I saw this film because the Australian director, George Miller, impressed me somewhat with his Mad Max movies. I was amazed that the same director could deliver a totally different product in so graceful a style that barely showed its head in Mad Max.
Miller has done wonders with Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte and Peter Ustinov (whom I got to meet briefly after Mrs Gandhi's assassination); each of them giving stunning performances. Nolte is incredible with his unusual accent acquired for this film which only gives away once or twice. Ustinov, the master comedian, has never given a more serious and convincing performance to my knowledge than this one.
The story-line is not unusual, yet the screenplay is so well crafted that one is riveted to the screen as in a Hitchcock film. The photography and the editing have also contributed to the quiet gracefulness of the finished product. The subplot of the Comoros Islands that provided the childhood of Lorenzo is weak, except that it provides the reason for return of the African friend to nurse Lorenzo in Washington D.C.
An aspect of the film the director and co-scriptwriter could have enhanced was the different reactions and attitudes of the nurses that leave Lorenzo's house...The story is touching; but the film-making is commendable that it did not descend to the level of histrionics. (It does once with Nolte writhing on the stairs, but thankfully the camera of John Seale takes it in a long shot). Some close-ups of Sarandon and Nolte remind you of Ingmar Bergman's films of the Seventies and Eighties.
The subject pulls your heartstrings; but the film-making is amazing in converting a true document into an artistic product. The film's art ascends over the moving subject of ALD.
Miller amazes me, as did other talented Australian directors who came to Hollywood: Peter Weir and Bruce Beresford. It is strange that these Australians made brilliant small budget films in Australia, made even more promising big budget films in Hollywood and then quietly burned out. I hope Miller, Weir and Beresford prove me wrong and make better films than they have.
Miller has done wonders with Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte and Peter Ustinov (whom I got to meet briefly after Mrs Gandhi's assassination); each of them giving stunning performances. Nolte is incredible with his unusual accent acquired for this film which only gives away once or twice. Ustinov, the master comedian, has never given a more serious and convincing performance to my knowledge than this one.
The story-line is not unusual, yet the screenplay is so well crafted that one is riveted to the screen as in a Hitchcock film. The photography and the editing have also contributed to the quiet gracefulness of the finished product. The subplot of the Comoros Islands that provided the childhood of Lorenzo is weak, except that it provides the reason for return of the African friend to nurse Lorenzo in Washington D.C.
An aspect of the film the director and co-scriptwriter could have enhanced was the different reactions and attitudes of the nurses that leave Lorenzo's house...The story is touching; but the film-making is commendable that it did not descend to the level of histrionics. (It does once with Nolte writhing on the stairs, but thankfully the camera of John Seale takes it in a long shot). Some close-ups of Sarandon and Nolte remind you of Ingmar Bergman's films of the Seventies and Eighties.
The subject pulls your heartstrings; but the film-making is amazing in converting a true document into an artistic product. The film's art ascends over the moving subject of ALD.
Miller amazes me, as did other talented Australian directors who came to Hollywood: Peter Weir and Bruce Beresford. It is strange that these Australians made brilliant small budget films in Australia, made even more promising big budget films in Hollywood and then quietly burned out. I hope Miller, Weir and Beresford prove me wrong and make better films than they have.