Look. I like John Krasinksi. I like him as Jim Halpert. I'm intrigued by the idea of him as Captain America. The other day, while we were watching the good/not great, too-clever-to-condescend-to-be-funny, Mamet film State and Main; when Krasinski (who was still a student at the time) made his brief appearance as a member of a film producer's entourage, I smiled because even in his early 20s Krasinksi already had the Halpert mystique (gangly but handsome, confused but smirking, awkward but slightly supercilious) down to an art or a science.
One thing I like about Krasinski the guy is that we both love the writing of David Foster Wallace. That's why I'm befuddled as to why Krasinski didn't move heaven and earth to have his big screen directorial debut, a film based on DFW's Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, labeled an "Alan Smithee" film.
This travesty of an adaptation comes out on DVD later in the week, but several friends and I made it a point to see it during its brief, hideous theater run and it was a complete and total mess. The book can't have been an easy one to adapt to film (though it's the only work in DFW's oeuvre that is even vaguely filmable) but even given our low expectations, we still all walked away severely bummed out, experiencing what DFW might have called cases of the howling fantods, on an epic level.
It was poorly paced, poorly structured, poorly acted, poorly directed (sorry, Halpert), poorly cast (Christopher Meloni? really?), and, above all, except for the parts literally culled directly from the book it was exceptionally poorly written. If you loved the book, avoid this film, which will only make you sad and angry. If you have never read the book, avoid this film, which will still make you sad and angry. If you hated the book, and just wanted to see how badly it could be debased, then by all means, add this to your Netflix queue.
This was the worst adaptation of a very good book since Less Than Zero, and that is not a statement I make lightly.
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I will see this anyway because I love David Foster Wallace and the theatrical release never opened anywhere near me but thanks for warning me in advance what to expect.
ReplyDeleteHa ha. Understandable. A friend of mine, who is almost always right about movies, told me when it was first released "Look. Don't see this movie. You're gonna hate it." So I saw the movie (because I love DFW and because I love Jim Halpert) and I hated it. So just treat this post like it's the grizzly old man at the general store who warns the car full of teenagers "Don't go up to that lake. Ten years ago tonight there was a murder...." Go ahead and ignore the warning, but don't say I didn't warn you.
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