<p>Saw Lincoln today - haven’t studied much history and was expecting/hoping for some sort of a biography. Turned out to be primarily a movie about the 13th amendment with little or no mention of other dimensions of Lincoln’s life like the war itself. Thought there’d be more of Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and other aspects of the war, but apparently not. </p>
<p>I thought Lincoln’s face looked remarkably like the images we see of him; on the other hand, I don’t think I’ve seen Sally Field for decades and she looked nothing like what I remembered of her.</p>
<p>H, D, S and I saw Lincoln last night. H, S and I are all history buffs with reasonable knowledge of the Civil War and Lincoln. H loved the movie, D thought it was okay, but too long, and S and I (I sometimes think we share a brain) hated it. We both thought it was ham-fisted, overwrought and melodramatic, with a clumsy narrative flow, not a single line of believable dialogue (just speech after speech), and a prologue that was actually painful in its corniness and falsity. It was highly distracting to have even very minor roles played by well known actors (way too much “Hey, isn’t that the boyfriend from the show Girls?”, “Ooh, look how badly James Spader is aging!” and “Oh yeah, she’s the captain from Law and Order”). And I know he’s done some fine work in his career, but Hal Holbrook is just phoning it in these days, and I really want to see less of him on the screen. Daniel Day Lewis certainly did a fine impersonation of Lincoln and is a cinch to win the Oscar, but somehow (and this is the fault of the script, not the performance), I never felt I was seeing Lincoln as a man, just as an icon. Sally Field was, well, as always, Sally Field, who hasn’t had a subtle arrow left in her quiver in at least 15 years–and the script had an awfully charitable view of Mrs. Lincoln, btw. I’m still rather bewildered by the deliberate misdirection in the theater scene near the end. All in all, Lincoln was the kind of stuffy, self-impressed, hagiographic, “important” film (like Gandhi and The King’s Speech) that wins Oscars and bores me silly.</p>
<p>^Haha MommaJ, this is exactly what I suspected from seeing the trailer. There have been such raves about the film. Thanks for presenting another point of view.</p>
<p>I did like Gandhi and The King’s Speech, but I fear that if I tried to watch Lincoln it would turn me off as much as Spielberg’s War Horse did.</p>
<p>^ agree – had been sort of wincing at going to see this huge production of Lincoln and now I know I can wait and watch or turn it off on DVD. </p>
<p>DDL is a wonderful actor but with him I’m always thinking – “Oh my, look how brilliantly this man acts!” I think the best actors are the ones you’re never really thinking that, they don’t get in the way of the film but make it go.</p>
<p>Rather excited about Les Mis mostly because I liked Anne Hathaway so much in Batman.</p>
<p>emerald – thanks for the sharing the javier film link.</p>
<p>We almost never go see a movie. I decided to rectify the situation. I informed one-and-all in the family that today I plan to see a movie and strongly hinted that I’d rather see it with others than alone. I suspect that I have at least one companion: I hear the shower running upstairs.</p>
<p>My choice based on this thread: Argo. (Yeah, I know you guys have moved on to newer releases.) Anyway, I’m looking forward to it.</p>
<p>Enjoyed Lincoln with Lake Jr. last night. Surprised that the cinema was packed for an early evening show.</p>
<p>Enjoyed the film, particularly Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones. For a moment I wondered about the lack of Frederick Douglass, which was mentioned on Meet The Press this morning. But I don’t think the absence of the Douglass character is a flaw. Actually, I think it highlights the opinion of some historians that Lincoln had very little actual personal interaction with African Americans.</p>
<p>The inside story is that the movie is about the battles of Congress. The war is almost secondary in the plot. Thought David Brooks’ perspective on the movie (comparing Lincoln’s actions to political leadership today) was fascinating.</p>
<p>Indie film “Safety Not Guaranteed,” from the producers of “Little Miss Sunshine”. I saw it on Netflix- loved it.<br>
WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.</p>
<p>A friend & I saw Anna Karenina, today.
I read it last year. & they didn’t leave anything out, but it was long. I also thought the scene changes were distracting as were Knightley’s crooked teeth.
But great costumes!</p>
<p>None of the theaters in my area were showing Hitchcock or Anna Karenina :(. I don’t get it. We are in the burbs, but we are outside of a major city.</p>
<p>I liked Lincoln a lot, although I agree with some of what MommaJ said–some of it was too speechy and schlocky. I liked the politics, though, and I especially liked Tommy Lee Jones. Best Supporting Actor for him, I think.</p>
<p>Silver Linings Playbook was great. The book was better, because they had to leave a lot out of the movie, but I would recommend the movie. Even the Wall Street Journal liked it! It’s a must see for anyone from the Philadelphia area, for sure.</p>
<p>If you like Tommy Lee Jones as much as I do, I would recommend his directorial debut The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. 2006.</p>
<p>Previews with Anna Karenina included Hitchcock, Zero Dark Thirty, The Impossible, Hyde Park on Hudson, The Great Gatsby ( the trailer looked little like what I read in high school ) & Les Mis</p>
<p>Saw Perks of Being a Wallflower and Skyfall, Perks just a couple hours after going through the Fort Pitt tunnel. I’m working up my mix tape as I write…</p>
I just loved him in The Dancer Upstairs: