Against The Grain

Tonight we watched The Human Stain. It was disappointing. I had such high hopes because it has Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Gary Sinise and Ed Harris in it. I was not expecting the long, drawn out, quiet and overly talky movie that it turned out to be. I am sure the book is fabulous, but as a movie... it was not a wise choice for a day that my body got up and went to work, but left my brain at home in bed.

I think though, that one of the bigger problems I had with this movie was the weakness of Anthony Hopkins' character. I'm used to strong and charismatic characters from him, and in the beginning it looked like that's what I'd be getting, but soon I found out: this character has a weak spine, and that was hard to watch. There's a scene where Nicole Kidman's character has this random meltdown and Sir Hopkin's character just retreats into a corner and stands there, looking at the floor. It was unsettling. Usually I'm against typecasting. I like actors to show their range. Hopkins as a meek man who is easily defeated, however, was just too.....not fair.

It's sort of like thinking "Hey Dennis Miller is on CNBC! I used to love him!" only to turn the show on and hear the man you once thought of as a free-thinking, status-quo mocking, pop-culture referencing, too-smart-for-his-own-gooding, defying the norm advocating, say "Vote for Bush" out loud and not be kidding. Even though you knew he'd come out of his Republican closet, you still hoped that it wouldn't be so severe.

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Thank God I also watched Bill Maher's Victory Begins at Home dvd today or I'd have no faith left in the world at all. I love people who can send me straight from indignation into inspiration.