MovieChat Forums > Excision (2012) Discussion > How much sympathy did you feel for Pauli...

How much sympathy did you feel for Pauline?

posted 8 years ago by iseemoviepeople
7 replies | jump to latest

Obviously she was severely mentally ill and delusional, but she definitely garnered sympathy for me during quite a few scenes. Especially the scene where Pauline cries after hearing her mom tell her dad that it's impossible to love her. It seems like the movie kept jumping between scenes where we were meant to find Pauline repulsive and scenes where we are meant to find her sympathetic, although her character was consistent throughout. I wasn't sure how I felt about Pauline throughout the movie and I think that's why I can't stop thinking about it now.

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[–] Dejay 8 years ago

The movie certainly does a great job at showing the complexity of a somewhat disturbed mind in less than ideal circumstances.

Of course it helped that she is very beautiful (despite the acne and cold sores)

[–] Monknificent 7 years ago

I don't know about very beautiful (in this film, I mean) although she clearly does have a face with interesting and very distinctive features, especially her mouth, and in her regular physical state, she could certainly be described as very beautiful, but for this production, besides the acne and stark absence of make-up, plus dyeing her hair suitably dark, they also messed with her eyebrows (thickened / ruffled them) to make her less attractive than she usually is, but I will say that AnnaLynne McCord really is the most surprising aspect of this whole interesting film, as she is such an unexpected casting choice, especially for anyone who would have seen her in the inconsequential reboot of Beverly Hills 90210, playing the sexy, icy, blonde clique queen, seemingly the role she was born to play - a personality quite similar, if I am not mistaken, to another of her big roles in the surgically-themed Nip/Tuck.
Here, she plays the radically different role of unbalanced oddball to pure perfection! The hunched-over posture, the peculiar way she has about her inquisitiveness, all her mannerisms, which never seemed contrived or calculated, that sort of almost sweet creepiness she has, all add up to a well-rounded portrayal of a strange, disturbed girl on the edge of something scary, so kudos to you, Ms McCord, for breaking out of the icy queen mould so thoroughly and so successfully!

"It's too late... Always has been, always will be...
Too late."

[–] Dejay 7 years ago

Yeah acted really fantastic. But thinking back the movie was really disturbing.

This "playing ugly" is kind of a cliche that really doesn't work for me. It's often used to transform the ugly duckling into a beautiful swan but she clearly is an amazing looking women.

[–] Monknificent 7 years ago

Sure, all savvy film fans know all too well about the Oscar-bait "playing ugly" phenomenon; well, I say Oscar-bait, but more often it's used, as here, to break a type-casting mould, which is a more admirable motive, so I'm perfectly happy with it IF the actor /actress has the chops to pull it off, as AnnaLynn does, and Charlize did in "Monster" (even if that may have been Oscar-bait somewhat).

"It's too late... Always has been, always will be...
Too late."

[–] Dejay 7 years ago

Casting the role with a beautiful women is kind of interesting. You mentioned motive, at first I thought it's still the same thing, they want to make money so basically almost all people in movies are young beautiful people.

It would have been ironic if all these "body image" problems would have been touched on in the movie since they are source of stress especially for young girls. But of course her problems are totally different and it would be belittling to just blame society for this. She needed medical help.

But another motive for casting her is to make people root for her more, if she was genuinely ugly then the movie wouldn't have worked as well. Viewers would have more likely have hated her instead of seeing potential in her.

[–] thulk01 7 years ago

I think the saddest thing was that nobody really bothered to actually talk to her. She was an interesting person and her parents could've given her more attention, gotten to know her and understand her, connect with her, etc. But their reaction (and the reaction of pretty much everyone in the movie except the sister) was just "you're different from a stereotypical teenager, so there's something wrong with you and we need to fix it!" She was weird but there's nothing wrong with that, and she probably wouldn't have fallen so far down the rabbit hole if the people around her hadn't treated her so poorly.

[–] duongdogg 7 years ago

I read how annaylnne mccord had to prove herself to the director because he thought she was too beautiful and didn't have the range. She really shaved her head and was dedicated to the movie. She always plays the sexy manipulative bitch. I felt sorry for her in excision but she was so messed up. She is actually super nice in real life.