Three-T Movie Day!
True Grit, Tron: Legacy, and Tangled - and we saw them on Tursday in a teatre, or something like that… Not a lot of dialect work to write home about - some strong choices in True Grit that fit into the American Southern accent realm. The young lead (Hailee Steinfeld) was supposed to be from Yell County in Arkansas, and Matt Damon’s LaBoeuf was a Texas Ranger - all of them were well done, strong dialect choices. The dialogue was a little formal/clever throughout, and it was a little too similar for all characters - I would have expected each to speak with a more individualized voice - I see this as a script issue, and not an acting/vocal issue. Vocally, Jeff Bridges made some gritty choices that made my throat hurt in sympathy. Damon did an excellent articulation shift once LaBoeuf had injured his tongue. (Side note: I actually worked on the Arkansas accent with a young actress who made the second round of callbacks for the Mattie role. She didn’t get it. That’ll teach her to work with me.)
The Bridges theme continued in Tron - though there was very little to note regarding voice, speech and dialect work. Very little to note about the movie overall, I’m afraid… Olivia Wilde stood out for her acting work. I’m not sure that I saw much acting outside of her work, actually… The best thing about it, including vocal work, has to be the “literal trailer” for it - “Jeff Bridges!!!”
Tangled was a pleasant surprise - my favorite T-movie of the day, I almost hate to admit. (Sorry Coen brothers!) Donna Murphy made amazing vocal/acting shifts from moment to moment and was outstanding as the voice of Mother Gothel. The non-vocal work for the horse and the chameleon steal the show, though.
My main discovery today is that I will actually go see the new Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides movie when it comes out: Penelope Cruz is in it! She’s on my “marital hiatus” list - I have permission to cheat with her if the opportunity comes up. My wife is okay with that, but then Johnny Depp is on her list, which is why we’ll both want to see that film. As long as I don’t have to pretend the movie’s good, I’ll be okay…
