Many years ago I tried starting to read Jean M Auel's novel. Despite the fact that it is very much my kind of thing, I could never get into it. So I come to the movie, 25 years after it was made, completely cold.
Its story of a Cro-Magnon orphan being adopted into a tribe of Neanderthals and having to cope with prejudice and antagonism is absolutely fine. The events and motivations all seem entirely reasonable, and who is to say otherwise? The story progresses satisfactorily, is easy to follow (with subtitles and voice-over where necessary), the photography is lush and the performances aren't bad (I don't think you have to be particularly subtle to play an irritable Neanderthal).
But there were a couple of elements which made the suspension of disbelief a little difficult. One was Daryl Hannah's tasty clean-haired blonde Cro-Magnon, just a little bit too 20th centurily gorgeous to convince as a stone age trailblazer for women's lib.
And the other is the Neanderthal wigs. The prosthetics are, for the most part, fine (and appropriate, of course), but the wigs don't cut it, I'm afraid. They are so immobile that they might as well have been cast in plaster, and they scream, "This is an actor in a wig." And, of course, that's exactly what it is, but you don't want it hammered home during every second of screen time.
Its story of a Cro-Magnon orphan being adopted into a tribe of Neanderthals and having to cope with prejudice and antagonism is absolutely fine. The events and motivations all seem entirely reasonable, and who is to say otherwise? The story progresses satisfactorily, is easy to follow (with subtitles and voice-over where necessary), the photography is lush and the performances aren't bad (I don't think you have to be particularly subtle to play an irritable Neanderthal).
But there were a couple of elements which made the suspension of disbelief a little difficult. One was Daryl Hannah's tasty clean-haired blonde Cro-Magnon, just a little bit too 20th centurily gorgeous to convince as a stone age trailblazer for women's lib.
And the other is the Neanderthal wigs. The prosthetics are, for the most part, fine (and appropriate, of course), but the wigs don't cut it, I'm afraid. They are so immobile that they might as well have been cast in plaster, and they scream, "This is an actor in a wig." And, of course, that's exactly what it is, but you don't want it hammered home during every second of screen time.