Thighs Wide Shut

My Week with Marilyn
Companionship Is A Girl’s Best Friend
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
R | 99 min

Colin Clark is one lucky fellow.  He was born into money and used family connections to get onto the set of Laurence Olivier’s The Prince and the Showgirl, and somehow sirprizingly into the heart and soul of Marilyn Monroe… for a week!!  Of course any man would give both of their testicals to be in her presence for 10 seconds, so we’re pretty dang darn jealous that Clark did what he got to do, especially since he’s a dweeby guy played by the dweeby actor Eddie Redmayne (he needs to get a lip reduction or something).  But even if this is CC’s story, Simon Curtis‘ film version of his true story is truly all about Marilyn through and through

When we first saw a picture of Michelle Williams dolled up as MM, we were kinda creeped out by it.  We love Williams and all, but didn’t think we’d be able to buy her as her.  Well, after seeing MW be MM, we are now beyond sold.  So much so that we’d almos rather spend a week with MW as MM than with MM.  It’s true!!!  Throw in some stiff-upperlipping by Kenneth Branagh as Olivier, Judi Dench dame-ing it up, Julia Ormond ormonding(???) it up, Toby Jones standing tall, Emma Watson not being Hermione, Dougray Scott wearing the same exact glasses that Arthur Miller did, Dominic Cooper not being Uday Hussein, Zoë Wanamaker rapping with her raspy voice, and we got ourselves a solid supporting cast playing the cast of characters who supported MM during her cinematic journey in the old country

But there was something about the whole falling in love affair with MM that didn’t sit right with us.  It felt like we were being served a giant slice of nauseating sentimentality.  And this Colin Clark kid is just too vanilla a human being to give two flying figs about.  He’s as cardboard as… cardboard, and as interesting as… cardboard.  We ended up rooting against him getting into MM’s troubled life, and wished it was Olivier who had itched that seven year itch (whatever that means).  But it is what it is, and that’s what it is

moral of the story: Monroe has been portrayed on screen and TV 100+ times.  Michelle Williams hands in the 2nd best MM performance we have ever seen.   This is why you see this movie.  So, who’s #1?  Samantha Morton, who played a heartbreaking MM impersonator in one of the best films of the last 10 years – Mister Lonely

Smoke Em If You Got Em: yes, these did really eggsist.  EAT IT MR T!!!!

Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Marilyn‘s Week begins limited release on Thanksgiving Eve Day

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

(this is Colin with Olivier’s wife Vivien Leigh!)

The Devil’s Double
Go Ahead, Make Me Uday 
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
R | 109 min

Uday Hussein grew up rich and infamous, under the tyrannical house of Saddam, which pretty much gave him an unusual license to do as he pleased in Iraq.  And what he pleased to do turned out to be horrific and unspeakable things to his enemies, his fellow countrymen, and even to his friends.  This made him someone not to be messed with, but also a ticking time bomb waiting to explode or to be exploded.  Many people in such a volatile position (like his father) seek out body doubles, for there is safety in numbers.  Such was the unlucky luck of Latif Yahia, a former classmate of Uday’s, who juss so happened to resemble him, and had no real choice but to sign up for the one of the worst gigs around – being his… DOUBLE!

WELCOME to Lee Tamahori‘s The Devil’s Double, a shocking, yet wholeheartedly fascinating and entertaning look at Latif’s life as Uday II. Doubling our pleasure is Dominic Cooper, who not only is carrying a movie for the very first time, but is carrying it twice, as he plays both Uday and Latif (he even looks like Latif, see below)!!!  Cooper beyond pulls off the dual roles, handing in two fantastic performances that are as varied as the men themselves.  Making it all believable is the film tech-mology that lets Coop act out with and against himself in scene after scene.  That tech-mology is basically the third star of the film (apologies to the lovely Ludivine Sagnier).  To hell with body switching, and to heaven with body doubling!!!!

The devil is in the details, and Double‘s got em, but sometimes the lack of time context, and the Hollywoodizing of Latif’s story stand in the way of this becoming a truly excellent flick.  Still, it’s not often you get a Caligula meets Dave meets Scarface in the desert, with more mustaches than one could ever dream of.  Wait, do people dream of endless mustaches????

We Want To Join AA: this AA!!

Amrita Acharia

Verdictgo: Jeepers MOS DEFFFFFF Worth A Peepers

Devil is hell on a screen, currently in limited release

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…