Monday, November 05, 2007

Now get this Honky!

My father-in-law drove up this weekend to visit us and we had a great time. On Saturday morning we were talking about movies and he mentioned that one of his favorites was Peter Sellers' penultimate film Being There. We had never seen it so we rented and watched it Saturday night.

Being There is a rare film. There's not a single punchline, gag, or moment of zaniness anywhere (essentially it's a movie that Robin Williams wouldn't/couldn't touch with a ten foot pole) yet it's the funniest movie I've seen in quite a while. Indeed, the movie is so understated that until about twenty minutes into it, it could literally be a drama or a horror instead of a comedy. Explication, I think they call it. But a comedy it is and a fine one at that. This isn't a movie review so I'll just recommend it (and I can't recommend it highly enough).

Here's the trailer. I actually would recommend not watching it if you think you'll watch the movie. Part of the fun of watching it for me was that I didn't know anything about it going in.

7 comments:

David said...

Seriously, what's the word for when an author spends the first 100 pages or so laying the tracks for the rest of the book?

smootheP said...

Just added to the top of my Netflix queue. I'll post on it in a week.

Anonymous said...

It sounds like "the phone call"

smootheP said...

So I watched the movie. It took me 4 attempts, cause I kept falling asleep. Man, that movie was slow. My wife stayed awake and was getting upset with me because she knew I had to finish it so I could post about it, and she has now seen the movie 4 times. Anyhow...

The movie had its funny parts. I enjoyed the humor used in the movie. But there were really only like 3 funny parts and A LOT of down time. The movie lasted 2 hrs and 15 min and should have taken about 35 min. But for the last funny part, it was ALMOST worth the wait...although it was in the closing credits so I honestly could have just skipped the entire movie and watched the closing credits, and that would have been much better in the laughs:minutes ratio.

One other comment on the movie - I loved the blatant use of the word honky.

David said...

smoothep: I can definitely see how you would think it's slow. It would probably help to see other stuff that Peter Sellers is in to appreciate what he did in this movie. I've actually only ever seen The Ladykillers and Dr. Strangelove. If you haven't seen Dr. Strangelove, you really should.

I think Being There was more than just a comedy. There's deeper meaning (not that I know what it is) to it.

One of my favorite scenes was the funeral scene at the end with the President quoting Ben while the pallbearers are plotting whom they should support in the next election while Chance goes wandering off and cleans up the tree then walks on the water.

I don't know...what did you think of the Deeper Meaning of the story?

Sarah said...

Hey! It IS the Biltmore! I recognize the library. You guys should come down and see it. :) We have season's passes now.

David said...

Season passes, Sarah? You knew this was a house when you bought them, right?

 
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