I, personally, always liked it, despite it being a little confused in terms of tone. I thought Robin Williams gave a charming performance and Coppola, while not at the top of his game here, does a good job of telling this fable. That's what it was meant to be. A fable not to be taken too seriously. I just never understood why many have had such a hate for this. There are much worse movies out there.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ChrisEsperProduction
Well, I certainly can't speak for everyone, but I thought the film lacked focus.Was it a screwball comedy about a little kid in a middle aged body or was it a tragedy about a boy facing death and coming to grips with his own mortality?The two subjects don't seem to mix together all that well.
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It could have something to do with that. They sell you a comedy, but then you find yourself watching a sad story.
shareWas it a screwball comedy about a little kid in a middle aged body or was it a tragedy about a boy facing death and coming to grips with his own mortality? The two subjects don't seem to mix together all that well.
"why is it hated so much?"
It's none of the technical reasons you mention. The central concept itself is all wrong and a travesty of real life shortening disease rather than a sympathetic rendering. Read this and look at the poor kid in the picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progeria If you think instead it's about Werner's syndrome follow that link within wikipedia from the first one.
I have seen movies that were deliberately trying to be sick in the head, that came out less actually sick than this one.
It made me feel ill. Why would that be good outside of a horror movie?
And really... "Was it Williams's performance"? I think you need to zoom out a bit and look at the big picture here. The concept itself is thoroughly wrong-headed and insulting. That's what you missed.
How well it was executed becomes irrelevant at that point.
Pretty rare. I'm hard pushed to think of a similar example of such bad handling of a subject. Early movies featuring black people where they are distastefully racially stereotyped maybe?
The concept can't be it, or everyone would hate Benjamin Button too.
I doubt they were trying to talk about Werner's, or they would've done it accurately. They didn't call it Werner's once, or outrage would've been raised if they did. I always looked at it as a mix of reality and scifi.
If I ever start referring to these as the best days of my life, remind me to kill myself.
But Benjamin Button sucked terribly. Though with that one at least we know it was the screenplay at fault.
shareI love "Jack", but I think they hated because Williams is not acting as a 10 years old. Is difficult to know if he is 3, 6, 10, 20 or 40, he change randomly during the film.
shareSo people shouldn't dislike this movie just because there are worse ones?
The writing is bad, Jack is supposed to be a ten year old but the actual kids in this movie somehow act older than he does, the tone is all over the place, Fran Drescher, I have no idea if this movie is supposed to be about a kid coming to terms with his own mortality or his wacky adventures in trying to fit in with the other children, the scenes that are meant to be sad fall flat...
I didn't know that this movie got a lot of hate. I always really liked it. So heart-wrenching.
shareThe film sucks, as do the contributions of FFC, who should have retired from filmmaking by then. Williams, while talented, was no dramatic actor and has always been a lightweight in that department. Brian Kerwin? The fact that he was even considered to be cast shows how far FFC had fallen by then. This movie has all the markings of being passed over by the A-list. Sort of a situation of those in the industry admiring the achievements of a once-great moviemaker but who drags them kicking and screaming into saying no.
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