| | I keep expecting the talk about this movie to die down, but it won't, so let me state for the record that I hated it. The best commentary I saw was one in National Review Online (I'd post a link, but it seems to have disappeared from their archives) which cited it as an example of a genre the author calls the liberal adventure movie. These people, he explained, enjoy seeing villains blown away as much as anybody else does, but they can't admit it, to themselves or anyone else, so they rationalize it by laying on a lot of deterministic blather.
Apart from Erica's dreary yappings to the effect that she's a product of - - of what? These people don't believe in the Devil, so that's out, but, she's somehow a product of any old thing that happens along, and, for all her weariness, she never tires of telling us - - the only principle, Objectivist or otherwise, that gets a hearing in this movie is that we shouldn't tear down quaint old buildings. Not only does the script lay this on us in word, but it dramatizes it in deed. It does nothing to establish any thinking-through of ideas or any courage on the main character's part. The only time she faces an armed opponent is by accident (in the convenience store). Otherwise, nothing she does requires any risk or bravery. The only other developed character, the police inspector, is introduced to us trying to talk his ex-wife into helping him cheat on the law, and when last we see him that's just what he does. Clearly the point is that all his platitudes about principle in between are for naught.
On the level of simple storytelling mechanics, too, the movie has a lot wrong with it, like too many coincidences too far into the story. As one example, the bar is packed, but somehow the ladies' room stays empty long enough for her to throw up and deliver another of her junk-metaphysical soliloquies. (The scene would have been more realistic if she'd spoken her piece first and then thrown up.) Every non-criminal in New York has known for 50 years that going into Central Park after dark is suicidal. And even NPR isn't as dull as her broadcasts.
(Edited by Peter Reidy on 10/21, 2:54pm)
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