An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Charlotte O'Sullivan's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Barry Levinson.
Cast: Robert De Niro, Catherine Keener, Bruce Willis, John Turturro, Kristen Stewart, Robin Wright Penn, Michael Wincott
Description: Film producer Ben is embroiled in couples' separation therapy with ex-wife Kelly, who he still loves. When he's not trying to woo her, or bonding with his teenage daughter Zoe, Bob clashes with studio chief Lou over the ending to gangster flick Fiercely starring Sean Penn, which is due to open the Cannes Film Festival. Meanwhile, an obscenely hirsute Bruce Willis (playing himself) refuses a clean shave for his new project so the moneymen threaten to pull the plug. Somehow, Bob must use his diplomatic skills to broker a deal between Willis, his spineless agent Dick and the studio execs.
Country: US. 2008. 102mins
Executive stress: Bruce Willis, Robert De Niro, John Turturro and Stanley Tucci
In 2002, Art Linson wrote a funny, shocking memoir about his escapades as a Hollywood producer.
This is the condensed, fictional version. Linson himself wrote the script — yet something, everything in fact, has been lost in translation.
Robert De Niro plays the Linson-like Ben, a middle-aged, seen-it-all executive with two big headaches. His new arty action film, Fiercely, is testing badly with audiences — no one likes the bit where Sean Penn’s dog gets shot. So the studio bosses, led by a ball-breaker (Catherine Keener), demand a re-cut, which in turn causes the film’s British director (Michael Wincott) to have a fit.
Meanwhile, a pending project involving Bruce Willis may be cancelled because Bruce has been pigging out and won’t shave his beard. The press agent Dick (John Turturro) refuses to confront his biggest client — so it’s up to our hero to tackle the “animal” head-on.
Poor Ben. Poor us: neither of these disasters is remotely involving.
If the point of the Fiercely story is that pretentious directors enjoy fighting pointless battles, it leads to a dead end. Back in the real world, Linson worked on films such as David Fincher’s Fight Club; pictures that did indeed get censored by nervy studio heads but that seem worthy of blood, sweat and tears. It’s hard to care what happens to this dud.
The Willis vehicle does not fill the gap. The actor’s room-wrecking tantrums (inspired, incidentally, by Alec Baldwin’s behaviour on The Edge) are funny for about five minutes. Alas, they take up half of the film.
Turturro is delightful as the limp Dick (he treats his clients like hungry crocodiles: “I’m scared of all of them!”). But it’s still a one-note joke.
Nor do things perk up when the attention shifts to Ben’s personal life. De Niro seems convinced he’s in a serious drama and clearly relishes playing Ben — the kind of man who takes ecstasy to get through one-night stands and can’t remember anything in the morning.
Director Barry Levinson, though, keeps asking us to see him as an adorable, anal-retentive screw-up — a kind of Woody Allen in La-La land. More cold than cute, De Niro’s brilliance actually makes the film more confusing than it needs to be.
Was Linson’s script tinkered with by cowardly execs and/or lawyers? Did certain stars demand changes? Or was it Linson’s own vanity that tripped him up? Perhaps, in a few years’ time, Linson will blow the whistle on his artistic debut.
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