{"id":6652,"date":"2017-05-25T10:39:49","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T14:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6652"},"modified":"2017-07-25T07:31:36","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T11:31:36","slug":"richard-gere-two-ways-cinematically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6652","title":{"rendered":"Richard Gere: Two Ways Cinematically"},"content":{"rendered":"

Norman<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"RichardFull title of this Joseph Cedar movie is Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer<\/em> (trailer<\/a>). Norman the person is not very likeable. He stands too close when he talks to you, he\u2019s relentless in searching for an angle, he\u2019s quick with the half-to-full-lie. But in Richard Gere\u2019s nuanced portrayal, initial discomfort turns to something more like sympathy. How he\u2019s treated by the people who see him for what he is becomes simultaneously justified and painful.<\/p>\n

The sympathy is possible because Norman isn\u2019t angling to benefit himself, at least not financially. He only wants to feel important, that he matters in the world, yet he remains \u201calways just a few capillaries removed from the beating heart of power,\u201d says A.O. Scott<\/a> in the New York Times<\/em>. When he has a setback, and he has plenty of them, you see the gears turning until he hits a way to make the best of it.<\/p>\n

When Norman \u201cbumps into\u201d an Israeli diplomat and does him a favor, right there you know the seeds of calamity are planted. I won\u2019t say more about the plot, which is complicated in the delicious way that only someone like Norman could complicate it.<\/p>\n

Israeli actor Lior Ashkenazi plays the diplomat; Michael Sheen plays Norman\u2019s put-upon nephew; Steve Buscemi as the rabbi of a financially distressed congregation is \u201ca marvel of wit and off-kilter humanity,\u201d Scott says; and Manhattan plays itself, beautifully.<\/p>\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics rating: 87%; audiences 70%.<\/p>\n

The Dinner<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"RichardI have a friend who doesn\u2019t like intense family dramas\u2014too many bad associations. He\u2019ll have to avoid The Dinner <\/em>(trailer<\/a>), written and directed by Oren Moverman. The movie is based on Dutch author Herman Koch\u2019s excellent novel (2013), which I greatly admired (best book cover ever!). It\u2019s told in the first person, and I wondered how the narrator\u2019s snide and witty commentary would translate to the screen. That aspect of it worked differently in the book and survived less successfully in the film, with biting humor replaced by mental chaos.<\/p>\n

Steve Coogan plays Paul Lohman, an erstwhile high school history teacher who loathes (actually, is desperately jealous of) his politically successful older brother Stan (Richard Gere), now embarking on a gubernatorial campaign. The brothers and their wives (Laura Linney and Rebecca Hall) are to have dinner at an exclusive restaurant, but Paul at least is not looking forward to it. Nor should he be. Stan has an agenda. He wants to discuss something truly awful\u2014criminal, in fact\u2014their teenage sons have done, which could explode all their lives.<\/p>\n

Comparisons with Roman Polanski\u2019s Carnage<\/em> are perhaps inevitable, but the fireworks and the damage here are all in the family. The kids who caused the whole debacle are weakly portrayed, and the movie, unlike the novel, ends ambiguously. If your focus is on strong performances, this is a worthy effort. If you want a convincing story, read the book.<\/p>\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics rating: 51%; audiences, 18%.
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Norman Full title of this Joseph Cedar movie is Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (trailer). Norman the person is not very likeable. He stands too close when he talks to you, he\u2019s relentless … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Richard Gere: Two Ways Cinematically - very different roles, strong performances in both","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[269,366,74,57,104],"tags":[91,99],"class_list":["post-6652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-actor","category-drama","category-emotions","category-movies","category-the-morgue","tag-new-york","tag-urban-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1Ji","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6655,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6652\/revisions\/6655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}