In a message dated 2/18/08 3:05:06 AM,
IndieCrime@gmail.com writes:
> To be fair, just about everyone in The Black Dahlia
was terribly
> miscast. Hartnett and Johannsen were out of their
respective depths
> and Hillary Swank is a good actress, but she has
zero sex appeal,
> making her wrong for her role as well.
>
also to be fair, the director of the film holds the ultimate
responsibility over who gets cast in a film. sometimes
certain casting elements are forced upon them for the
financial reasons, but that's usually just one, and at most
two individuals. and the director has the option of walking
away from the project over creative differences, ie: he
thinks an actor is wrong for the part
and to be fair to the actors, all of them have done far
better work elsewhere. they're capable of it, but in this
case, the script gave them dialogue faithful to Ellroy's
hepcat patois, and to make that work requires a large degree
of finesse and a director's vision of how that's supposed to
play
some directors hardly direct actors at all, leaving them to
their own devices. usually you'll see performances all over
the board with an emphasis on overplaying. I suspect that is
the case with DePalma, who clearly makes movies for the sheer
joy of moving a camera. it shows in Aaron Eckart's Russell
Crowe impression, Hillary Swank's Hepburnesque line readings
and Scarlett Johanssen's natural schoolgirl hysteria. only
Josh Hartnett fairs reasonably well by underplaying his
dialogue as throwaways. you know you're in trouble when Josh
Hartnett gives the best performance in your film
John Lau
************** Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on
AOL Living.
(
http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)
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