This guy used to be able to act. In this film he sits around like a lump and appears to not know what he is doing there. Speaking his dialog comes off like it was a major chore for him. He couldn't have been more monotone if he tried. It almost seemed like he was on something. Maybe he was as bored doing the film as I was watching it.
shareMaybe Hurt's character has just been released from 6 year's confinement in Angola prison for manslaughter. That may play a role in his slow readjustment to normal life.
shareI think he did a fantastic job. He was playing a character who had been in and out of prison since fourteen, and was the kind of guy who has trouble putting his deeper thoughts into words. He did that beautifully.
shareWilliam Hurt is always William Hurt. This time he wasn't.
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It was the character he was playing. Earlier his wife remarked about he didn't communicate, bottling things inside.
In "A History of Violence" he plays a mafia boss who tries to kill his brother Viggo Mortenson.
He's is in a mini series filmed this year about Bonnie and Clyde. He plays the Texas Ranger Frank Hamer who killed both of theme. The real Frank Hamer is estimated to have killed upwards of 50 men. (Texas fought an undeclared border war with Mexico earlier in this century). Plus there was a lot of lawlessness in oil boom towns with organized criminals and bootleggers killing at will.
William Hurt has that strange style of acting that could seem either brilliant or wooden depending on the perspective. Although he's not my cup of tea, I can certainly appreciate that he's never hammy or in-your-face. In a small, quiet film like this one, a subtler performance was appropriate, and he delivered on that.
shareI really liked the way Hurt played this.
All 3 leads were very good.
Sweet little movie.
I liked it a lot.
I really cared for Hurt's character near the end..
Tony Orlando would have loved this movie.