Dearest Blog: Thanks to a slow weekend at the cinema, yesterday I had the opportunity to catch up with Jack Huston's latest picture, An Actor Prepares, via XFinity On Demand.
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers...if you've seen one, which I sure as heck didn't around here.
Declared too ill to fly from LA to New York for his "favorite" child's wedding, an aging, self-absorbed actor sets out on a cross-country road trip with his estranged son.
The burning questions:
1.) Will this film be as pretentious as its name?
2.) Has Jack Huston finally found another vehicle worthy of his exceptional talent? (Been a long dry spell since Boardwalk Empire.)
Unfortunately, the answers are yes and no, respectively.
An Actor Prepares suffers a terminal case of Pilot Syndrome. You know, that very first episode of a television series, where every aspect of every character is super-sized to bring viewers up to speed as quickly as possible? Comic-book movies devote entire films to back story with their origins stories. Well-crafted movies educate with subtext so skillful as to be unnoticeable. This movie bangs you over the head again and again for the duration. The main characters not being very likable anyway, the exaggeration quickly grows old. Jeremy Irons has a gleeful ol' time as a self-centered thespian whose charisma fools all but those closest to him. For the first half of the movie, he almost fools the viewer as well, his escapades seeming hilarious to anyone not in the path of the fallout. As the obviously-NOT-favorite child, Huston does a terrific job of conveying the weariness that comes from surviving in the direct orbit of such a person, forever painted the bad guy, the buzz-kill, the wet blanket. The character is uptight and a little whiny, but layer on a troubled relationship and a failing career, and I didn't have a hard time forgiving him for it. (Your own ability to do so may rely solely on your position within your own family's pecking order.) An Actor Prepares is handicapped by poorly-written dialogue that is frequently crass just for the sake of it. "Deeper" moments are scored by dreadful emo songs as the film trudges to a predictable finale. The big screen dodged a bullet by sending this one straight to download.
An Actor Prepares clocks in at 97 minutes. The movie is unrated, but features adult situations, adult language, some nudity, and drug use.
An Actor Prepares is a slog that proves unworthy of its talented cast.
Of a possible nine Weasleys, An Actor Prepares gets four and a half.
Until next time...
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