Stanley Yelnats IV (portrayed by Shia LaBeouf) blames his bad luck on an old family curse that strike all male family members. He is wrongfully committed for stealing shoes and is sent to a brutal detention camp where he has to dig holes in the desert. No one will tell him the real reason why they need to dig those holes, so he has to find out for himself.
While the book was entertaining, thrilling and thought-provoking, the movie version lacks all of this. It counts on cheap slapstick comedy and goofy acting which take all the serious atmosphere out of the movie and give the whole thing a very stale taste.
The movie fails the Bedchel test completely.
There are a few women: There is Stanley' mother, who doesn't have any role except serving food and sitting at the table while the men discuss the family curse.
There is the girl in the flashback of the family history, a dumb but pretty girl who doesn't want to marry Stanley's forefather for petty silly reasons.
There is Madame Zeroni, the lady to cast the family curse, who is seen in the flashback story. The same goes for Kate Barlow, a local school teacher who is in love with the black local onion seller Sam. When Sam kisses Kate, she is seen by a man she previously turned down. He leads several townspeople to burn the school down and kill Sam. In anger and frustration Kate kills the local sheriff because he had refused to intervene, beginning her career as an outlaw named "Kissin' Kate" who kisses the men she kills.
There is the girl in the flashback of the family history, a dumb but pretty girl who doesn't want to marry Stanley's forefather for petty silly reasons.
There is Madame Zeroni, the lady to cast the family curse, who is seen in the flashback story. The same goes for Kate Barlow, a local school teacher who is in love with the black local onion seller Sam. When Sam kisses Kate, she is seen by a man she previously turned down. He leads several townspeople to burn the school down and kill Sam. In anger and frustration Kate kills the local sheriff because he had refused to intervene, beginning her career as an outlaw named "Kissin' Kate" who kisses the men she kills.
The only time two women are seen on the screen at the same time are when the female warden (Sigourney Weaver), a cruel and corrupt woman who only cares about money and doesn't mind seeing the boys suffer, and Stanley's lawyer Carla Morengo meet.
If not before at least here a conversation between two women would not only be possible, but would make a lot of sense! In fact, it's rather strange to see the lawyer not address the warden but her two male employees all the time. When she asks no one in particular for pen and paper, the warden tells Mr. Sir to hand those to the lawyer, yet not speaking, nor looking into her direction.
Verdict: Fail & Not Recommended
the last paragraph you won't just really shocked me that is just so ridiculous and bizarre that they have no real real contact with each other.
ReplyDeleteWhat's weird is to think that I probably wouldn't have realized that had I watched this film a few weeks before. Although it would have still been a bad movie!
ReplyDeleteI liked the book a lot, so I don't want to get disappointed by watching the movie - and the way you describe it, I probably woud be disappointed
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