I knew I would love this loose adaptation of the James Thurber short story about a meek man who fantasizes about being bold. Some friends and I decided that Thurber's protagonist, a henpecked married man, would be just plain pathetic now, and this one, played and directed by Ben Stiller (most recently blogged in Tower Heist) and written for the screen by Steve Conrad (The Weather Man (2005), The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)), is merely painfully shy with his eye on a pretty co-worker, Cheryl, played by Kristen Wiig (last in Girl Most Likely), and a hero he admires played by Sean Penn (last in Gangster Squad). Conrad came to our university for a sold out advance screening and is a humble, nice guy with a lot of respect for the original Thurber material and a great sense of humor. That said, this is also an action picture with great special effects and beautiful festival award-nominated photography by Stuart Dryburgh (covered in Amelia). 140 (!) actors are listed on the imdb page but the only other one I want to mention is Patton Oswalt, a favorite of mine who was last blogged in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, and here plays mostly a voice on the phone. It's not a spoiler to tell you who it is so you don't have to wrack your brain, as Mary Ellen and I did, to identify his voice.
Composer Theodore Shapiro (last in We're the Millers) is also nominated--no, the Oscar nominations are not out yet--for a varied score that goes from dreamy (featuring guitarist José Gonzalez) to pounding. Hear one track on youtube, preview the whole score on the amazon page and listen, if you wish, to the companion tracks.
Unfortunately Jack was out of town for the advance screening over two weeks ago. I was willing to see it with Amy and him yesterday when our first choice for a Christmas movie was sold out, but only two tickets were available for the three of us so we went home and watched a Pay-per-View (more on that in a later post).
Apparently Thurber didn't like the 1947 Danny Kaye version. Rottentomatoes critics feel the same about this one, averaging 47% to audiences' 77. We loved it and so did many of the people in the room earlier this month. I did not get motion sick after wisely moving toward the rear of the room, but did have to put my fingers in my ears at an unnecessarily loud music cue in a mountain scene.
Composer Theodore Shapiro (last in We're the Millers) is also nominated--no, the Oscar nominations are not out yet--for a varied score that goes from dreamy (featuring guitarist José Gonzalez) to pounding. Hear one track on youtube, preview the whole score on the amazon page and listen, if you wish, to the companion tracks.
Unfortunately Jack was out of town for the advance screening over two weeks ago. I was willing to see it with Amy and him yesterday when our first choice for a Christmas movie was sold out, but only two tickets were available for the three of us so we went home and watched a Pay-per-View (more on that in a later post).
Apparently Thurber didn't like the 1947 Danny Kaye version. Rottentomatoes critics feel the same about this one, averaging 47% to audiences' 77. We loved it and so did many of the people in the room earlier this month. I did not get motion sick after wisely moving toward the rear of the room, but did have to put my fingers in my ears at an unnecessarily loud music cue in a mountain scene.
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