much more of it. In the script, Larry eventually decides to go straight at the urging of Ricki, who eventually confesses her true identity. She makes it clear that she's leaving to start a new life and he should do the same. That's it for her, she's gone from the story. Larry decides to turn Brian over to Jaccobellis, face the consequences and get on with his life. He can't live like a street thug, beholden to the whims of bosses like Louis and Starkman any longer. Unfortunately it turns out that Jaccobellis is crooked and intends to turn Brian over to Starkman for a reward. He and Larry fight, resulting in both getting shot. Jaccobellis dies immediately while Larry gets Brian to the car and drives him back to The Baywatch, which they had spotted earlier. He thus fulfills his promise to Brian and dies. The scene has the wind blowing sand until it covers Larry and brings out the image of the virgin tropical beach he dreamed of earlier.

"Now the script wasn't brilliant but it was far smarter and edgier than the final product. The ending of the script was my favorite part because it avoided the Hollywood cliche for a far more logical conclusion. It had something to say about a life of crime and the consequences. The ending of the movie is the polar opposite and quite possibly one of the worst things committed to film this year. While I don't find the overall film to be as wretched as the media seemed to indicate, it certainly was far below the standards set by the original script. It would be interesting to know how much of the change was a result of Brest losing faith in his script and how much was the result of studio or star interference.”

READER OF THE DAY: DEAD BLACK COMIC writes: “It still fascinates me that in 2003 we can use phrases like "The Jews" as in "...he claims The Jews killed Christ."

Did "the whites" kill Martin Luther King? Did "the blacks" kill Nicole Simpson? Is our world still so racially simple that we see all these tribes working with monolithic synchronicity on every act of their membership?

Some Jews loved Jesus. Some Jews hated him. Some Jews never heard of him. Some Jews did but didn't care either way. If the Biblical account is true, a certain political/religious faction set the man up to be killed; it was apparently made up of Jews and compliant members of the occupying Roman government. Do we honestly, in the 21st century, still need to debate whether or not that act can be hung around the neck of one race or another? The ideas and hatred that drove the murderous act are our enemies, not a people with a certain lineage or set of genes.”

OFF THE RES writes: “Not that your site should turn into a religious war, but is this Karen (yesterday’s ROTD) saying that Mel and all Christianity are the UNDERDOGS?

Us Jews are what, 3-4% of the entire worldwide population and she’s calling Catholic people the underdogs?

And what jewish websites is she talking about? There is a big difference between some ultra Orthodox website being run out of some home in Brooklyn vs. Yahoo or MSN or AOL if that’s what she’s talking about!!!!”

IN A HUFF writes: “T3 had its first ad during the Super Bowl, but it didn't really get any momentum until perhaps a week before its opening. Ditto THE HULK. We got a first look at these movies a few months ahead and shrugged our collective shoulders. Most movies create buzz a month or so before opening if they can, but it's rare for a film to have huge sustained buzz for a long time.

But with the press both positive and negative chewing up the scenery eight or nine months ahead of THE PASSION's release, there is enormous--and I do mean enormous--buzz for a film that when pitched was seen as unsellable. I certainly hear the interest from people in the church where I attend and work (it's conservative but not fundamentalist Protestant). But then I go on message boards and places where I talk at length with those who have no real interest in religion, and they want to see this thing. We're talking about a film that may have no subtitles and may be ??? hours long, and they're psyched. You'd think this film were going to hit the AMC this weekend by the way it's being discussed.

The more the press (of any religious background) smacks around the selective showings of the film and the supposedly anti-Semetic script, the more interest develops. And this isn't GIGLI interest, where people want to see how badly it crashes and burns. This is the kind of thing where people want to decide for themselves if the movie works. It's the same kind of thing that piqued interest in LAST TEMPTATION in reverse so many years ago...the church in its negative stance and constant repetition of the problems it had with the film gave that movie all the publicity it needed.

I don't expect THE PASSION to beat out SPIDER-MAN, by any stretch, but this movie is going to be big, and I think it might also have legs.”

RK writes about a wholly different religion: “Those USC guys think their polished edu puts them up a notch in the film industry? Wait until Mr. Emotionally-Manipulate-The-Audience, with his knowledge of Sturges, Goddard and gay cinema lands his first job in the "industry" making coffee, runs to the post office, buying bed sheets for the star's trailer, dog walking, and washing dishes in the production office kitchen among 100 other odd and mind-numbing tasks done 12 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Then, if he's lucky, a few years (10) down the road, he'll get to make an AMERICAN PIE movie using everything he learned in school about camera, lighting, framing, sound, editing, performance, pace, narrative, and story.”

E ME: How is your Freaky Wednesday going?

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