spare and lean

Rating: 10/10 (20 January 2005)

This movie is everything I usually detest in a movie: sports and hospital victims. Both usually try to teach 'deep' lessons while canonizing cardboard characters. This movie was incredible. Clint Eastwood does the nearly impossible. He tells a story well. Hillary Swank is nearly flawless (although I know southern Mo..and that accent is something else again...but it's no worse than the entire cast of "The Aviator"). I think this movie is going to wear well...not another "Good Will Hunting" or "Driving Miss Daisy" that embarrasses with each future viewing, but instead it should become the kind of movie that most American directors have never learned to make. An aside: it was a 'movie day' for me and I paired this up with "The Aviator" Dicaprio was much better than expected, Cate Blanchette made the "great Kate" a real person and not a saint for once (and actually dared imply that she was a ham movie star, at that!..movie almost succeeds on that note alone). What fails is Scorcese. It's too long, too flat, too filled with terrible supporting acting (make Alan Alda and Alec Baldwin STOP...can they play anything else anymore????) Most strangely, for a lover of movie history like Scorcese, it's time lines are wildly inaccurate. I understand artistic license....but even the most casual of viewers of TCM would be confused by his chronology. For god's sake..Rufus Wainwright's flaying in the beginning of the movie???!!..It was like he threw the kitchen sink of 'hot' into the mix..and only managed to detract from a couple of decent performances. Please don't give him an Oscar for this....even he will regret it later.