Product: Fur - An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006)
Rating: 1.0
Pretentious and insulting
I have been a long time fan of Diane Arbus's art, having been exposed to her quirky yet meaningful photos while I was still in high school. This awful, pretentious and over-reaching attempt at making an "Art Film" loosely (VERY loosely) based on her life fails at every turn. The film is directed in an extremely self-conscious manner, attempting to create "perfect" balance as if composing still life or portrait photographs. Everything is saturated and exaggerated, with even the soundtrack consisting of listless, sotto voce chamber jazz devolving into random ambient notes as the prurient aspects of the film build to an anti-climax. The actors whisper their way through an awful script, begging the question: does Nicole Kidman simply take ANY movie offer these days? Not that she is a great actor, but in the case of "Fur", her character is so shallow, transparent, and two-dimensional that one wonders whether she takes films intending to just be Nicole Kidman as she appeared in "Eyes Wide Shut" - another empty, emotionally vacant role for her.I won't even dwell on the utter distortion of facts that are made in this film in regards to the real Diane Arbus - EVERYTHING is wrong, from the time period of the film's setting to the gross exaggerations of Arbus's artistic muse. Truly an insult to Diane Arbus and her artistic legacy.