No Love for Paris This Time Around, I’d Rather be in Austin

Have you ever seen something and had a very strong reaction to it, but didn’t know why?  I had that happen the other day.  A preview for an upcoming movie aired during a commercial break and I had such a negative reaction that my face snarled up in disgust and I let out a rather loud “UGH”.  I realized that it was one movie I that knew I would not be seeing any time soon (or really any time for that matter) and it is the new John Travolta/ Jonathan Rhys Meyers film From Paris with Love. 

 

Don’t get me wrong, I like both John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers and I enjoy Luc Besson’s films like The Transporter movies.  Action movies are a favorite, as are spy thrillers, so the premise to this movie (a play off of the James Bond motion picture From Russia with Love) seemed like a winner (and I like movie poster).  But something was still bothering me.

 

As I wrote above, at first I didn’t know what caused my reaction, I thought that maybe it was just the fact that I hadn’t been enjoying John Travolta films as of late.  The last movie I saw, The Talking of, oops I mean The Taking of Pelham 123 was lacking and John’s character Ryder seemed to continually yell for no reason.  And then I saw the preview for From Paris with Love and he’s yelling again.  I would chalk this up to overacting, but then I realized there are people out there like that, that are just angry people and I grew up with just such a person.  The real reason I don’t want to see this movie is because John’s character Charlie Wax (who seems very similar to his character Ryder) is a lot like my older brother, they even kind of look alike.  And that’s why I won’t be seeing this film.

 

Nevertheless, on a more pleasant note, one movie that I am really looking forward to seeing is the HBO original film Temple Grandin (airing February 6, 2010).  This biopic is based on the life of Dr. Temple Grandin an author, speaker and livestock behaviorist who became very successful in her field, not necessarily despite her autism but a great deal because of it.  This film will cover her life during the 60’s and 70’s and stars Claire Danes as Temple Grandin with a supporting cast that includes such notable actors as Julia Ormond, Catherine O’Hara, and David Strathairn.  I just watched the preview on HBO and am very excited; I really like how the equations pop up on the screen to help us “see” what’s going on in her mind (very Numb3rs). 

 

With films such as these I’m always concerned with the actor’s portrayal of a real life person and especially when it is someone with a disability, I fear that the depiction will tend to be over the top so I was happy to read that when Dr. Grandin’s assistant went to the set to watch some of the filming and he reported back to Dr. Grandin that Dane’s portrayal was "so convincing, it sent shivers down my spine."  You can check out a couple of teaser previews from HBO here.

Of course, I wouldn’t be me without a little more research so I found this biography I thought I’d share and here’s an excerpt from an interesting article/ interview with Dr. Grandin from Beef Magazine.

 

“Some fictionalization occurs in the script, she adds, owing to the fact that two decades had to be condensed into a two-hour movie. Thus, at least one character depicted in the movie is a composite.

 

Throughout the process, however, she has insisted that “the cattle have to be right. I don’t want Holstein calves or a situation like in the movie ‘City Slickers’ where the cattle weren’t right.” She says the producers even bought a parcel of Angus calves for the production in order to ensure authenticity.”

 

No matter what you choose to see, here’s to happy viewing!