I'm a huge fan of the book, in fact I absolutely love it, and I don't know if it's just me but I definitely pictured every character differently.
And I think the cast for this movie doesn't represent anyone in any way.
The acting is awful, it all seems so forced. I hated watching it.
Maybe we didn't see the same film. Cross' and Wood's performances reminded me of real teenagers I knew whose lives were similarly fractured. I thought Jill Clayburgh and Annette Bening were remarkable as women who were both at the mercy of the careening, downward spirals of their lives.
shareI thought Brian Cox was amazing as the nutbag psychiatrist. Bening, Cross, Clayburgh and Paltrow were equally good. Fiennes was great as Bookman, and I wish there had been more of him in the movie. All around great acting. I loved Baldwin too, and wish he'd also had more scenes.
shareI don't know if I could say the acting was "bad" but the whole movie was NOTHING like the book.
shareIt is good that I didn't read the book then because I loved the movie.
shareSeriously? I have yet to see the movie(so I can't be 100% right on this), but in checking it out here on imdb(I had heard about this movie and saw an extended trailer a long time ago) the first thing I said was "Holy $#!+ that has a lot of biggish name actors!"
So I will do some more commenting after I watch it, but it seems like one of those movies you either hate or like based solely on the premise.
What the f!!ck are you talking about!?!?! Are you on acid or something??? Everyone in this movie was fantastic and the casting was perfect!
Even Augusten Burroughs said so himself... and he's the one that lived it!
You're out to lunch!
I wish I were a Warhol silk screen hanging on the wall...
I had high hopes of this movie yet have somehow only recently managed to see it. It wasn't that the acting was 'bad' as such, more that the characters portrayed in Burroughs' memoir were so well defined that they'd have had a hard time finding actors to accurately portray them.
Natalie? Natalie was supposed to be fat, not looking like a skinny, alternative, goth girl you'd see modelling in Bizarre magazine.
Hope? Hope was supposed to be willowy and though obviously nuts, Paltrow made her overly smug.
Dr. Finch? Was supposed to be a physically huge guy with a booming voice (thanks to Burroughs' own reading in the audiobook I had a clear idea of what he should sound like). Brian Cox somehow came across as unassuming, not domineering.
Augusten himself? Immaculately groomed with shiny blonde hair and extremely camp. I just didn't see this.
Though, Annette Benning? Fantastic casting.
Be me, for a little while.
I loved the acting, specially Annette Benning, the little gestures she gave portraying she was destroyed inside even if acting normal were pure Oscar material, I guess it was a challenge to portray Deirdre, because all the time she's so theatrical and has a fake control of her emotional situation, and Benning did it amazing, My mom suffered similar problems and I can tell she did amazing.
If you want the actors to adapt your own imagination, be rich and produce and supervise a remake.
I dunno, I read the book too... And I love this movie... I thought it was very well cast, and exceptionally well acted... the only exceptions are: Natalie was pudgy in the book, and Evan Rachel Wood was a bit too sexy.... Although to be fair, she was incredible in the role, just not what I would have expected.... Second exception was Kristin Chenoweth, who I thought was just awful, over acting, ugh....
Beyond that, it was really quite brilliant...
"We're gonna need a bigger boat..."
Oh, and Hope/Gwyneth Paltrow -good, but just underutilized... She can do so much... Could have been more... but she did a good job as Hope...I just think the role could have been built out a bit more for her capabilities....
"We're gonna need a bigger boat..."