JAMES MCAVOY REVISITED
OK. I'm exhausted. I haven't been this tired since the season seven stretch of my three month Star Trek marathon. Since my last post generated about James McAvoy generated such a buzz, I decided I would watch all his recent movies (went ahead and skipped Dune) and then do a (n obscenely long) follow up post, complete with footnotes. I watched Starter for Ten (thanks for the recommendation, readers!!!), Last King of Scotland, State of Play, and Rory O'Shea Was Here. Unfortunately, I also went to see Wanted.
STARTER FOR TEN
So, so good.1 I love, love, loved this movie! James McAvoy is so eager and adorable. You agonize over his every social faux pas, and rejoice in every geeky triumph. As a long-time lover of geeks (no, seriously), I so have a soft spot for the i-never-realized-how-good-looking-i-actually-am smart guys.
There is so much in this movie that rings true about college idealism and that freshman social learning curve. There are so many great details--from scammy roommates to the guy that's given up toilet paper for environmental reasons--that just take you back. (Shotgun, anyone?)
LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
All I can say is, don't watch this before bed. I did, and I totally regretted it. It's violent, but it's the steadily mounting tension that really gets you wound up. James (I'm tired of typing "McAvoy". We're officially on a first name basis.) in all his cute-bottomed-rosy-faced Scottishness, is the perfect foil for Forest Whitaker's exuberant and volatile Idi Amin. The tension starts visually: there's the obvious physical contrast between their size, colouring, and carriage. James's personality - dominated by roguish charm and frank immaturity - somehow makes the revelation of Amin's crazy all the more jarring. From the beginning you know everything you love about James McAvoy will be his undoing (well, you do if your friend Bridie movie storied2 you the whole thing during your workout). Passion, idealism, and optimism are the flip sides of impulsivity, ill-informed decisions, and misplaced trust. James is just so damned likable though, you keep wanting to rescue him from his coquettish3, over-confident self.
This movie also contains primo James McAvoy sex. I am not gonna lie. That sex scene in the cave room is totally hot. Way hotter than Atonement, y'all. Probably because it's so, so illicit and ill-advised. I want to scream "Don't do it, James McAvoy and Idi Amin's wife! Clearly, this will not end well!" Though, let's face facts... The threat of a painful death at the hands of my crazed dictator-husband probably wouldn't stop me from fucking James against a rock wall either. (Hey, where the heck was that place?)
WANTED
Speaking of a slow and painful death... Wanted. Dear God. I want that two hours of my life back. Until Wanted, there have only been two occasions where I have actually hated a movie so much that I wanted to get up and leave the theater.4
Repetitively boring violence, Angelina's Grotesque Mouth, and the soundtrack are just the tip of the iceberg of things to hate about Wanted. (About thirty minutes in, I was already thinking "If I have to see one more person get shot in the head...") The most irritating thing about this movie is the quasi-morality used to rationalize violence. We just love to watch a flawed-yet-sexy hero dole out vigilante justice to avenge some sort of heinous crime against a child or a long-lost parent.5 Wanted cleverly incorporates both child and long lost parent, making James's final march of fury all the more justifiable.
Wanted also suffers from a complete dearth of creativity with names. Best example: the Loom of Fate. Seriously, someone got paid to come up with the Loom of Fate. Main characters also have generic names like "Fox" and "the Repairman" instead of cool weaver-assassin names (Weft? Shuttle?). (Aside: Why are all the looms making linen? Was that a pool on top of that train?)
The movie does have a few surprise twists. I, for one, didn't see that "Luke, I am your father" moment coming. However, it ends predictably... You guessed it! A bunch of folks get shot in the head.
Other random thing: I, personally, don't love James's American accent in Wanted or Penelope. Both these films attempted to suspend my disbelief to such an extent that having James be Scottish - even for a bullshit reason like boarding school or a Scottish mother - wouldn't have been the most implausible thing in the movie. Seriously. Loom of Fate, people. (Aside: Am I mistaken, or does he put on an English accent in Becoming Jane? Do people from Limerick not sound Irish? Is this in my last James McAvoy post?)
STATE OF PLAY
State of Play is a should- (not quite must) see BBC miniseries, particularly for anyone playing a round of Six Degrees of Random British Actors. (Aside: Also helpful for this game would be Love Actually, Harry Potter, and [Branagh's] Hamlet, which together feature every British actor ever.) It's about a group of investigative journalists who break a story about someone in Parliament or something. The plot's more convoluted than a damn novella, but it's totally engrossing. "The Repairman" from Wanted is in State of Play with James, as is Bill Nighy and his female co-star from Girl in the Café. James is totally charming and adorable in all his cockiness playing Bill Nighy's son. Sadly, James is more of an accessory in this series. He does have some very good smiles and cute tops though.
RORY O'SHEA WAS HERE
This was the last James McAvoy movie I watched. It features that girl from I Capture the Castle (which also involves Bill Nighy?). Such a good movie. James McAvoy plays Rory O'Shea--a foul-mouthed spikey-haired kid in a wheelchair. He's the only person who can understand what Michael is saying through his speech impediment. The whole movie is so utterly bittersweet. Think Beaches or Steel Magnolias.
So that's it, I think. Oh wait, just kidding! Bright Young Things. Surprisingly dull considering it's all about beautiful rich people partying and doing drugs in 20s (? too lazy to fact check...) Britain. Maybe that's the point. I don't know. Compared to a film like Metropolitan, where characters are totally intriguing, at times even likable, despite their useless lives and banal conversation, and I think Bright Young Things could've been better. Also, James offs himself (puts his head in the oven... how does that even work?) not halfway through, so there's really no point after that. I give it a resounding "eh".
So as I finished up this blog post, I started to wonder, "Is it normal to devote this much time and thought to an actor? Do I have a problem?" And then I found this...
1. Starter for Ten is a fine specimen of the boco or "boy romantic comedy" subgenre. Bocos differ from rocos in that they feature a male main character who, after a series humourous adventures caused by penis-induced stupidity, finally realizes that the hottest one isn't always the best one. High Fidelity is classic boco.
2. Movie story is a game invented for car trips where you tell someone the story of a movie they probably weren't going to see anyway. I flatter myself that I am quite good at movie story, having storied Bridie on all seven seasons of Sex and the City and the movie in under 45 minutes.
3. Yeah. Let's start using this to describe men.
4. The other two movies were Sin City and Man on Fire.
5. This quasi-morality of the vengeance myth irks me because it presupposes a simplistic formula for quantifying the value of human life. Children top the hierarchy of human worth, and women, good people, and bad men follow in descending order. It assuages viewers' suspicions that they might just enjoy violence for violence's sake. Hmm... not sure where that came from... Anyway...
Comments
When the actor in question is James McAvoy then yes, you're entirely normal to be obsessed with him. In fact, you'd be abnormal if you weren't. I haven't seen Wanted yet (detest action flics) but of course I'm going to watch it for him. I enjoyed your blog. Thanks! By the way, the firewall at work won't let me see the link you posted at the end. Is it a hot pic of him? Ooooooh, is there any way it could be emailed to me? Please, please, please!
Posted by: Nicole | July 31, 2008 2:15 PM
By the way, yes he did do an English accent in Becoming Jane which I also thought was weird. I assumed he'd do an Irish one. Hmm.
You've inspired me to watch The Last King of Scotland again just for that cave sex scene.
Posted by: Nicole | July 31, 2008 2:20 PM
hi nicole! i totally forgot that i knew how to embed youtube videos. i added the video for you and reformatted the post a bit to make it easier to read...
these montages are totally hilarious. i especially enjoy that many of the pictures "sample" in huge letters. hah!
Posted by: sally | July 31, 2008 3:41 PM
oh no. i see at my job that even embedded youtube won't come up at work. bummer. what's your email, nicole?
Posted by: sally | August 1, 2008 1:05 PM