He'a been so poorly typecast the last decade in crappy comedies, seemingly taking everything that came his way. I'm so glad to see him getting another meaty role like this, and I hope he gets a few more before he calls it quits.
This was his best performance since The Deer Hunter, IMO.
1. Walken takes everything that comes his way, that's one of the reasons he's
such a great, versatile actor. Vincent Price took a lot of silly roles, too,
and he's one of the most beloved actors of all time.
2. Walken has stated he has no intention of calling it quits. That's a relief.
I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!
Hewwo.
As professional musicians, my wife and I were ready to wince but we found the film fairly well done. We could recommend it to many of our non musician friends. Walken had the more sympathetic part and got in his signature "wow" of course for a chuckle, but it worked. We felt he was the most convincing of the ensemble.
shareThat's great to hear, I was wondering how convincing the actors,(especially Walken, since he has claimed various times he isn't good with musical instruments) would be to people who actually are professional musicians. To me it looked very convincing, but I don't know much about music.. At least not at the level of degree as in the film.
I think that ( maybe together with "Seven Psychopaths" and "Stand Up Guys") this was the best performance Walken has given in a quite a long time. I completely agree he should be given more roles like this. There are people who don't think of Chris Walken as a 'technically' good actor but this movie should prove them all wrong!
A cellist in an ensemble is sort of the group statesman- the glue that keeps the playing on the rails. The role had that aspect and of course a deceased wife and impending health calamities gave the role even more gravity. But he didn't play the role as tragic undeserving victim.
He was the good guy while the other three players were drawn to be majorly flawed. Rather than trying to steal the film he was the consummate self effacing team player and put the group's interests above his own. It was the perfect role in the ensemble and in the film. It was as if the role were tailor made for him.
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Humans seem to be able to pick up on "fakery" fairly easily. We can even pick up on whether someone is using their actual voice even if we've never heard their "real" voice before. SHINE used I believe a digital player piano on set so the emulation was spot on. Still it was an amazing accomplishment of drill. You know when things are iffy when there is too much editing and also head shots not head and hands shots. The use of the bow would be harder to emulate for a non player so that is why we wanted to look away at first. Vibrato entrance and speed would also be hard to emulate. Out of all the orchestral instruments the string family would be the most difficult to "fake" for non players.
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Why should he be punished?..
I sleep now.
Thankfully, Walken still makes those crappy comedies worthwhile – usually, at least. But I'm glad he is still getting roles where he can display his dramatic chops, which are enormous.
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