actually a comedy.
the original title was 'a day late and a dollar short', after a Hollywood bigwig was rummaging thru the studio archives and stumbled on an old 3 stooges script and decided the modern treatment would be to come up with another in a string of feinnes pieces passed off as a costume drama.
the costumes were supposed to be clown costumes but since there was a glut of personnel and makeup artists doing stuff like 'sense and sensibility' it was decided to snazzy it up a bit.
so they came up with this square peg in a round hole approach and once again, shopped around for who would fit the bill re 'when yer hot yer hot, when yer not yer not' and the names feinnes and liv deary came up.
was this before or after those dreadful LOTR sequels of sequels where she hardly says anything? was this in her 'on the way up' or 'on the way down' phase of her film career? she was fairly good in 'inventing the abbots' but that's because she was at her peter principle level of highest competence. not so this vehicle. more like a vehicle hit by a train called reality of what you get with mediocre but much ballyhooed actors. aka 'hype hype hype' some sort of pep rally cry suitable for a high school football team. not suitable for a story that's been around this long.
at least we don't have to hold our breath waiting for yet another version in this century; anyone else who may have contemplated it in another life was surely convinced the odds were not good since ms tyler and mr feinnes showed just how bad the pooch can be screwed by not getting suitable actors.
you think I'm kidding about the day late and a dollar short theme? I counted at least 3 of them without trying: the dinner, the duel and the 'bitter sweet' (emphasis on bitter like the taste of stale beer) closing scene. I am so glad DVD player manufacturers perfected that feature you can speed up the playback and still hear the voice track at the original frequency, it just comes out in a rapid fire clipped manner. that cuts down the boredom until those blessed end credits envelope this symbol of the downfall of a frivolous life.
I'm talking about the lead actors careers, not the characters in the story.
the original title was 'a day late and a dollar short', after a Hollywood bigwig was rummaging thru the studio archives and stumbled on an old 3 stooges script and decided the modern treatment would be to come up with another in a string of feinnes pieces passed off as a costume drama.
the costumes were supposed to be clown costumes but since there was a glut of personnel and makeup artists doing stuff like 'sense and sensibility' it was decided to snazzy it up a bit.
so they came up with this square peg in a round hole approach and once again, shopped around for who would fit the bill re 'when yer hot yer hot, when yer not yer not' and the names feinnes and liv deary came up.
was this before or after those dreadful LOTR sequels of sequels where she hardly says anything? was this in her 'on the way up' or 'on the way down' phase of her film career? she was fairly good in 'inventing the abbots' but that's because she was at her peter principle level of highest competence. not so this vehicle. more like a vehicle hit by a train called reality of what you get with mediocre but much ballyhooed actors. aka 'hype hype hype' some sort of pep rally cry suitable for a high school football team. not suitable for a story that's been around this long.
at least we don't have to hold our breath waiting for yet another version in this century; anyone else who may have contemplated it in another life was surely convinced the odds were not good since ms tyler and mr feinnes showed just how bad the pooch can be screwed by not getting suitable actors.
you think I'm kidding about the day late and a dollar short theme? I counted at least 3 of them without trying: the dinner, the duel and the 'bitter sweet' (emphasis on bitter like the taste of stale beer) closing scene. I am so glad DVD player manufacturers perfected that feature you can speed up the playback and still hear the voice track at the original frequency, it just comes out in a rapid fire clipped manner. that cuts down the boredom until those blessed end credits envelope this symbol of the downfall of a frivolous life.
I'm talking about the lead actors careers, not the characters in the story.