"I've been out walking / I don't do too much talking these days"

THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (2001)

It feels almost like cheating to include this moment among my favorites scenes as it has already appeared on countless lists of great musical moments, but as it is the scene that motivated this feature, it cannot be denied. This moment between Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Richie (Luke Wilson) is where the film really seems to begin. Great performance from Gene Hackman aside, the tenderness between these star-crossed siblings is what really resonates for me.

At this point in the film we have already met Margot, and yet as she stands in the breeze and silence after getting off that bus, we are aware that we had not truly seen her until this moment with the hardness of her face melting, her eyes alight. The editing matching Nico's "These Days" with that fantastic and hopeful slow-motion walk to Richie (whose kind eyes are burning bright behind his many layers) feels deliberately open, like a breath of fresh air, if I may be so trite. It is simple and brief, but tells us everything we need to know about these characters, expresses infinite sadness and hope within the lyrics of that song and Nico's soulful voice, and is filmed brightly. This is a case where slow-motion is absolutely manipulating our emotions and reading of the characters, but somehow feels like the only choice possible. A perfect marriage of song and image.

And a note about that song: when I was in college I worked at a Taco Time with a very smart, very lazy boy I found adorable. He was the only person I knew who had seen this movie and during a great discussion of its merits, he compared the child prodigies of the film to the characters in JD Salinger's many tales of the Glass family. I thought he was a genius. I shared with him my love of this scene and this song, which he of course knew was written by Jackson Brown and recorded by Nico during the Andy Warhol/Velvet Underground years of the 1960's. I was hanging out at his house a few weeks later, the first flutters of a crush queasing in my stomach, when this boy, without reminder or request, got up and put "These Days" on the record player. Just because he knew I liked it. And the first real romantic love I had ever felt was cemented. It was a disastrous crush, placed on an overall unworthy recipient, but I remember it fondly, especially when I hear this song and see this movie. (Also, the final lines, "please don't confront me with my failures / I had not forgotten them" absolutely gut me.)






P.S. I'm starting to notice that all my favorite scene entries (and the nominees list going on my notepad) are oriented around a song or score I really like. It will apparently always be about the music.

If You're Looking for Something Really Screwed Up...

I've been trying to read more in the last 3 months (though that has nothing to do with my absence in the blogosphere). I tend to read in spurts: 4 books one month, then nothing for 3 months. As you can imagine, I supplement heavily with film. I've been chugging along the last four weeks: Mindy Kaling's memoir/anecdotal review "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?", John Green's "Looking for Alaska" (tears), followed by John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars" (many more tears - in fact, while John Green YA fiction is exceptional and exuberant, it is full of situations causing massive waterworks. Beware.), Stephen King's "On Writing" (confession: I don't think I'm a real writer), and have just started "A Game of Thrones" (I thought I should actually read the source material if I'm going to spend every Monday morning catching up on spoilers from the previous night's episode of a show I don't even watch).

I heard that David Fincher's next project is an adaptation of the thriller "Gone Girl," written by Gillian Flynn. Fincher being a director I am generally enjoy and admire I kept an eye out for this book for about 6 months before finally stumbling across it at a Costco. (I suppose I could have gone to an actual bookstore, or you know, ordered it online or something, but these are not avenues a film addict going through a book hibernation pursues.)

Without giving too much away, our main character Nick awakens on the day of his 5th wedding anniversary to Amy; by the end of the day Amy is missing, there are signs of a struggle, and Nick is the primary suspect. That's all that can reasonably be discussed without potentially ruining your enjoyment of the book. However, Flynn captures her characters voices clearly and without restraint, there are several twists that make the experience gripping and bewildering, and I know feel really smart for recognizing that the erstwhile term learned in multiple English classes, "the unreliable narrator," is alive and kicking and makes this book all the more confusing to enjoy. Be prepared - it is graphic (or maybe explicit is the better word; characters say what they mean, they don't pussy-foot around), and some of the material is, for lack of a more appropriate phrase, fucked-up. But oh-so-worth-it.

The film adaptation stars Rosamund Pike - in a damn near perfect piece of physical casting to be sure, and Ben Affleck, Neal Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry. The casting of all these male characters had various factions of the "Gone Girl" fan base in an uproar based on particular visions of the characters that didn't seem in line. However, I had these actors in mind when reading the book and didn't notice any glaring points of subtlety that will be lost. In fact, I think these actors should turn in great performances, especially with Fincher at the helm. Also boding well for production is the fact that Flynn penned the screenplay herself.

Here is the first trailer, which captures the darkness of the book, while also playing with it's romantic dichotomy by using Elvis Costello's "She" as the music. (That's the song that played over the fluffy beginning and end of Notting Hill. My dad loooooooves it. Which means it is a pretty dorky song right there. Confession: I love it too.)