Eileen Brennan
Just watched this and was truly impressed with Eileen Brennan's performance. If only Bogdanovich had cast an actress of Brennan's caliber in the title role...
shareI was thinking the EXACT SAME THING! She is the only one in the cast (aside from Mildred Natwick) who actually divides her lines into separate THOUGHTS.
Cybill Shepherd is absolutely gorgeous and has a few good moments, but the reading of her lines is completely undifferentiated (sp?) Even if people in real life aren't articulate or educated, they still MEAN WHAT THEY SAY...and the way Shepherd speaks in this film conveys no meaning.
Cloris Leachman's character, who is clearly supposed to be something like her daughter Daisy, makes more sense out of her rattling lines...but Eileen Brennan is the only one who actually runs with them. I also think she comes across so strongly in this movie because almost everyone else acts dead.
I love Eileen Brennan, thought she was terrific and didn't like this film much. But don't you realize that Cybill acted the way she was DIRECTED to act? Have you ever seen her speak that way in anything else? It was her character's speech patterns, not hers. We've all known Chatty Cathys and that is the way they talk! They drive me nuts.
shareThey're not criticizing her speech patterns. She definetly tried to talk the way the character talked. But her character didn't always convey when she spoke, as it was hard to make out what she was saying at times, (which revealed quite a bit plotwise), so if you didn't already know what was going on, the viewer would get lost. A good actress can speak fast like that and still pack every word with punch, which is something Sheperd had difficulty with, though I will say that as the film went on, (and I don't know in which sequence they were shot), her performance did come through alot more.
And yes, Eileen Brennan was icy and calculating -- spectacular as always. She and Barry Brown were the best part of the film.