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March 26, 2005
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990), James Ivory:
My first Merchant-Ivory deal and it's pretty much what I expected it to be: a meticulous but otherwise unstylized movie with its dollhouse figures and politics. Paul Newman is the stodgy, Republican patriarch in pre-WWII America, resisting the outward urges of his wife and three children. I enjoyed it when I was watching it--it's very well crafted--but when I turned away, I felt utterly no emotional attachment. It seems like a very cold movie, to no fault of the characters or actors. The characters are refreshing turns on a familiar theme and Newman, Joanne Woodward and Blythe Danner play them warmly. Unforunately, I had to miss the last half-hour, but the movie's so even-keeled I doubt much changes in the end.
8/15
**Update**, I caught the rest of the movie over the weekend, and you know what, it ended really well. It has this air of flippancy that I just realized is in the whole movie hidden by its straightfaced delivery. Maybe I just really liked the end and forgot how unenthused I was about the rest of the movie. I don't know.
Posted by bing at March 26, 2005 09:20 PM