Reviews
First, the bad news.
We watched The Blind Side last night, the film based on the real story of a homeless black teenager brought into the home of an affluent white family in the south. He went on to become a football star, and the film’s star, Sandra Bullock, went on to win the Oscar and assorted other paperweights.
This is an impressive true story made unbelievable on film. The writing is cornball, the acting predicable, and the situations inflated with so much air as to achieve the quality of meringue. There are so many stereotypes, from unconsciously racist southern belles to taunting football players and misogynistic drug dealers (all of whom, of course, promptly receive their due comeuppance), that it’s hard to find even vegetation that isn’t either overacting or directed incompetently.
If you don’t think the Oscars are primarily political, remember that Sandra Bullock “beat” Helen Mirren, Gabourey Sidibe, Meryl Streep, and Carey Mulligan. In any case, keep a blind eye on The Blind Side.
Now, the good news.
We also saw A Behanding in Spokane last night on Broadway with Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie, and Zoe Kazan (written by Martin McDonagh).
Terry Teachout, an insanely tough critic at the Wall Street Journal, loved this play, and small wonder. Christopher Walken’s character lost one of his hands nearly a half century ago, and he’s intent on finding it. In the course of his quest, one notices that he’s become a homicidal maniac, surrounded by a very strange lot of people. I won’t reveal some of the lunatic twists and turns.
Fair warning: I can’t begin to imagine this without Mr. Walken in the title role, because I did find myself enjoying him playing the character, and not the character per se. Mr. Walken has the ability to crack me up without moving a muscle (watch his guest host spots on Saturday Night Live) and when he does move a muscle or two, I fall on the floor.
Let’s just say that it’s a bizarre night (following a new and greatly appreciated trend of 90-minute plays without intermissions which start only four minutes late), and that you’ll walk out onto 45th Street with a dopey smile as if you just learned some small secret.
The secret, of course, is managing to find that still-occurring magical night in the theater.
© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.
