It's hard to comprehend that this movie was made. It's Forrest Gump meets Walk the Line meets The Parent Trap. Is that too much for one movie? Absolutely. But on top of that, it also tries to be appealing to Evangelical Christians. From the many 10/10 reviews on this board that mention this aspect, it's clear that somehow this worked. Apparently simply containing Christians that aren't complete buffoons is enough for that.
Elvis fans have not responded in kind, which makes sense as this movie is emphatically *not* about Elvis. It's just that all the world building that was done is all based on Elvis' life and music, only obscured enough that there is no chance of any copyright infringement litigation. This is extremely distracting.
As to the story: it's baffling in the complexity of its setup, and the complete lack of subsequent payoff. Twins are separated at birth. They never meet. While Drexel is a famous musician and the other, Ryan, is an amateur musician who becomes an impersonator of the famous one, we don't even see Ryan attend a show of Drexel's. In fact, we barely see Drexel at all.
Ryan visits his birth mother in the hospital and sings one of Drexel's songs to her. He doesn't know it's his real mother. She doesn't realize he's there. There's no subsequent consequence to this extremely coincidental scene. Which happens right after he makes a delivery at the hospital, which happens to be where his ex- girlfriend works, so it's coincidence upon coincidence... of course he hooks up with her again, as we knew already he would, since she is the narrator of the entire film. Yes, the narrator is not a point of view character. Which *can* make for interesting storytelling, if you really invest in it. The movie doesn't.
Ryan's adopted father, played by Ray Liotta, is a preacher. He wants Ryan to become a preacher also. There is some kind of conflict about this between the two of them... but no framing of this conflict. Ryan's simply in school to become a minister, and then drops out. This has no immediate consequences for the father's life... which it easily could have had. Why not, for example, make Ryan an assistant preacher in his father's church? And then he doesn't show up because he's got a performance? That's actual conflict. This is truly amateurish screen writing, in that they knew there had to be some kind of conflict, but didn't know how to create it. Yes Ray Liotta really wants his son to become a preacher. He says so many times. So you think that when Ryan drops out there's consequences? Nah. See, he already has a job lined up, because this shady garage owner likes his singing. Does the preacher break off contact with his rebellious son? Nah. He even goes to the son's shows.
The message in the end: always be yourself. Unless you can be Elvis. Then always be Elvis*. There's nothing Christian about this, and there's nothing useful in it either. If we ever find ourselves the identical lost twin of a celebrity, we'd better hope the celebrity dies in a plane crash, so we can use our own creativity to continue their careers.
I could go on... about the extremely uneven music, about the various ways in which characters age or not, about the totally out of the blue reference to the Six Day War, about Seth Green's hair and language, which do not belong together, about the two black characters that are both one-scene and very subservient, etc. It's a rare movie that is this messy. An absolute must see!
*Sorry, I mean Drexel of course.
Elvis fans have not responded in kind, which makes sense as this movie is emphatically *not* about Elvis. It's just that all the world building that was done is all based on Elvis' life and music, only obscured enough that there is no chance of any copyright infringement litigation. This is extremely distracting.
As to the story: it's baffling in the complexity of its setup, and the complete lack of subsequent payoff. Twins are separated at birth. They never meet. While Drexel is a famous musician and the other, Ryan, is an amateur musician who becomes an impersonator of the famous one, we don't even see Ryan attend a show of Drexel's. In fact, we barely see Drexel at all.
Ryan visits his birth mother in the hospital and sings one of Drexel's songs to her. He doesn't know it's his real mother. She doesn't realize he's there. There's no subsequent consequence to this extremely coincidental scene. Which happens right after he makes a delivery at the hospital, which happens to be where his ex- girlfriend works, so it's coincidence upon coincidence... of course he hooks up with her again, as we knew already he would, since she is the narrator of the entire film. Yes, the narrator is not a point of view character. Which *can* make for interesting storytelling, if you really invest in it. The movie doesn't.
Ryan's adopted father, played by Ray Liotta, is a preacher. He wants Ryan to become a preacher also. There is some kind of conflict about this between the two of them... but no framing of this conflict. Ryan's simply in school to become a minister, and then drops out. This has no immediate consequences for the father's life... which it easily could have had. Why not, for example, make Ryan an assistant preacher in his father's church? And then he doesn't show up because he's got a performance? That's actual conflict. This is truly amateurish screen writing, in that they knew there had to be some kind of conflict, but didn't know how to create it. Yes Ray Liotta really wants his son to become a preacher. He says so many times. So you think that when Ryan drops out there's consequences? Nah. See, he already has a job lined up, because this shady garage owner likes his singing. Does the preacher break off contact with his rebellious son? Nah. He even goes to the son's shows.
The message in the end: always be yourself. Unless you can be Elvis. Then always be Elvis*. There's nothing Christian about this, and there's nothing useful in it either. If we ever find ourselves the identical lost twin of a celebrity, we'd better hope the celebrity dies in a plane crash, so we can use our own creativity to continue their careers.
I could go on... about the extremely uneven music, about the various ways in which characters age or not, about the totally out of the blue reference to the Six Day War, about Seth Green's hair and language, which do not belong together, about the two black characters that are both one-scene and very subservient, etc. It's a rare movie that is this messy. An absolute must see!
*Sorry, I mean Drexel of course.