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' Jack, Am I More Jackie Or Ethel ? ' Poor Helen Hunt

posted 16 years ago by chase61-1
9 replies | jump to latest

Remember when Jack ( Martin Sheen ) and Samantha ( Helen Hunt ) are in their room dressing ? Samantha had forgotten her black shoes and had to go shopping for a new pair . After they got back and were getting ready for the nights festivities , she asks " Jack, if you had to pick , am I more Jackie or more Ethel ? " My answer is that she dressed more like Jackie but unfortunately looked more like Ethel. Helen Hunt was never pretty in my opinion . On top of that, she aged so badly and her so very fake looking capped teeth or dentures frost the cake. Her acting , however is outstanding and always has been . I remember the female actors in her age group had more looks than acting talent. She had them beat in that department .

[–] blaircam 16 years ago

I thought Helen Hunt played a good role but her character was incredibly annoying.
When I first saw her in the car with Martin Sheen I thought 'Father-daughter'. It took me a little while to get to 'husband-wife'. But she came across as ridiculously needy and whiny - I would have gone spare! I don't know how Martin Sheen put it with it.

[–] GibbyLu 15 years ago

I too thought the relationship was odd. It seemed as though they were a new couple, hence all the explaining she felt she needed to do, but also apparently had been married for a while. They also could have been ecent empty nesters, but mention of kids. It seemed as though the couple were trying to rediscover each other, but I wonder why? Then again, all of the relationships were like that. It seems as though we were dropped in the middle of these relationships and given too little information to understand the dynamic. Thus, the viewer can interpret the relationships as they will. Just like Helen and Martin, who ere Lindsayand Elijah playing? Were the best friends from childhood or virtual strangers in math class? Similarly, Sharon and William make little sense as a couple. She is gorgeous, but feels the ugly duckling in their relationship? It doesn't make sense.

[–] hearts2ashes 16 years ago

Why does it even matter what she looks like? She is not a professional model, she is an actor. On one hand you acknowledge that actresses mostly get by on looks, and then you rag on HH for her looks, despite saying she is talented.

Hollywood needs to leave modeling to models, singing to singers and acting to actors, but they won't thanks to people like you.

[–] dmb0903 16 years ago

I agree hearts2ashes.

[–] Can_a_bitch_get_a_donut 16 years ago

I agree that she aged terribly but I disagree that she was never pretty. I had an enormous crush on her in the 90s.

See what I did there?

[–] Long_Ball_Larry 15 years ago

it seemed like the Helen Hunt character thought that Ethel and Jackie were biological sisters...I thought I heard her refer to them both as a Bouvier...

...or maybe that's just the booze talking

[–] kristinaknight 15 years ago

You know, I always thought it was a shame that two of the most brilliant actors in this piece were relegated to characters that I thought were 100% superfluous. The portrait of this married couple didn't add one ounce to an understanding of the times, Bobby's legacy, or anything that the movie was trying to establish. The film was a tad long, and I honestly think it would have been improved overall if every single scene with these guys was cut. Not because they performed them badly, far from it - with the material that they had, both HH and MS were quite good. Just unnecessary.

But I can't imagine Emilio having to tell his own dad that his scenes were not necessary. I believe that's why the scenes stayed, out of personal loyalty as opposed to loyalty to the story he was constructing.

[–] tdonnelly1 15 years ago

Actually Kristina, I thought there story was quite interesting. I think the message, you might say, of their story was about seeing people for who they really are. I think that is what Robert Kennedy did, he saw people underneath the affluence, or poverty or sickness or dirtiness. When Martin's character asked her to look at him and she said "I am" and he grabbed her arms and held her still and he said, "now you are"...I thought that was a very poignant scene. I enjoyed each and every "story" that made up this movie. And I think they all related back to RFK in some way.

[–] cmashieldscapting 12 years ago

To me she looked more like Joan than either Jackie or Ethel, but that wasn't one of the choices.