I saw this curiously limp Minnelli melodrama last night. I wanted to see it very much after reading some favorable things about it; I was expecting a decent, agreeable melodrama on par with "Some Came Running" or "Home From the Hill". Instead I saw a dull, plodding, not to say overlong glimpse into the world filmmaking in Rome circa 1961 - actually a follow-up to Minnelli's 1952 "The Bad and the Beautiful." It feels it could have been so much better given the director and talent on board.
For one thing, I found nearly all of the characters in "Two Weeks" to be extremely nasty and unpleasant, particularly the women, the ones played by Claire Trevor and Daliah Lavi, which gave the film a strange, misogynistic tone - quite unusual for Minnelli, whose films usually feature strong, likable, intelligent female characters. Kirk Douglas as the former Hollywood star in decline and his former collaborator Edward G. Robinson as the has-been director are very competent in their parts, but you get the impression that some of their stuff is forced and over-the-the-top, only a show off.
I found out "Two Weeks" had been hacked and slashed to bits during the editing process, partly in response to censorship complaints (the implied "Roman orgy" scene towards the end of the film, for example, was apparently a lot less implied in the original). I also found out Minnelli's original conception of the film was flawed in its writing & direction, and it shows all the way through.
For one thing, I found nearly all of the characters in "Two Weeks" to be extremely nasty and unpleasant, particularly the women, the ones played by Claire Trevor and Daliah Lavi, which gave the film a strange, misogynistic tone - quite unusual for Minnelli, whose films usually feature strong, likable, intelligent female characters. Kirk Douglas as the former Hollywood star in decline and his former collaborator Edward G. Robinson as the has-been director are very competent in their parts, but you get the impression that some of their stuff is forced and over-the-the-top, only a show off.
I found out "Two Weeks" had been hacked and slashed to bits during the editing process, partly in response to censorship complaints (the implied "Roman orgy" scene towards the end of the film, for example, was apparently a lot less implied in the original). I also found out Minnelli's original conception of the film was flawed in its writing & direction, and it shows all the way through.