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Grecian Daddy Drama
The Two Faces of January could have been urid and awful and fun.
The Two Faces of January: “No clouds on the horizon, nossir. Everything’s hunky-dory.”
Movie
Two Faces of January *
It's not a subtle move to open your story with a tour guide (Oscar Isaac) leading a group around some sun-drenched ruins and telling site-specific stories from the Greek myths. (In this case, the story of how Theseus lost his dear old dad Aegus after killing the Minotaur.) But it's not a bad move, either. Nor is it bad to cast Viggo Mortensen as a well-dressed operator, gone to seed and on the lam with a pretty blonde wife (Kirsten Dunst) in tow. Everything is in place for something sordid-bordering-on-tragic, and if there are mythic reverberations when everything comes crashing down, so much the better. But if you're going to be blunt in your parallels, you'd better deliver something that approaches the visceral force of the original story. It could have been lurid and awful and fun. But with a few exceptions, this is good pulp obscured by good taste, reserve, detachment, what have you.
It’s not a subtle move to open your story with a tour guide (Oscar Isaac) leading a group around some sun-drenched ruins and telling site-specific stories from the Greek myths. (In this case, the story of how Theseus lost his dear old dad Aegus after killing the Minotaur because he neglected to hoist the white sail of victory as he returned home. Aegus, seeing the black sail on the incoming ship, concluded that his son was dead and hurled himself into the sea in despair.) But it’s not a bad move, either. Nor is it bad to cast Viggo Mortensen as a well-dressed operator, gone to seed and on the lam with a pretty blonde wife (Kirsten Dunst) in tow. And Isaac’s huge, hooded eyes and natural frown are perfect for a guy who we’re not so sure about: sure, he’s helpful, but it’s clear he’s got his own interests to consider. Everything is in place for something sordid bordering on tragic, and if there are mythic reverberations when everything comes crashing down, so much the better.
But then director and screenwriter Hossein Amini (working from a novel by Patricia Highsmith) gives us Isaac reading a letter from home that scolds him for not attending his father’s funeral. And then he sends his characters to Crete, home of the very Labyrinth that held the mythic man-bull. If you’re going to be that blunt in your parallels, you’d better deliver something that approaches the visceral force of the original story. Sadly, The Two Faces of January, while handsomely shot and earnestly acted, never manages the wrenching tension or gut-punching passion that it needs to measure up. (This is Greece, by gum! Land of Oedipus and Cronos! Dads murdered, sons eaten!)
It could have been lurid and awful and fun. The elements are right there onscreen: you’ve got mutual desire, mutual distrust, mutual disdain, and mutual blackmail that demands the kind of forced teamwork that rarely ends well. But with a few exceptions — notably, Mortensen rubbing a sheet and sniffing his hand to see if his wife’s been cheating on him — the movie is good pulp obscured by good taste, reserve, detachment, what have you.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Grecian Daddy Drama
The Two Faces of January could have been urid and awful and fun.
Grecian Daddy Drama
The Two Faces of January could have been urid and awful and fun.
The Two Faces of January: “No clouds on the horizon, nossir. Everything’s hunky-dory.”
Movie
Two Faces of January *
It's not a subtle move to open your story with a tour guide (Oscar Isaac) leading a group around some sun-drenched ruins and telling site-specific stories from the Greek myths. (In this case, the story of how Theseus lost his dear old dad Aegus after killing the Minotaur.) But it's not a bad move, either. Nor is it bad to cast Viggo Mortensen as a well-dressed operator, gone to seed and on the lam with a pretty blonde wife (Kirsten Dunst) in tow. Everything is in place for something sordid-bordering-on-tragic, and if there are mythic reverberations when everything comes crashing down, so much the better. But if you're going to be blunt in your parallels, you'd better deliver something that approaches the visceral force of the original story. It could have been lurid and awful and fun. But with a few exceptions, this is good pulp obscured by good taste, reserve, detachment, what have you.
It’s not a subtle move to open your story with a tour guide (Oscar Isaac) leading a group around some sun-drenched ruins and telling site-specific stories from the Greek myths. (In this case, the story of how Theseus lost his dear old dad Aegus after killing the Minotaur because he neglected to hoist the white sail of victory as he returned home. Aegus, seeing the black sail on the incoming ship, concluded that his son was dead and hurled himself into the sea in despair.) But it’s not a bad move, either. Nor is it bad to cast Viggo Mortensen as a well-dressed operator, gone to seed and on the lam with a pretty blonde wife (Kirsten Dunst) in tow. And Isaac’s huge, hooded eyes and natural frown are perfect for a guy who we’re not so sure about: sure, he’s helpful, but it’s clear he’s got his own interests to consider. Everything is in place for something sordid bordering on tragic, and if there are mythic reverberations when everything comes crashing down, so much the better.
But then director and screenwriter Hossein Amini (working from a novel by Patricia Highsmith) gives us Isaac reading a letter from home that scolds him for not attending his father’s funeral. And then he sends his characters to Crete, home of the very Labyrinth that held the mythic man-bull. If you’re going to be that blunt in your parallels, you’d better deliver something that approaches the visceral force of the original story. Sadly, The Two Faces of January, while handsomely shot and earnestly acted, never manages the wrenching tension or gut-punching passion that it needs to measure up. (This is Greece, by gum! Land of Oedipus and Cronos! Dads murdered, sons eaten!)
It could have been lurid and awful and fun. The elements are right there onscreen: you’ve got mutual desire, mutual distrust, mutual disdain, and mutual blackmail that demands the kind of forced teamwork that rarely ends well. But with a few exceptions — notably, Mortensen rubbing a sheet and sniffing his hand to see if his wife’s been cheating on him — the movie is good pulp obscured by good taste, reserve, detachment, what have you.
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