I wanted to like this film. No, I lie. I was dying to LOVE this film. After all, I was only 6 when the original came out and saw it for the first time at 22 on VHS. It was a revelation to me -and hilarious - and a "Debbie Downer" because it made me realize I was an outcast.
I've watched the original film at least once a year. I've bought it on VHS and on DVD.
Then I heard that a cast of well knowns from my era (even if a bit younger) were a huge hit on Broadway with it and it was being made into a movie. Well, sign me up!
I watched it the night it premiered! After all, it was going to be the really great actors (both Broadway and TV and film) performing roles they knew inside and out. It was going to be better than I could imagine.
Imagine my disappointment. I waited. I did. I waited. I waited and waited for it to get better. It didn't. It was as flat as the lasagna.
There was no energy. Oh, Matt Bomer was more than fine - in fact, he was a bit to handsome for the part of Donald, but he delivered a good performance, if not one with enough energy.
Jim Parsons was a somnambulist, sleep walking through the most intricate of the characters - Michael. No energy in the first half and zippo in the last half - he really was not much more than Sheldon Cooper outed. Shrill.
And Charlie Carver as Cowboy, well, he was far too innocent and no at all streetwise. No comparison to Robert LaTourneaux.
No. I think the problem with this movie was timing...Don't get me wrong all the actors in the 2020 version had impeccable timing. It's just that a lot has happened in the 52 years since the play premiered. Stonewall had just happened back then. Now, it is taken for granted by most. Being gay was dangerous and illegal in 1968. Now it's largely legal as is gay marriage and consorting with other homosexuals is not dangerous nor a cause to be arrested.
Being gay is mundane today. There's no excitement (unless you enjoy having your blood pressure go up watching a Trump rally). Hell, gay is just one of the letters in the acronym that defines us. And no one is merely "gay" any more. They are bisexual, gender fluid, Asexual, Polyamorous, etc. It's all quite tedious to me.
But I suppose equal rights means equal boredom. Because none of these actors ever lived in the era (as adults) where same sex love was not only a sin but a crime, they just can't channel the internal emotion necessary to pass along the energy that the original does. And to give Friedkin and the editor of the original their due - the original feels more like a film than a filmed play.
Good job guys, but I'll stick with the original.
I watched it the night it premiered! After all, it was going to be the really great actors (both Broadway and TV and film) performing roles they knew inside and out. It was going to be better than I could imagine.
Imagine my disappointment. I waited. I did. I waited. I waited and waited for it to get better. It didn't. It was as flat as the lasagna.
There was no energy. Oh, Matt Bomer was more than fine - in fact, he was a bit to handsome for the part of Donald, but he delivered a good performance, if not one with enough energy.
Jim Parsons was a somnambulist, sleep walking through the most intricate of the characters - Michael. No energy in the first half and zippo in the last half - he really was not much more than Sheldon Cooper outed. Shrill.
And Charlie Carver as Cowboy, well, he was far too innocent and no at all streetwise. No comparison to Robert LaTourneaux.
No. I think the problem with this movie was timing...Don't get me wrong all the actors in the 2020 version had impeccable timing. It's just that a lot has happened in the 52 years since the play premiered. Stonewall had just happened back then. Now, it is taken for granted by most. Being gay was dangerous and illegal in 1968. Now it's largely legal as is gay marriage and consorting with other homosexuals is not dangerous nor a cause to be arrested.
Being gay is mundane today. There's no excitement (unless you enjoy having your blood pressure go up watching a Trump rally). Hell, gay is just one of the letters in the acronym that defines us. And no one is merely "gay" any more. They are bisexual, gender fluid, Asexual, Polyamorous, etc. It's all quite tedious to me.
But I suppose equal rights means equal boredom. Because none of these actors ever lived in the era (as adults) where same sex love was not only a sin but a crime, they just can't channel the internal emotion necessary to pass along the energy that the original does. And to give Friedkin and the editor of the original their due - the original feels more like a film than a filmed play.
Good job guys, but I'll stick with the original.