MovieChat Forums > Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2009) Discussion > (spoiler) All good until Krasinski's mon...

(spoiler) All good until Krasinski's monologue...

posted 14 years ago by sean_p1206
20 replies | jump to latest

I was actually really quite enjoying this until John manned up and took on the toughest monologue from the source material and bizzarely unless I am not recollecting correctly setting at as a confessional explaining why he cheated on the central female character. Too much hubris man, and to be fair I couldn't hack it from it's beginning.
Shame, because up until then it was kinda revisiting your favourite passages from the book. And it has Lester Freeman from The Wire in it!

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] Havoac 14 years ago

Krasinki is a good actor, but I wondered how a great actor might have used the material. That being said, it was still a one hell of a monologue.

[–] AntBee 14 years ago

Near the end, to me, it seemed as if he was reading from cue cards off to the side. He kind of stumbled into the homestretch. Just my observation.

You So Ugly, You Look Like You Got Superpowers...

[–] agribbo 14 years ago

Yep, definitely agreed. Right up til the end. It's odd, because Krasinski directed the others so well. His monologue lacked the sincerity of the book's monologue, if I remember correctly, and it lacked natural flow.

[–] sleeplate_dreammore 14 years ago

his monologue felt very staged and scripted (i mean obviously it was, but if done well it shouldn't feel that way) I don't know. i have mixed feelings about the whole movie. parts of it had me spellbound and other parts were boring and ran long. that last speech that krasinski did, just felt like he was reading. the words didn't feel conversational. no one talks like that....and if they did, i'd have to laugh at them...but i feel guilty, because i think i really wanted to like it, but i just couldn't take it seriously.

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"Rodents Of Unusual Size?...I don't think they exist"

[–] gracani122 14 years ago

Maybe Krasinski didn't want to compromise the writing of the monologue by changing it for the movie, like he didn't want to disrespect David Foster Wallace by altering what was obviously a very moving written monologue. I completely agree--as I was watching it I noted phrases that people only ever write (like no one would actually SAY the thing about an Eastern religion with too many apostrophes in that way--it should have been altered to be more conversational). I definitely want to read the book though, I think the movie was more like an invitation to read the book, like you couldn't get everything from the movie that you could from the book.

[–] elisa-ms 14 years ago

I haven't read the book but I agree with you. He did a great job directing the movie, I loved it. But his monologue felt staged, a bit rushed and unrealistic. He shouldn't have relied so much on the verbal aspect of it... More pauses, more subtlety and perhaps a better display of conflicting feelings and emotions could have saved it.

[–] lovebelow3 14 years ago

I don't think it was his acting so much as it was just pages from a book transplanted into dialogue without enough reworking to make it feel like they were having a conversation.
If wrote what he said to her in a letter I think it would have a different feel to it. But it gets awkward when it sounds like you're reading narration out of a book.

Still a really good movie. And I completely disagree with the main review they have posted about this movie. The scene where the subject is describing his father's job as a bathroom attendant is one of the best scenes.

[–] Matteson81 14 years ago

I disagree. I really liked the monologue. I also think he did a superb job in adapting the screenplay from the book, a feat I was very curious in seeing the end result of.

[–] sjmcgee 14 years ago

I heard an interview with John Krasinski, and he said the reason he did the final monologue was because the actor they had cast dropped out at the very last minute. To him, he felt it would be easier to do it himself than cast another actor because, as he puts it, "I'd already read the book 500 times."

Just lettin' y'all know.

My DVDs: http://gemcgee.dvdaf.com/owned

[–] dark_faith69 14 years ago

I get what you're saying, but it works for me for 3 reasons:
Several of the interviews/monologues had a very stylized feel (the guy and his dad, the bathroom attendant). So this movie was never a narrative with real conversations.
Also, since this was his moment to explain to his girlfriend why he f-ed a hippy, the guy had probably been practicing this speech in his head for a while.
And, the guy seemed like a pretentious asshat to me. He won't even try to imagine how his ex-girlfriend feels after his granola crunching, but then he turns around and asks her to imagine how it would feel to make a connection with a rapist. He's just another holier-than-thou grad student with a thesaurus. I've known several, and they talk exactly like him and Ben Gibbard's character. Condescending.
That said, I really liked the movie.

[–] Opalura 14 years ago

Exactly how I viewed it dark-faith. The monologue revealed to me that the most "hideous" man by far was him. I found it to be so interesting that so much detail and "emotion" could go into a terrible reason to cheat on your girlfriend. It was chilling for me. I'm an absolute sucker to a good liar and almost started to believe the things he was saying were valid and totally fine! It should come as no surprise that I've dated a super-good liar and story-teller. He had the same I'm-right-even-when-I'm-wrong attitude that totally threw me off as a meek 18 year old. This movie, but especially that monologue, really opened my mind a lot and will hopefully help me see through some of the bullcrap that comes my way in life.

[–] inko8 14 years ago

dark_faith69, Opalura,

you are the only ones here on the board --- haven't read too much here yet-- who seem to understand what is going on:
(my reply is about 3 down)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790627/board/nest/154575275

i thought i was spitting in the wind back there.

[–] Zando777 13 years ago

You're clearly not one of them.

[–] Scott-255 14 years ago

I was about to write a new topic but I think I'll just reply to this one. My biggest problem with the movie wasn't the monologue, but what happened right before it.

I agree that it was a good movie up to this point but when Ryan tells Sara he wasn't in love with her she sits down, shuts up and listens to his monologue. Three words: bull *beep* *beep*

I read a saying recently which has become one of my favorites: "I don't mind my wife having the last word, in fact I'm thrilled when she finally reaches it."

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"On a personal note, that *beep* was *beep* up!"

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] sloanrules 14 years ago

It was terrible, and i almost turned the movie off, but there was only a few minutes left, so i tolerated it, but the whole movie was awful.

I never end my IMDB posts with stupid idiotic unnecessary quotes.