I know I'm leaning toward giving a movie a so-so review when I'm less interested in the characters and the moment to moment interplay and more interested in watching the story unfold as pieces of a puzzle.
We know almost everything we need to know about the characters within the first 10 or 15 minutes of the film. From there, there is little development, little change, little growth. Just an obligatory playing out of scenes we know must take place given the plot set-up, the character descriptions.
The characters themselves have limited depth. As do the performances. Subtle to the point of being dry and flavorless. While Douglass and Neal are good, they're never challenged as actors. I can't fathom their being selected for Oscars. Newman got better as an actor as years went by he pointed that out himself once in an interview adding that in his old films he could "see the actor working." So can we.
The movie's theme is standard, even trite, it's message mundane. It's also too derivative of Giant and East Of Eden. It's watchable for it's grittiness, cinematography and pace, but in the end is vastly over-rated.
We know almost everything we need to know about the characters within the first 10 or 15 minutes of the film. From there, there is little development, little change, little growth. Just an obligatory playing out of scenes we know must take place given the plot set-up, the character descriptions.
The characters themselves have limited depth. As do the performances. Subtle to the point of being dry and flavorless. While Douglass and Neal are good, they're never challenged as actors. I can't fathom their being selected for Oscars. Newman got better as an actor as years went by he pointed that out himself once in an interview adding that in his old films he could "see the actor working." So can we.
The movie's theme is standard, even trite, it's message mundane. It's also too derivative of Giant and East Of Eden. It's watchable for it's grittiness, cinematography and pace, but in the end is vastly over-rated.