#CastingFail

‘Tis the season to snuggle up with some faux fur and binge on TV series and movies. I’m currently in the middle of Breaking Bad (DON’T SAY ANYTHING!) and I recently watched Fargo for the first time. I also finally got around to seeing Lincoln. A brief critique:

Adam Driver single-handedly ruined Lincoln for me.

Ok that’s an exaggeration, but really only a slight one. I had hoped Lincoln would be a well-done depiction of history. I had expected I’d get lost in the portrayal of the Civil War’s cessation and the 13^th Amendment being passed. I had assumed Daniel Day Lewis and Sally Field would perform convincing portrayals. They did. I think. (I mean who really knows what Lincoln and his wife were like, in real life?!) What I didn’t count on? B-list actors totally distracting me, taking me out of my reverie and completely ruining the movie for me. History-based films especially should transport you from your present reality to a different time and place. This just can’t be the case when you recognize Adam from Girls, a guy from Mad Men and some dude from Boardwalk Empire. These actors have small parts in Lincoln, so their Lincoln-era characters aren’t developed. You don’t see Adam Driver as Samuel Beckwith. You see that guy who had incredibly awkward sex with Hannah on Girls. The “star quality” of the untransformed small parts in Lincoln served as distractions and detractions from what could have been a  mesmerizing depiction of history and a super-moving movie.

A

P.S. More on movies here and here.