I've always appreciated the performances by the three lead actors in this movie (Vaughn, Phoenix & Heche), and this movie just solidified it. It was incredible to see a very honest portrayal of pure human emotions and reactions. The way Sherriff's character was written was brilliant. You go from hating him for being a jerk, to understanding him to loving and crying for him. Or maybe that was just me being a GIRL, lol. At any rate, there's nothing better than when a writer can truly pull at your emotions through little elaboration. Not to much, not too little, but just as right as baby bear's porridge.
One review I read of this movie said that there wasn't enough character development. I thought on this and I must disagree. The only way you can say that is if you need every-sing-word to be spoken to get the point. Which, I snobbily say, more than half of America needs to GET and like a movie these days. These actors displayed a great deal of subtlety and power in their performances and more words and scenes would have turned this compelling drama into a horribly depressing and endless "Beyond Rangoon" cliché, minus the lack of culpability of the two girls in that film. This was a situation that has and can happen to American travelers, which is why it touched this jaded and HUGE movie fan so deeply. Realizing that your "inalienable" rights don't count wherever you go. That you have to accept responsibility for your actions in life, however injust they may seem to you, because they do affect others.
The M.J. Majors storyline (we...must...get...the...story...told) was incredibly dubious. It seemed to me that part of the agenda of the theme was to reinforce just how detrimental the media can be when they're more concerned about the, achem, 'public's right to know' than those the story involves. It seemed to make the *reporter* out to be the real villain. It could have been a necessary tidbit to the story as a whole, but it stood out to me to be too much a part of the climactic conflict that wasn't truly needed for the climax itself.
I'm going to follow the writer nonetheless.
One review I read of this movie said that there wasn't enough character development. I thought on this and I must disagree. The only way you can say that is if you need every-sing-word to be spoken to get the point. Which, I snobbily say, more than half of America needs to GET and like a movie these days. These actors displayed a great deal of subtlety and power in their performances and more words and scenes would have turned this compelling drama into a horribly depressing and endless "Beyond Rangoon" cliché, minus the lack of culpability of the two girls in that film. This was a situation that has and can happen to American travelers, which is why it touched this jaded and HUGE movie fan so deeply. Realizing that your "inalienable" rights don't count wherever you go. That you have to accept responsibility for your actions in life, however injust they may seem to you, because they do affect others.
The M.J. Majors storyline (we...must...get...the...story...told) was incredibly dubious. It seemed to me that part of the agenda of the theme was to reinforce just how detrimental the media can be when they're more concerned about the, achem, 'public's right to know' than those the story involves. It seemed to make the *reporter* out to be the real villain. It could have been a necessary tidbit to the story as a whole, but it stood out to me to be too much a part of the climactic conflict that wasn't truly needed for the climax itself.
I'm going to follow the writer nonetheless.