Entertain Me, Please

Last Thursday we watched The Player. It was... interesting. It's about a big wig in a movie production company, Griffin. He's potentially losing his job as the movie begins and we soon find out that he's being blackmailed by a rejected writer as well. There were a plethora of things that I found interesting and creative and well done in this movie, but overall I didn't care for it. And the redeeming qualities were:

1) The nine minute introductory scene- A long, sweeping scene without any cuts is one of the elements that I had entertained putting in the film that we are working on. It was enlightening to see a well made, and interesting example of such a thing. I loved the way the scene didn't focus on only a few characters. It showed so many different situations from so many different angles that I didn't even realize there had been no cuts. The overlapping sounds also affected my perception of this scene, which leads me to...

2) The director used some sort of new sound technology, an eight track something or other, that could lay sound on top of sound on top of sound. As a result, multiple lines of dialogue as well as sound effects could be distinguishably heard-with a little concentration-by the viewer. The sound made the movie realistic. I felt as if I were eavesdropping on people around me, all the while still emersed in the conversation at hand.

3) An affective use of symbolism- There are only three that I can think of off the top of my mind, but I kept seeing them over and over again throughout. The first was when our bad good guy drowned the writer in the puddle. Red neon light was cast onto the puddle from a sign above, making the situation a little creepier and more dramatically murderous. The second and third were the wardrobe choices for the man character and his love interest. As the movie progressed, the Griffin began wearing more and more black and taking less and less time to do his greasy, dissheveled hair. His lover, on the other hand, spent the entire film in all white and very little, if any, make-up. Griffin's wardrobe represented the progress of his "blackening heart" and her's represented natural purity.

4) Someone noted before the movie that there were very few big stars in this film. I'm not sure what the heck said person was talking about, because The Player seemed to be second to the Academy Awards as far as big star content was concerned. I saw Anjelica Huston, Burt Reynolds, John Cusack, Whoopi, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey, CHER, Julia Roberts... and the list goes on. I've always loved movies that incorporate real life nouns, it makes things so much more interesting.

Things I didn't like? I didn't like the plot. I didn't like the raunchy sex scene. I didn't like not finding out who the blackmailer was. I didn't like that Griffin reproduced. I didn't like the pace of the movie. It was slow, and I was bored.

I'm ready to be entertained.