MovieChat Forums > From Time to Time (2010) Discussion > Isn't Alex as Tolly annoying and boring?

Isn't Alex as Tolly annoying and boring?

posted 9 years ago by TheHG
6 replies | jump to latest

I know and I understand Tolly is only an adolescent 13 year-old, and his voice crackles a lot because of that. But the actor (Alex Etel) still fails to make the character sympathetic in every aspect. He is lackluster, gangly, and very boring, and please don't tell me it's all because he's depressed and missing his dad, etc. I think the kid would be just as wound-up tight and stiff whatever his circumstances.

I think the producers of this movie should have gotten another actor with slightly more dash in his step. To be sure, a little more empathy and alertness would have done the character more good.

Everybody else carried their weight more than adequately. The only baggage was the main character (Tolly) as played by Alex.

[–] Kent_Kainer 9 years ago

If he couldnt speak he wouldnt transmit much. Hardly any body language. Too stiff.

They also didnt give the char any background and didnt flesh him out. Like he was too unimportant for this. The only reason he was good for, was to find the jewels.
Ghost dad could have done that too ;)

But at least the rest of the main cast wasnt like this.
Even the mean butler was more interesting.

---
Lincoln Lee: I lost a partner.
Peter Bishop: I lost a universe!

[–] Enrique-8 9 years ago

ALEX was perfect. Every actor cannot be one's ideal. One must accept each characterization as unique. Alex was marvelous in this movie. If Alex acted in a way that you would want, then it would not be right. The director decides how an actor should come through in a movie, in a general sense. It is unfair that you should judge Alex.

Alex was perfect and he WAS sympathetic. Merely your impression did not provide that for you. If he were any more "modern" he would be all wrong for this part. Think of other times...think of other people.

More dash would have made Tolly seem slightly undeserving of sympathy or would have infused him with less sensitivity.

Not everyone is alert at 13 or 20 or 60. Perhaps the way you carry yourself would not be adequate for another person. We must accept others as they are. And in this case, as the character has been written.

Anyway, that was my limited impression.

Enrique Sanchez

[–] [email protected] 9 years ago

He's British.

[–] Lola_Bedworthy 7 years ago

He's 13.

[–] AniMartin 8 years ago

I'm not sure if it was the way Eton played the role, a lack of actual skill, or if it was the way he was directed to act, but it too found Tolly to be the weakest part of this movie. He really just showed so very little emotion. It didn't feel like he really cared about these ancestors of his or the house or even really his dad. His words said he cared deeply, but I didn't get the impression that he really felt it. The only person I felt like he had a connection with was his Gran/Maggie Smith.

I understand his reaction towards his Gran being stand-offish at first, and it makes a lot of sense for the character to later feel ambivalent towards her because he truly did love her, and knew she loved him, but he hardly knew her and he was upset and insulted at the way she'd treated his mum in the past.
For the rest, I just didn't feel any connection and Tolly's interest in the past seemed unnatural or forced. Like he felt he was supposed to be interested, but wasn't really.

[–] ToHelenBackAgain 8 years ago

I thought he was fine. Not brilliant but perfectly serviceable. The character, when we meet him, is in pain, in denial, and desperately in need of some form of escapism. The actor got all that across well enough IMO.

I liked the character, so that helped. His unquestioning, instant willingness and earnest desire to help others really endeared him to me.

And of course he's really not that important. He's ultimately only there to provide a framework for the story from the family's past.

"I know! It takes, like, forever to listen to him."