Just saw this, being a Rickman fan I was curious. I liked the story, acting was great...just...um...does anyone else think that Juliet Stevenson looks like a guy in drag? I tried to get past it, but once I had that image in my mind the romance was kinda shot for me. OK, you can flame me now.
shareGranted, she isn't as pretty as many leading actresses but she never looked like a man to me. I liked the fact that she looked like an average woman, and had the same (bad) hair style that I had back then.
Amen! She looks very manly. I just kept thinking about the Seinfeld episode where he was dating the girl with the "man hands". She also reminded me of what the guys on Monte Python look like when they dress in drag. I liked the movie but just wish they had picked SOMEONE else. I thought it was funny how all the men were drooling over her in the movie.
shareOne of the reasons I love this movie so much is that it's so NOT American, where every female is required to look like an 18-year-old boy's ideal woman at all times. Most women don't look like Michelle Pfeiffer or Pamela Anderson or Jenna Jameson; Juliet Stevenson looks like someone who lives next door, and Alan Rickman isn't exactly Tom Cruise, either, which makes the story believable.
Not that I don't like eye-candy as much as the next girl (I didn't watch "Tombstone" for the gunfights) but it's is a treat watch an actress look blotchy and puffy-eyed when she's sobbing, instead of wondering in the back of my mind how she managed to keep her mascara so perfect during the funeral scene (kind of like how the blindingly white teeth and flawless skin of the cast of "Cold Mountain" completely distracted me from theme of famine and hardship)
Juliet is cute. Its her character and personality in the movie that make her attractive because she, as you said, could be the woman next door. She's normal. The crying scene in TMD was pretty ballsy. Not a lot of (American) actresses would do that so realistically.
lookswise, she kind of reminds me of Fiona Reid. lol. I think it's the nose.
I completely agree about the crying scene when she's pouring her heart out. She doesn't hold anything back: tears, snot, saliva, sweat - a realy balls-out performance that destroys me every time. Why she was ignored for an oscar is beyond me. Probably because the voting members were jealous of someone with real talent.
shareWhy does everything revolve around how people look in the god damn world? Why is it, that in many threads on IMDB, if the girl/woman isn't some sort of sex symbol there is messages asking why this is so.
Why isn't every female good looking? Why aren't they hot?
For one. This is a mature drama. It isn't meant for immature little *beep*
So who gives a flying fudgecake if she looks like a man or not. Who bloody cares.
I don't complain about every bloody movie which doesn't include a good looking guy in it. Eye candy is granted nice. However, I am not so shallow that I am so pre-occupied with how people look.
Anyway...
The crying scene I have to agree was splendid. It's gut and heart wrenching and I was in tears with her from the very start.
Hear, hear.
Esse est percipe, probably.
Lol, I don't think she looks like a man in drag, apart from the hair and the terrible dress sense (which, I'll grant her, was a typical trate for women in the 90s) I think shes beautiful.
Juliet and Alan have acted with eachother since they first started in the Royal Shakespeare Company back in the early 80s and this movie, has to be one of my favourites. She is real. Unlike those prissy Californian babes we see propping up on our screen so often.
Anthony Minghella wrote the script for Juliet having worked with her before on radio plays (Juliet and Alan performed the first ever oral sex scene on radio haha) and aparently this IS her. The Nina we see on screen is, without the ghost partner, Juliet Stevenson. And I absolutely love her for it.
Juliet and Alan performed the first ever oral sex scene on radio haha
really? never heard that. what was the play called?
i like these calm little moments before the storm.
Snape:"always."
They mentioned it at the Q&A they did for the film at the National Film Theatre in 2004, I believe the radio play was "A Little Like Drowning". They were having a laugh about it Alan jokingly said it had to have been a first...
Buy "The Search for John Gissing" http://sunlightproductions.com/gissing/home
I agree that Juliet S is pretty much unattractive physically, but so what? I agree that she brings a welcome note of "reality" to this film and everything she does, which she does brilliantly.
I think one of the only reasons this "looks" thing is even mentioned is because all the men in the film make such a fuss over her, calling her "beautiful", etc. I can see the odd guy finding her vaguely attractive, but for most of the men in her orbit to be making such a fuss over her is incredibly unrealistic in a film that seems to strive for realism.
Alan Rickman, on the other hand, is so friggin gorgeous I can't stop looking at him when he's on screen. I know he's not clasically "handsome" but he's got tremendous magnetism and charisma, plus his voice is aural nectar.
Hehe, I was checking back months later to see if anyone had replied to this thread.
I wasn't trying to make a case for a 'traditional beauty' in the role, at all, just - man, she just looked kind of masculine to me. There are plenty of women who aren't gorgeous, have more character over beauty, etc., but they still look like...women. :P
I am not knocking her acting skills at all, she is obviously talented. LOL, I guess it's just me.
Just because she looks the way she looks ("like a man") means she's not beautiful?? What kind of faulty logic is that?
Maybe "beautiful" isn't the right word. She's radiant. She's glorious. It's completely believable that men trip over themselves for her, especially the swoon-worthy Michael Maloney.
There ARE still some men on this planet who aren't shallow and suffering under the madonna/whore complex. Most of them don't live in the US, unfortunately.
Why not take this opportunity to stretch your perception and drop some prejudice and challenge yourself to find her beauty? Why let a beautiful movie, and an Oscar-worthy performance, elude you? Why not, instead, say to yourself, "If everyone thinks she's so beautiful, what am I missing? What's wrong with me? Why can't I see it, too?"
Cuz the problem is not with her, my friends.
I see where your coming from, but I think she's very average. Which I like, and makes the movie a lot better, and gets through to a lot of people.
sharePeople who watched it with me said they thought she looked slightly masculine.
In my opinion I really really don't see how!
The clothes are very anti-feminine but it was the 90's! Everyone dressed a little odd now looking back!
But I think her face is really pretty. I can't find anyone who agrees with me, but I genuinely can't see how people don't think she is! She looks natural, and pretty, which reinforces the real-ness of the film.
She look like a transgender to me.
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