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Rebecca Pidgeon, in "State and Main". I'm stuck home with the flu, watching this on Comedy Central, and this film just falls apart whenever she delivers a line. What's worse, she's playing the romantic interest opposite Phlip Seymour Hoffman, one of the finest actors. It's like eating a white truffle with ketchup.
Follow Ups:
I'm not the best person to evaluate Ms. Pidgeon. I just do not get David Mamet. The precise thing I dislike about his movies is his direction; aside from that, all is in place for a decent film. But that weird, stylized woodenness just seems arch and winking--in a word, dull--to me, like the most Hollywoodized version available of cool intellectualism. There's something very cynical and unsatisfying about anything I've seen of his. It seems purposefully flat and vapid. I'm sure that there are folks who get off on that sort of thing and could set me straight on how it's all this masterful exercise in irony, but I don't care. I know art, I know good art, and I do not like David Mamet. I love Godard, so I don't need to be briefed on cinematic metafiction; I positively dislike David Mamet. Ergo, I'm no fan of his main squeeze. So, long story short, I heartily agree--particularly about the awkward asymmetry of her being paired with Hoffman, probably the best actor of his generation.
_____________________________"What is this, a freak-out?"
- Violet Beauregard
if you have seen "Homicide" and "House of Games", two Mamet films I particularly admire.
I saw House of Games. I didn't think the ending was particularly neat--at least not as neat as you're led to anticipate--and once again I just didn't care for the direction. I want to like David Mamet, and I'm never averse to watching his movies (for some reason), but he really grates. I found The Spanish Prisoner to be endlessly annoying. I just don't get his direction. Maybe I was somewhat absolutist in my post above; I'd be curious to hear what you find appealing about his direction, in particular. Because, like I said, besides that I think his movies have all the parts necessary to be really fine.
_____________________________"What is this, a freak-out?"
- Violet Beauregard
I guess I am more of a fan of his writing, dialog, and plot than his direction. Plus he uses many of the same actors over and over (Montegna, William H. Macy) and I enjoy seeing how they are cast and work together in different films.But do give "Homicide" a try. It is so purely evil that it ranks right up there with "Chinatown". And the dialog is almost poetic.
She was adequate in The Spanish Prisoner but everything else I've seen her in (State and Main, The Heist, The Winslow Boy) was ruined by her wooden acting and monotonous delivery.
Catch is that every player has to be on board with the delivery style. I feel that Mamet has his players speak in this way as he feels his every sentence is important and carries weight. In "Heist" and "Winslow" not all players were on board.
I thought she was good in Mamet's "Homicide".
Even Drew Barrymore can deliver lines better. You'd almost think Rebecca were reading her lines directly from cue cards.
a
Wooden or not....
State and Main isn't her best, tho. Check her out in The Spanish Prisoner , or especially The Heist .
Pidgeon is of course writer David Mamet's wife and is in many of his plays and films.The "in" joke in "State and Main" is that the Sarah Jessica Parker character refuses to do a topless scene where, of course, her character Carrie Bradshaw in "Sex & the City" never is shown topless when the other three leads often are.
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