热点关注: 内地剧情(747) 日韩剧情(212) 港台剧情(191) 香港电影(92) 中国电影(92) 欧美剧情(64) 黄国伦(51) 音乐大补帖(51) 书评(18) 丑女无敌第三季(11) 张峰(11) 李欣汝(11)
您现在正在浏览:首页 » 影评 » 英文电影影评

21 and a Wakeup 英文影评

RogerEbert

RogerEbert发表于2009-11-03 00:24
来源:130影萍网 标签:21 and a Wakeup

21 and a Wakeup

Somebody ought to make a movie about that someday. Not.


I learn that Chris McIntyre served in Vietnam and that "21 and a Wakeup," set in an Army hospital in the waning days of the war, is based on events that he experienced and heard about. I'm sure his motivations were heartfelt, but his film is awkward and disjointed, and outstays its welcome.

 

It stars Amy Acker as a dedicated young Army nurse named Caitlin Murphy, assigned to an Army combat field hospital. She considers her profession a vocation, as indeed it is. Vocations and an Army career don't always go hand in hand, and bureaucracy often wins out. Enforcing the Army way is the uptight and unfortunately named Maj. Rose Thorn (Faye Dunaway), who seems opposed to innovation, improvisation, inspiration and any other inclinations Caitlin might have in mind.

 

 

Her character is emblematic of the film's problems. I suspect McIntyre was so happy to enlist a star like Dunaway that it never occurred to him she's inappropriate for the role. God help me if I mention the age of an actress, but let me observe that Dunaway is about my age, and I consider myself beyond the age for optimum combat service. www.130q.com

 

Even more unfortunately, McIntyre hasn't written a believable character. I doubt Maj. Thorn as a nurse and as an officer. Her primary function seems to be materializing in a self-contained shot while issuing stiff formal announcements somewhat in the tone of a judge at a debutante charity function. She's stiffly poised in many shots; we can almost hear "Ready for your closeup, Miss Dunaway."

 

But let's stop right there. Faye Dunaway is a fine actress and has been miscast in a badly written role. Amy Acker and other leading characters have been well-cast in equally badly written roles. In contrast to the energy and life that Robert Altman brought to his combat hospital in "MASH," this film plays like a series of fond anecdotes trundled onstage without much relationship to one another.

 

Some of them strain credulity. McIntyre may indeed know about a nurse who went AWOL with a civilian war correspondent (Todd Cahoon) on an unauthorized visit to Cambodia. Such a trip may even have happened. But I didn't believe it.

 

I also didn't believe the punctuality with which critically wounded soldiers are rushed onscreen at crucial moments in the action, in order to punctuate dialogue. These emergencies are tended to by medical personnel who seem like nothing so much as actors impersonating characters they've seen on TV.

 

McIntyre has enlisted an experienced cast, including Ed Begley Jr., Wes Studi and Ben Vereen, and while Vereen creates a convincing human, none of them create convincing characters. How can they? They're pawns on a storyboard. The film lacks a sense of time and place.

 

I discover on IMDb that "21 and a Wakeup" was actually filmed on location in Vietnam, but its Southeast Asia looks nowhere near s convincing as the locations of Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" and Stone's "Platoon" (shot in the Philippines) or Herzog's "Rescue Dawn" (Thailand).

 

Maybe I'm being too cynical. Perhaps I'll hear from nurses who served in Vietnam and inform me it was just like this. Even if it was, the film plays like an assortment of stories that someone might tell you, "You ought to make a movie about that someday."

 

*小建议*如果你喜欢这篇文章,可以上去;或者Copy下这篇文章的链接发给MSN或QQ上的朋友; 我们永远相信,分享是一种美德,Great People Share Knowledge... (130影萍网谢谢您的关注和支持!)

上一篇:成长教育 英文影评 An Education
下一篇:哈默尼与我 英文影评 Harmony and Me

共有 0 位网友发表了评论

暂无评论
最新评论

关注用户

    最近还没有登录用户关注过这篇文章…