To have and have not - The Spark

[ednbarby]

The only time Ed Norton impressed me in 'Red Dragon' was when he took his shirt off.

*snork*

Must not have impressed me much because I don't remember it at all.  In his defense, I think I was too busy enjoying Rafe's nakedness (full frontal, even, in one fleeting shot) to be bothered.

I thought Phillip Seymour Hoffman was very good, if underused, as tabloid scumbag (is that redundant?) Freddie Lounds.  I've made a study of that speech Rafe gives right before he offs him ("...And before me, you rightly tremble..."), and Rafe doesn't blink once.  PSH blinks several times.  Just a question - I take it this is an acting technique to make a character non-sympathetic vs. sympathetic?  Whatever it is, it's brilliantly done in that scene.

I know it's silly, but I cannot forgive Norton for fucking up that character.  Before Jack and Ennis, Will Graham was the first and only fictional character with whom I've ever had any kind of lasting obsession.  It probably didn't help that William Petersen did it perfectly in "Manhunter" and that that movie focused on his character much moreso than on that of the killer Francis Dollarhyde.

[delalluvia]

*snork*
Must not have impressed me much because I don't remember it at all.  In his defense, I think I was too busy enjoying Rafe's nakedness (full frontal, even, in one fleeting shot) to be bothered.

Heh.  I thought I was the only person who *snorked*.  It was a fleeting scene, but I was like, 'Wow, the guy's been working out.'  Hmm, come to think of it, was this movie before or after 'Fight Club'?  Last time I saw Norton shirtless, it was in that movie with Richard Gere and he was the typical geeky toneless skinny white guy.

I had trouble with Ralph's manly body in this movie.  I always like Ralph as the fine-boned Englishman, into fencing and riding to hounds - he's a cricket man, not a rugby player.  So to try to get into his working-out-on- a-weight-bench-shirtless/wife-beater persona, the type to intimidate with his physical presence...he wasn't convincing.

I thought Phillip Seymour Hoffman was very good, if underused, as tabloid scumbag (is that redundant?) Freddie Lounds.

Perfect.  But OMG, his toenails in that one scene have haunted me ever since.  Now whenever I see the guy, I see his gnarly toenails.  Gross.

I know it's silly, but I cannot forgive Norton for fucking up that character.  Before Jack and Ennis, Will Graham was the first and only fictional character with whom I've ever had any kind of lasting obsession.

I understand perfectly.  My friends and I on another fandom board will never forgive George Lucas for his multiple sins.

[serious crayons]

Further defense of Edward Norton: I just saw "The Illusionist" and liked it a lot. And I thought he was very good in it! So was Paul Giamatti. Jessica Beil, so-so.