I've ben reading the reviews and the many posts on here and it seems almost unanimous that the best one was "The Hand", but I was wondering...
Is Soderberg's film worth seeing for Robert Downey Jr? I am a fan of Robert's and I'm wondering if I'm wasting my time seeing this movie if most of it isn't very good.
I hope to hear your opinions.
I wouldn't presume knowing better by telling you whether you should watch it or not, but I have to admit that, although I'm a Robert Downey Jr's fan and have litteraly seen all his movies (some of them several times), I just didn't like his segment in Eros (or the others for that matter). It was a total waste of time for me and I regretted investing those few bucks in the DVD.
shareWow, OK, thank you very much.
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Downey and Arkin are great in the scene. Some brilliant comedic timing... Arkin is more interesting to watch methinks cause he's completely distracted but also completely listening. I can't think of anyone else pulling it off so well. Overall, that one was too smart for me... couldn't figure out what it was all about.
Yeah I couldn't figure it out either but it's worth it for Downey and Arkin's performances. Plus it's short so it's not like your investing two hours of your life.
shareI don't know why people don't seem to like this segment; I love it! And if you're a Robert fan... then absolutely see it!
I also don't believe you necessarily need to 'get' everything. It's good when a piece of art makes you think, and I think this particular segment is looking at reality and asking us what is reality. Someone in another thread brought up the point that the therapy session could be the actual dream because it's in black and white.
It's worth it if you're a Robert fan. I liked it!
"I'm looking at you fella!"
The middle segment by Soderbergh is really a brilliant piece of cinematic work, worth watching -- more than once -- as much for Downey's and Arkin's performances, as for the plot itself. I think.
> ...couldn't figure out what it was all about.
Here's my take on this. [I copy it from another thread.]
*** SPOILERS ****** SPOILERS ****** SPOILERS ****** SPOILERS ***
It seems to me that for the most part of this film the events happen in sequence. First, we see the world through the sleepy eyes of Nick (Downey): a few glimpses of his wife (through the bathroom door, dressing up) getting ready to leave home for (I guess) work. Well, Nick apparently does fall to sleep again, and that's indeed in his dream when he sees Dr Pearl (Arkin) who looks like Nick's boss Hal (Arkin), sans 'toupee' of course but we don't know the "hairdo issue' at this point yet. And so we have Nick's visit to the psycho-therapist (where the 'toupee' issue with Hal is mentioned as well... and a lot more ;o). That scene ends with the sound of telephone (in Nick's dream) which actually in reality is the sound of Nick's alarm-clock. Nick wakes up. He is politely reminded by his wife to not be afraid and say a word to Hal about the hairdo thing. The film ends with the scene of Hal and Nick discussing their company's "progress" on the development of a new product (now with the snooze function, or something like that). And so we finally get to *see* what is the issue with Hal's "toupee" (...What?!). And as Nick is just maybe going to say it or... maybe not, not this time (oh well, it takes guts to tell your boss any critic about his hairstyle...), the camera pans around the room and we see that in this reality of Nick's workplace, we are in the same room which we (viewers) visited earlier in Nick's dream.
************ end of spoilers (sort of) ********************
It's not just about a (funny) fake hairstyle of course -- the 'toupee' thing is just a recurring *element* of the story line holding it together. What is it all about then? I'd say it is pretty much about how our everyday stuff leaks in a twisted form into our dreams. So, in which way does this segment belong in this triad? Well, apart from little pieces about Hal that Nick is so annoyed with, it's really all about... Cecelia (Ele Keats). Both in reality and even more so in Nick's head so to speak. Do I need to say more?
For a short cinematic form, this is (close to) a masterpiece.
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If you're a RDJ fan, you'd definitely want to see this. He and Arkin are very funny together. I'm not really sure the Soderbergh segment fits the overall theme that Eros purports to have, but it's a funny segment.
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