Reviews, critics, etc..

Marie · Post by **Marie** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 2:45 pm

It does sound like something he would say. Bravo to Jason - good points - the reasoning is sound. (You can decide to not like the film but at least do so for a logical reason - not accent!)

catloveyes · Post by **catloveyes** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 3:05 pm

Right on Jason....this critic needed to have those important points brought to his attention and you did it so brilliantly!!!

Hugs,
Kate

Post by **Hilary the Touched** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 3:50 pm

I think he does make excellent points.
It may have sounded a bit peculiar to have them all with what are intended as "neutral" English accents, but this should certainly have been no more unnatural than having a group of Germans who all coincidentally speak English to one another, albeit with German accents.
Likewise, it has always rather irked me that Americans complain about spellings like "flavour" and "theatre", perceiving their spelling as the correct one, and all others as aberrations. People all over the globe use English--Americans are typically the only ones using their spellings and regarding an Iowa accent as the absence of one. To most others, the accent employed in this film won't even be noticed.

wolfsaver · Post by **wolfsaver** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 4:54 pm

You go, Jason! Excellent points, indeed!

Helen8 · Post by **Helen8** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 5:07 pm

Americans complain about spellings like "flavour" and "theatre", perceiving their spelling as the correct one, and all others as aberrations. People all over the globe use English--Americans are typically the only ones using their spellings and regarding an Iowa accent as the absence of one.

Geez, Hilary. You use a broad nib.

Yay, Jason. You gave him the what for!

Post by **Hilary the Touched** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 9:32 am

Char posted this compilation on the 'Zone--
it's Comingsoon.net's list of top 10 movies from the Toronto International (I keep forgetting the I, myself) Film Festival:

So our Top 10 Best of the Fest from this year's Toronto Film Festival goes something like this:

1. Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight - Nov. 28)

2. Rod Lurie's Nothing But the Truth (Yari Film Group - Dec. 19)

3. Philippe Claudel's I've Loved You So Long (Sony Pictures Classics)

4. David Koepp's Ghost Town (DreamWorks – Sept. 19)

5. Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles (seeking distribution)

6. Davis Guggenheim's It Might Get Loud (seeking distribution)

7. Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler (Fox Searchlight - Dec. 19)

8. Good (THINKFilm - Dec. '08)

9. Rian (Brick) Johnson, The Brothers Bloom (Summit - Dec. 19)

10. Katherine Bigelow's The Hurt Locker (Summit)

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/torontonews.php?id=48771

Helen8 · Post by **Helen8** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 11:12 am

And eight's my lucky number. Good for Good! Now, let's hope that translates to a wide release.

Cissa · Post by **Cissa** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:20 am

What's an "Appaloosa Publicity Junkit"? In the original post it's something that Mortensen was speaking at. My family bred Appaloosa horses... probably not the same thing!

It's too bad that it got panned, but I'm still going to see it when/if it ever comes my way. I know it's bad for the actors, which really stinks, cause I think they are all great, obviously. Hopefully their past achievements will continue to shine through.

Critics...

what do they know, anyway??

kjshd05 · Post by **kjshd05** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 11:23 am

Viggo made a movie entitled "Appaloosa"...he was referring to the
publicity for it....this movie also premiered at TIFF

Chari910 · Post by **Chari910** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:22 pm

A good review from the Hollywood Reporter:

Film Review: Good
Bottom Line: Absorbing drama about a good man who is blind to the horrors of Germany's Nazi regime
By Ray Bennett
Oct 23, 2008

Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazilian director Vicente Amorim's drama "Good," based on a play by C.P. Taylor, is set in Nazi Germany and tells with escalating tension the story of a presumably decent man whose bland acquiescence to Nazi terror makes him a horrified accessory.

Viggo Mortensen is outstanding as a head-in-the-clouds lecturer who allows a novel he wrote exploring euthanasia to be exploited in support of Hitler's demented theories about a master race. Using a credible English accent along with the mostly British cast, Mortensen conveys the scholar's self-absorption and willingness to be blinded to events all around him that point to the Holocaust.

Paced deliberately in a way that reinforces the tragedy of evil flourishing when good men do nothing, "Good" may find boxoffice returns slow to build but the film's aim is true and patient audiences will be well rewarded.
Perhaps the original title, "A Good Man," would have been better employed rather than the ineffectual "Good," for that's what Professor John Halder (Mortensen) appears to be. An earnest, intense teacher, he loves his obsessive-compulsive wife and their two children, and he looks after his addled mother.

His best friend is a Jewish psychoanalyst named Maurice (Jason Isaacs, also executive producer) and together they treat the Nazi grip on government as an aberration that will soon pass.

Things begin to change when Halder is called before a charming but sinister government officer (Mark Strong in a typically sinuous cameo) and asked to write a paper advancing the notion that the lives of chronically sick patients should be terminated.

He dashes something off but is soon encouraged to accept that an honorary membership in Hitler's SS will help his ambitions for promotion at his university. He also succumbs to the temptations of a beautiful student (Jodie Whittaker) although he waits to marry her until she has graduated before leaving his wife.

The film tracks Halder as Germany convulses in Hitler's madness while the professor somehow fails to see what is going on around him. It's a harsh tale and not one that aims to forgive men like Halder. It may help to understand them better, though.

Good Film, Miromar Entertainment
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Jason Isaacs, Jodie Whitaker, Mark Strong.
Director: Vicente Amorim.

kjshd05 · Post by **kjshd05** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:04 pm

very nice Char, thans

OK, I'm being picky, but.....

Halder's character is oblivious, but it is Maurice (Jason) who can see
what is happening...he keeps trying to get this point across, and Halder
tells him to be patient, Hitler won't last...well, guess what....

Unfortunately, it's Maurice who pays the price...

grannybear · Post by **grannybear** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:58 pm

The review mentions the original title "A Good Man". I agree. I think it's a better title. I've never thought that "Good" sounded right.

Post by **Hilary the Touched** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 10:14 am

Well, Good is what the original play was called.
It's not an exceedingly revealing title, I agree--among other things, it's a bitch trying to find anything about it via Google! but the play, I think, really tries to explore the entire concept of goodness, not just focusing on one person, though he certainly serves as a symbol of far more . . .

Helen8 · Post by **Helen8** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:22 pm

A very nice review. Didn't know that Jason was an executive producer on the project. Even better.

kjshd05 · Post by **kjshd05** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:25 pm

Helen, check your PM