clunky dialogue

Rating: 4/10 (9 April 2006)

Somebody has mentioned in passing how the dialogue frequently seems stilted. Perhaps - apart from the fact that English old-money rich just don't hold articulate, coherent, intense personal discussions but rely on shorthands and allusions - the reason is it's written by an American. (Getting on 40 years older than his principal characters at that.) And however talented, and despite some great movies in his own social milieu, he perhaps inevitably has a tin ear for the appropriate language.
Listen to the lines Johannson says and they work because the cadences fit her voice and NY accent. Whereas a lot of the Brits come clunking along with sentences that drop like lead balloons because they have to get voice and accent round effectively foreign phrasing.
Imagine Noel Coward doing Jewish New York City style - this is the corollary. For next time WA needs a dialogue checker!