Friday, September 16, 2011

Like it but just don't love it

Even the second time around, I am not entranced by H&M, though there's a lot about it I really like. For example: the plot. When I describe this movie to myself, it sounds like a movie I would absolutely adore. Another example: the soundtrack. Cat Stevens at his make-me-cry best. One more: Bud Cort's performance. I think he's pretty genius, but I have a soft spot for very depressed boys with very good breeding (cf., Holden Caulfield). And it does make me laugh--the "dates," the transformation of the jaguar into a hearse, the witty opening sequence, etc.

But . . . parts of it just feel draggy to me, and other parts cartoonish. I'm glad they don't oversell Maude as a Holocaust survivor to explain her--in fact, the movie seems to have a pretty rabid distaste for psychoanalysis--so maybe it's sort of a fable? I just can't get a handle on the way the story is told, which makes me feel disconnected from the film in a way that I think is fatal to really psychotically loving it the way some people do.

I think it is worth seeing, since it's such a cult classic. Is that what the book says? And also fun to see Tom Skerritt in a bit role as the thwarted motorcycle cop.

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