Posts Tagged ‘William H. Macy’

Maybe I Do

Director: Michael Jacobs

Cast: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, Luke Bracey, William H. Macy, Emma Roberts

Running Time: 1 hour 35 minutes

Film Rating: 6 out of 10

The tricky part about converting a theatrical play into a film, is whether the film adaptation will work and appeal to audiences. The acting has to be brilliant and the theatricality of the play has to be modified for a cinematic aesthetic.

Playwright turned screenwriter and director Michael Jacobs film Maybe I Do has a hugely talented cast including Oscar winners Diane Keaton (Annie Hall) and Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking) along with Richard Gere whom Keaton reteams with after the 1977 film Looking for Mr Goodbar along with Oscar Nominee William H. Macy (Fargo) and the young lovers of the play, Michelle and Alan played respectively by Emma Roberts (Billionaire Boys Club) and Luke Bracey (Elvis, Point Break, Hacksaw Ridge).

Maybe I Do focuses on the budding relationship of Michelle and Alan as they decide whether to move onto the next phase of their lives: marriage.

However as they discuss the big leap forward, they decide that their parents should meet each other. Unbeknownst to the young lovers, their parents particularly Alan’s mother Monica, a vampish Susan Sarandon and Michelle’s father Howard played by Gere are having an affair. Simultaneously, quite by accident’s Alan’s father Sam wonderfully played by William H. Macy unknowingly meets Michelle’s mother Grace played by Diane Keaton in a movie theatre.

Unfortunately for Michael Jacobs his script is not brilliant and in a film which is primarily based on dialogue between characters, the actors are left adrift in an environment which is contrived and unconvincing and the actors are playing parts which they are not emotionally invested it. This play is set in New York, it should have been so much better.

Besides a couple of great moments between Gere and Sarandon, the rest of Maybe I Do fails partially due to the bad title and also the plot which is both unconvincing and unsophisticated. The story needed some naughty siblings to spice it up.

Unlike such brilliant films as Mike Nicol’s Closer or more recently Florian Zeller’s The Father, Maybe I Do is definitely not in that league. This is a very light romantic comedy, with some serious moments that fall flat.

For those that enjoy light but unchallenging adult comedy which tightly fits into a 90 minute running time, then catch Maybe I Do in cinemas. Maybe I Do gets a film rating of 6 out of 10, it’s fun but could have been so much better considering the calibre of talent involved.

Room

Director: Lenny Abrahamson

Cast: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, Sean Bridgers, Wendy Crewson, Cas Anvar

Brie Larson gives an Oscar-winning performance in director Lenny Abrahamson’s claustrophobic film Room about captivity, sexual slavery and the perceptions of children. Based on the novel by Emma Donoghue, director Abrahamson whose previous credit includes the bizarre Michael Fassbender film Frank, delves deep into the emotional and psychological trauma of those affected by a harrowing experience set in suburban Akron, Ohio.

This experience is the abduction of Joy Newsome, known as Ma who is sexually abused from the age of 17 and kept in a garden shed, which becomes the room of the title and stays there for seven years. During her incarceration she gives birth to a son Jack who becomes her world. Cleverly Room does not dwell on the horrors of captivity or sexual slavery, but fluidly follows the perceptions of this enclosed world formed by the 5 year old Jack wonderfully played by newcomer Jacob Tremblay, who really is the emotional centre of the film and certainly should have won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Joy Newsome known as Ma, is superbly played by relative newcomer Brie Larson (The Gambler, Don Jon) in a stunning performance which has scooped every Best Actress award in 2016 from the Golden Globes to the Bafta’s to The Oscars.

The exceptional depth of Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay’s talent is displayed in the first half of Room, which is entirely occupied by Ma and Jack as they eventually hatch a plan to escape when Ma realizes that Old Nick, played by Canadian actor Sean Bridgers, cannot really afford to keep them locked up forever.

That escape and eventual discovery of Joy Newsome is thanks to the bravery of young Jack who must unwittingly go into a world he has never experienced and escape, find the police and alert them of their disappearance and capture. Brilliant shot, Abrahamson keeps the tension of the first half of the film and Brie Larson is extraordinary as she must know convince her young son, Jack that the world comprising Room is not the Real World and he must shift his expectation from fantasy to an altered reality of what the real world actually is.

Audiences expecting a neatly tied up dramatic end to Room will be thoroughly disappointed as the second half of the film after their release dwells more on the emotional and psychological consequences of the mother and son’s shared trauma than on any legal or criminal investigation into their prolonged captivity.

Joy’s estranged parents Nancy and Robert played by Joan Allen (The Contender, The Crucible) and William H. Macy (Fargo, The Sessions) are suitably good in a nuanced underplayed way, especially as Robert cannot bear to look at the product of sexual abuse, his grandson Jack.

Room is essentially a parable about a mother’s bond with her child in a cruel and vicious world where each of them are confined by their own perceptions of the world and the roles they are meant to occupy as parent and child.

Room is a thought-provoking and harrowing tale of survival which will keep audiences talking for years, held together by brilliant performances by Larson and Tremblay. Recommended viewing for those that enjoy an intelligent and emotional family drama.

2015 Toronto International

Film Festival Winners

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) takes place every year in September in Toronto, Canada.

Films which premiere at Toronto are often nominated for Academy Awards the following year.

TIFF does not hand out individual prizes for Best Actor or Actress but focuses on amongst others the following awards:
People’s Choice Award & Best Canadian Feature Film

Opening Night Film: Demotion directed by Jean-Marc Vallee and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts and Chris Cooper

People’s Choice Award: Room directed by Lenny Abrahamson starring Brie Larson, Joan Allen, William H. Macy and Jacob Tremblay

Best Canadian Feature Film: Closet Monster directed by Stephen Dunn starring Connor Jessup, Isabella Rosselini, Joanne Kelly and Aaron Abrahams

Source: 2015 Toronto Film Festival