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The Big PictureRating:
Release Date: 08 October, 2002 Retail Price: $24.95 OUR Price: $8.47 You SAVE: $16.48! Cast: Complete Cast (14 total) |
The Big Picture Reviews
Everyone was my friend then...
Hollywood make them, then they break them -- stars can fall as fast as they rise. Sometimes they rise again, and sometimes they disappear.
And Christopher Guest casts a jaded eye on the fickle ups and downs of Hollywood in "The Big Picture," a quirky, cynical movie which focuses on what the successful should never let go of. It has a few awkward stretches, but overall it's a darkly witty cult comedy ("You're tracking failure all over my carpet!").
Nick Chapman (Kevin Bacon) is the winner at an arty student movie competition, and instantly agents are chasing him all over L.A. In no time, he's the Rising Young Director, with a movie deal at a major movie corporation. But he's also starting to lose sight of his old life, as he tries to become a major success.
He changes the style, plot and characters of his arty movie for demographics, turning it into a beach bums/naked ghost movie. He dumps his pretty girlfriend (Emily Longstreth) for a bimbo actress (Teri Hatcher). When the studio head gets dropped, Nick falls as quickly as he rose. But a chance encounter with an old pal gives him a second chance -- an arty music video. This time, can he get it right?
Christopher Guest is best known for his brilliant mockumentaries, tackling everything from small-town musicals to folk festivals. His forthcoming one is another one about showbiz. But his talents are just as present in a "typical" movie, and Guest does a smart, quirky job of it.
The lesson: Be true to yourself and your art, don't fall for empty glitz, and don't let success go to your head if you're lucky enough to get it.
The story is a pretty straightforward one -- Nick gets great success, it goes to his head, he falls, and he rises again a wiser man. And the movie falls into straightforward lines, without many unpredictable plot twists. At first glance, it doesn't seem that unusual.
What makes it special? Well, simply put, Guest manages to infuse it with his unique type of wit, like the oddballish Pez music video and the noir fantasies of Nick's life. Not to mention the glorious dialogue. When speaking of Nick's one'n'only music video, a studio woman announces, "It's the best one yet, and I've seen 'em ALL!"
And Guest manages to show us agents, artists, students, directors and actors, but never descended to cliches. They're real people, no matter how nasty. And Bacon does a solid job as a young man who learns how empty glitz is. His best scene is the reunion with his friend Emmet, where he confesses, "I wanna be your friend again." And he's backed by good performances by Longstreth, Michael McKean and a dancing Jennifer Jason Leigh.
"Big Picture" treads where many movies have gone before, but it does so with an approach as fresh as a Pez People music video. A must-see.
Worth seeing, but...
A long, long time ago I caught the second half of Kevin Bacon's "She's Having A Baby" on TV and was intrigued. Because I didn't catch the title and failed to pay close enough attention to the Amazon.com outline when I finally got around to searching for the "Kevin Bacon" movie I vaguely remembered I mistakenly purchased "The Big Picture." So much for my credibility.
That was more than a year ago and now that I've finally watched The Big Picture I'm happy that I made the mistake. At the same time I continually found myself as disappointed as I was amused and entertained. I happen to be a big fan or not only Keven Bacon, but Christopher Guest and Teri Hatcher and found myself expecting more and/or better. It's possible that the heavy-handed direction that works so well for Mr. Guest in mockumentaries like Spinal Tap and Best in Show just doesn't cut it in a film that keeps flipping from comedy to spoof and back. Martin Short's performance is so over-the-top and so absurd that it plays more like a SNL skit that doesn't really belong and hurts the flow of the film every time he appears. I would have appreciated a lot more screen time for (hot, hot, hot) Terry Hatcher and a lot less Martin Short.
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