Despite our listenership dwindling to almost nil for the Super Bowl (why didn’t anybody tell me about this thing?) we had a jam packed show after Steve over-ordered movies to review. So besides our opening commentary about the Oscar nominations, we have reviews for the Coen Brothers’ semi-autobiographical A Serious Man, Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau’s “passion” project Couples Retreat and Eric Bana’s temporally challenged romantic adaptation The Time Traveller’s Wife. You won’t believe which one we liked best until you hear it, and even then you might not believe it. We round out the show with our Picks from the Vault, One Week and The Last Boy Scout and then trailer suggestions forThe Losers and Cemetery Junction.
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Some more vindication – yes! You guys felt almost exactly the same way as me about A Serious Man, echoing the whole “gotta be Jewish to get it, I guess” feeling that I had about it. Don’t know if I could ever place The Time Travellers’ Wife above it, but I haven’t seen that yet, so who knows.
I can’t guarantee that everyone will enjoy Time Traveller’s Wife as much as I did – it was pretty topical for me. I think it was marketed in the wrong direction, and I also think that Eric Bana can hold a movie back from the brink of awful – being the best thing about The Hulk, Troy and Funny People.
Yeah, there had to have been so much more going on in A Serious Man that I just wasn’t made privy to. I’d like to think I know quite a bit about the Hebrew experience in the diaspora for a goy, but more than half of that flick went way over my head. That combined with how much of a powerless wuss the “hero” was made the movie totally unbearable. No, Fletch, you are not alone.
I just saw A Serious Man today and I do agree that it’s a little too heavy on the Jewish esoterism and the main character isn’t driving the plot but the other way around.
As for The Time Traveler’s Wife, I really enjoyed it thanks to good performances from Ms. McAdams and Mr. Bana and a more mature look at their love story than the usual Hollywood romance/rom-com. I can’t help but think about how much better this movie could have been with bolder decision-making in terms of directing and screenwriting. I do agree that the atmosphere of the movie was outstanding thanks to the great cinematography.
Yeah, it was a little timid as far as direction – and I can only assume it was the screenwriting, not the acting that was throwing things off. I really think that if they hadn’t dropped the ball with the marketing, this film would have had a much higher profile. The world needs more Eric Bana, and can always do with more Rachel McAdams.
There’s no doubt that the Coens really love making movies, and with nobody to stand in their way, and all kinds of people trying to make money from their work, even their smaller projects like this one, and Burn After Reading, that should have remained footnotes in their work in between making “great” films like Fargo and The Hudsucker Proxy wind up getting high profile release to the confusion of their devoted fans.