Ordinary People + The Night Circus

 Ordinary People, by Robert Redford

 *Best Picture/Director/Wtg/Sup Actor (Oscars), 1/2 movies with 3 T50 of the Decade Performances on ADF (40s-80s)

I don’t quite see the greatness of the performances of the core family in this film. What felt like Hutton’s big Oscar scene, when he’s crying and yelling, wasn’t particularly convincing, but a subtler earlier crying scene (in his car) was quite effective which makes me suspect he doesn’t have that much range but he does subtle emotions well. Moore’s emotional outburst Oscar scene seemed more real, but while most of her performance is supposed to be restrained to show that she plays a character who blankets her emotions I generally found myself uninterested in her character until near the end and I fault her performance. Sutherland I found okay, with scenes towards the end of the film being highlights though his more emotional scenes were with Moore when she finally started to impress me and handily outshined him, so I can see how he missed the Oscar nom since that leaves his scenes with Hutton. Hutton effectively shows the change in his character after a climactic event and impresses me enough that I can imagine that, given that he’s at his best near the end, the lasting impression viewers would have would be Hutton at the top of his game. What really keeps the movie diverting enough is the dialogue, which feels raw and real in its depiction of a family in mourning, and I suppose the direction since various technical elements come together well without any one of them particularly standing out – though I wasn’t really a fan of the boating flashbacks which felt distracting in their fakeness. Probably B, maybe B-

 

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

*Amazon Best of the Month, possibly Entertainment Weekly Best of the Month

A very fairy tale-esque experience, as it seems intended to be. Generally the tone/atmosphere fits together with this intention, but a result is a feeling of insubstantiality in regards to the book having an actual “point.” The characters never feel like real people even if the main ones are likable in a detached kind of way, and the plot seems frivolous, with not much of a climactic “reveal” or anything of that kind. There’s not really a point to a plot summary, since the cover description pretty much covers it (aside from the ending) and the novel isn’t really about its plot. To that end, the book would probably work better as a novella than a novel, and a large part of the pages that prevent it from being the former focuses on insignificant characters doing uninteresting things. It’s a bit jarring and feels like padding, dead weight that takes away from the magical ambience of the novel and made me impatient to get back to the core storyline. Which itself isn’t perfect; even though the cover description pegs the book as a romance, the two involved have negligible direct contact until over halfway through, and I never become fully convinced of this Epic Love. The ending especially disappointed me; it wasn’t particularly surprising, original, or satisfying. The writer appears to be talented, but I wonder how she would handle meatier material, and if she could sustain a steadier level of quality in her next outing. B-/C+