The Man In The Iron Mask (1/5)
Posted on 26 Mar 2009
How do such fine actors produce such repulsive results–do we also blame the director, the writer, editor? In the pivotal Gigli for example, Pacino doesn’t actually act poorly, it is just the overwhelmingly bad content before and after his scenes that make his scene stink; and perhaps the actual line reading was poor–I can’t recall exactly, I was having too much fun coughing up chocolate milk. So, in The Iron Mask we have some of the greatest screen actors money can buy (DiCaprio, Malkovich, Irons, Byrne) all making fools of themselves in this feast of saccharine; mawkish through and through. They can’t all be having off days. I am certain that Wallace (director here; of Braveheart and Pearl Harbor writing fame) is to blame for many of the artistic choices, but I decided that the composer (Glennie-Smith) should take a good brunt of it as well. His score is painful cheese that had me rolling my eyes, ears, internal organs in nearly every scene. One star for maintaining a coherent plot and for… ah hell, costume & makeup? Why not, I’m a simple man.
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