10 Feb 2006, 6:49 pm
"Mozart and the Whale" finally played in a USA theater last Saturday at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in California. Below are the first two reviews I have seen. I was there and did a Q&A session after the screening.
This movie might not get a distributor and my gut tells me we will know one way or another fairly soon. Even it just goes to video, I think ASD organizations can use it as a money raiser by getting videos at a discount and re-selling them. ( And no, I won't make any more money off it no matter what you do 
Jerry Newport
The first one, from Variety is really special as this reviewer is known for trashing films!
Mozart & The Whale
A Millenium Films presentation of a Robert Lawrence production for
Equity Pictures Medienfonds. (International sales: Nu Image, Los
Angeles.) Produced by Lawrence, Ron Bass, Boaz Davidson, Frank
DeMartini, James Acheson. Executive producers, Avi Lerner, Danny
Dimbort, Trevor Short, John Thompson, Josef Lautenschlager, Andreas
Thiesmeyer, Gerd Koechlin, Manfred Heid. Co-producer, Lati Crobman.
Directed by Petter Naess. Screenplay, Ron Bass.
Donald - Josh Hartnett
Isabella - Radha Mitchell
Wallace - Gary Cole
Janice - Sheila Kelley
Bronwin - Erica Leerhsen
Gregory - John Carroll Lynch
Roger - Nate Mooney
Gracie - Rusty Schwimmer
Blume - Robert Wisdom
Skeets - Allen Evangelista
_____
By TODD MCCARTHY
<http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=bio&peopleID=1010>
_____
Material that easily could have been turned into cringe-inducing TV
movie sap has been handled with reasonable intelligence and authenticity
in "Mozart & the Whale." This low-budget love story between two
emotionally stunted young people with Asperger's Syndrome doesn't have
the production sheen or star power of screenwriter Ron Bass' "Rain Man,"
but it's less cloying and contrived. Lacking a distrib, pic faces an
uphill struggle commercially that could be aided by a promo push from
star Josh Hartnett, who should be proud to draw attention to his first
screen performance that shows he has some acting chops.
Shot two years ago in Spokane, Wash., this marks the first American
feature by Norwegian theater vet Petter Naess, whose 2001 fest hit
"Elling" was Oscar-nominated. Helmer has an obvious knack with actors,
as he trains dramatic focus on the problems of the two wildly different
leading characters while sympathetically orchestrating a convincing
ensemble of variously afflicted people who are never allowed to lapse
into aimless affectation.
"Fictional story based on true events" was inspired by Jerry Newport,
who reportedly wasn't aware he had a form of autism until he saw "Rain
Man" and subsequently organized support groups around the country.
Hartnett's character Donald is a taxi driver with a phenomenal talent
for numbers who has assembled a support group where members can be
themselves without outside pressure.
From the first, there is a refreshing absence of special pleading or
under-the-microscope examination in Naess' approach; the characters are
what they are -- cantankerous, repressed, deluded and so on. Their
common trait, other than loneliness, is extreme mental preoccupation
that contributes to difficulty dealing with the outside world or other
individuals; they often don't look people in the eye (especially true of
Donald) or respond to questions, are consumed with statistics or
esoteric knowledge, and are into their own heads to an extent that makes
them natural loners unlikely to make meaningful connections with others.
Which sets up the central challenge, when gorgeous fireball Isabelle
(Radha Mitchell) turns up to check out the group. Direct where Donald is
evasive and kinetic while he is laid back, Isabelle would seem to have a
brain firing on triple the normal number of synapses; she says what's on
her mind, is impulsively creative and seems, at first, like your
everyday unpredictable, semi-flakey hyperneurotic.
Under the circumstances, it's up to Isabelle to make the first move,
which she does at a Halloween party at which she's adorably dolled up
like Wolfgang Amadeus and Donald's rather less flatteringly accoutered
as a whale. When he nervously brings her to the impossibly cluttered
apartment he shares with an array of uncaged birds, Isabelle announces
in her typically forthright manner, "This is about sex," an approach a
tad too direct for poor Donald.
Core of the movie, which flirts with cutesiness on occasion, deals with
how the two do and don't manage to sort out their relationship. Although
Donald flips out when Isabelle takes it upon herself to clean up his
apartment, Isabelle's superior ability to handle real-life challenges
enables her to find a house they can share as well as to land Donald a
good job in statistics at the local university.
However, the tiniest slight unhinges Isabelle, creating legitimate doubt
as to whether she, more than Donald, can ever handle a permanent
relationship. Wrap-up arrives abruptly and feels somewhat unearned,
given that so much of what precedes it has been examined in such detail.
Mitchell socks over her role as a dynamo whose emotional insecurity is
buried under a fabulously attractive exterior; by virtue of her
character's assertiveness, she dominates the screen. But Hartnett's
performance as an awkward and retiring soul is at least equally closely
observed, as the actor makes quite touching the desires that are so
painful for Donald to act upon.
Supporting turns by often familiar thesps ring true, with John Carroll
Lynch getting the most screen time as a seemingly belligerent man who
helps the romance along.
Vidshot feature looks pretty good on the bigscreen, although production
values are basic. Some of the pop tune music choices are too mainstream
perky compared with the otherwise delicate handling of the material.
Camea (color, Betacam), Svein Krovel; editors, Miklos Wright, Lisa Zeno
Churgin; music, Deborah Lurie; music supervisor, Ashley Miller;
production designer, Gary Steele; costume designer, Ha Nguyen; sound
(Dolby), Nigel Elliot; supervising sound editor, Jonathan Miller;
assistant director, Marc Dahlstrom; casting, Deborah Aquila, Tricia
Wood. Reviewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival (American Independent),
Feb. 4, 2006. Running time: 92 MIN.
Read the full article at:
http://www.variety.com/story.asp?l=stor ... 29526&c=31
<http://www.variety.com/story.asp?l=story&r=VE1117929526&c=31>
Like this article? Variety.com has over 150,000 articles, 35,000 reviews
and 10,000 pages of charts. Subscribe today!
http://www.variety.com/emailfriend
or call (866) MY-VARIETY.
Can't commit? Sign up for a free trial!
http://www.variety.com/emailfriend
This is the other review from an "E-zine" called "Hollywood Elsewhere." The writer is a former writer for "People Magazine"
Sunday, February 05, 2006
LOVE LETTER TO MOZART AND THE WHALE
This is from Jeffrey Wells who has a great blog about hollywood at www.hollywood-elsewhere.com
Love Is Strange
Mozart and the Whale, which screened yesterday afternoon at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, is a Rain Man-type love story with a jumpy heart. Jumpy as in child- like, energetic, anxious.
A romanticized, tidied-up version of a complicated real-life love story, it's about a youngish couple (Josh Hartnett, Radha Mitchell) with autism, or more particularly Asperger's Syndrome. And this, viewing-wise, is nervy and provocative in more ways than one.
It's not calming or swoony like other love stories because the lovers are always in a fairly hyper and unsettled state, which feels a bit challenging, but it seems real and fairly honest and is obviously on a wavelength all its own.
At first you're thinking it needs a regular-guy character (like Tom Cruise's selfish prick in Rainman) to provide stability and perspective, but then you get used to the manic energy of it.
And then you start enjoying more and more the vigorous cutting and the funky European-style tone (Norway's Petter Naess directed), and particularly Hartnett and Mitchell's performances, which feel wired and fresh and unlike anything I've ever gotten, tonally, from a love story before.
I guess this pogo-stick element isn't striking a chord with very many others since Mozart and the Whale has been having difficulty finding a distributor.
Shot in early '04, Mozart and the Whale has been released overseas and has even hit the DVD market in places like Greece and Brazil, but a U.S. theatrical release hasn't happened and looks at this moment a bit dicey.
Even Hartnett, who went to Sundance to do interviews for the mostly sh***y Lucky Number Slevin, isn't standing behind Mozart . His portrayal of Donald, a child-like mathematical genius, is easily the bravest, most emotionally wide-open thing he's ever done, and the guy's not here in Santa Barbara to help plug it. This seems to me like a real jerk move.
I was talking about Hartnett yesterday with a TV producer as we stood on State Street just before noon, and the TV guy told me Hartnett has "the biggest ego in the industry" and that he's making curious calls about the films he's starring in (Lucky Number Slevin being one glaring example) and he's "turning stuff down left and right" and nothing he's acted in so far has quite caught on in the right way and that his career is cooling off.
But he's done something brash and unusual in Mozart, and he should be standing by the people who took the journey with him. Even if you happen to prefer Dustin Hoffman's quieter, more internalized autistic behavior in Rainman (which wasn't my reaction, not by a long shot), Hartnett's willingness to take a flying leap and go for it is admirable and exciting.
For what it's worth, a woman who said she has an autistic child stood up after yesterday's screening and said Hartnett's performance is authentic and spot-on. And people from Europe who are claiming to be autistic (or are close to autistic people) who've seen the DVD are saying the same thing in online chat rooms.
Lawrence said during the post-screening q & a that "we're very disappointed that Josh couldn't be here." The IMDB says Hartnett is currently filming Texas Lullaby, a present-day retelling of "Hamlet", but if he could attend Sundance in Park City for a weekend why couldn't be come to Santa Barbara?
Written by Rain Man screenwriter Ron Bass, Mozart and the Whale is nothing if not alive to the moment. It's a little twee at times and vigorously paced, but it's not a comedy, despite what you might have read elsewhere. Call it amped or cranked up but it feels more original than not.
It's a spirited tale about two childlike souls, Donald and Isabelle, dealing with the peaks and valleys of a turbulent love affair, but also trying to seriously build a life together.
Donald (Hartnett) is a kindly eager-beaver who keeps birds in his stinky cluttered apartment and, like Dustin Hoffman's Raymond, has a genius-like ability with numbers. He works as a taxi driver but is also an organizer of an autistic support group. He copes well but doesn't adapt well to change.
Isabelle (Mitchell) is also austistic but bohemian. Her life-coping skills are more refined than Donald's and she's more goal-oriented, but in a way she's more manic and volatile, and she has a way of setting Donald off...and vice versa.
Austistic boy meets autistic girl, they fall in love, they break up, they get together again, they break up again and get back together again and finally get married. A familiar-sounding plot, perhaps, but with odd angles and tender weirdnesses.
Whale was filmed in Spokane, Washington. The costars are Gary Cole, Allen Evangelista, Sheila Kelley, Erica Leerhsen, John Carroll Lynch, Nate Mooney, and Robert Wisdom.
The only reps at yesterday's screening were producer Robert Lawrence and Jerry Newport, the real-life model for Hartnett's Donald (i.e., the original "whale").
Newport's real-life story will soon appear in a book he co-wrote with wife Mary and former People writer Johnny Dodd (who was also at the screening) which is called "Mozart and the Whale: An Asperger's Love Story."
| |
10 Feb 2006, 7:05 pm
10 Feb 2006, 7:07 pm
10 Feb 2006, 7:08 pm
i'm glad it's finally being revealed in the usa. i'm hoping i will get the chance to see it.
10 Feb 2006, 11:03 pm
Ladysmokeater
Veteran
Joined: 21 Oct 2005
Age: 47
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,048
Location: North of Atlanta, South of Boston, East of the Mississippi, and West of the Atlantic
10 Feb 2006, 11:08 pm
odeon
Toucan
Joined: 19 Jan 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 296
Location: Banned for comparing WP to a daytime soap!
11 Feb 2006, 7:48 am
11 Feb 2006, 7:58 am
