The Babe

Rating: Null/10 (31 October 2010)

We shouldn't be surprised at the appearance of the geezer action genre. Simple market forces will change every genre and I suppose we will have young (very young) and old versions of most genres, just as we already have (and always have had?) in popular music. It is no surprise that the two latest experiments feature the two guys who are credited with inventing the summer blockbuster: Stallone and Willis. Also, because these are manufactured items designed by witless managers, it will be no surprise that they have as much value as a modern breakfast cereal.
But what is interesting is how the geezer genres will have to adapt certain rules of the genre. So many of those rules depend on the role of the babe. You know, the sexy young thing that gets rescued? Or the sexy young couple that is the first to go in a slasher film because they are being punished for showing us sex?
I went into this knowing that the chases would be chasey, the explosions nice and screenfilling orange, the bad guys the same we know. I knew the dialog would have the same, bankable flippant style. I knew where everything would be placed but the babe. What to do about the babe?
I consider this an experiment, and not the solution we can expect to see. But here's what they decided.
The traditional babe, the one that is simply along so that she can be protected by the strong man? She is played by the nearly 50 year old Mary-Louise Parker. Even in her youth and from the very beginning, her casting was exclusively in off-sex roles, roles that openly contradicted the babe stereotype. This was not in any conventional way, like Jennifer Jason Lee has covered. Just quirky and plain. Her plainness and lack of ordinary character is emphasized here. This, I think was so that they could shift the babe focus from the passive one to an active babe.
And who for that? The first one cast, Hellen Mirren. So far so good. Helen has built a career from the beginning (and she says, a life) based on open sexuality. Greenaway's "Cook, Thief" is how most of us remember her "middle age" sexuality. I suppose that when she was cast, the idea was to have her in a lusty comic relationship with Bruce. There is some remnant of this intent with a backstory about her affairs and one real love with a Russian spy. Her character is supposed to be the most ruthless and accomplished, her job description not being spy but assassin.
That would have been an interesting experiment. The woman knows how to project inclusive desire that transcends body shape. She is an intelligent enough actress to know how to bend the overt penile fascination with guns, and we do see a scene where that was clearly intended. But in the rewrites and tests and reshoots, the more adventuresome female juice was blotted away. There are some closeups of her face where the makeup is designed to emphasize wrinkles. Look closely at these scenes and you will see that the closeups are a later addition.
The scene where she shoots thousands of depleted uranium 50 caliber bullets like a frenzied bull? Well, her costume is very considered. I imagine there were scenes that were cut that allowed her to move that dress in notable ways. What is left however is a braless shape reminiscent of a demented baglady.
Strange. A strange experiment. I wonder what they will do next?
I saw this with an old guy whose only thrill was in recognizing the Swedish K, and in knowing that the variant shown in the movie "wasn't right."
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.