p e n g u i n d e v i l

Surprising to see this logo, in this day and age. Especially in color. But following up on our viewing of (what’s left of) Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons a few months back, tonight we took in The Magnificent Ambersons, the 2002 A&E version. I hadn’t realized that it was made from Welles’ original shooting script. That made it fairly easy to compare the two. Though I liked the 1942 version in a lot of ways, this one excels it in terms of having an intact story-line. The 1942 version suffers from the sinking feeling that you’ve missed something that was supposed to be there. This one doesn’t, things are much more clear with no more of that “referring to that which didn’t seem to have happened” that was rather annoying in the original.

Regardless, the same story of  wealthy family at the end of the nineteenth century and at the end of their fortunes. We follow about a quarter century from their peak to their miserable ending with plenty of unhappiness (and some death). But it’s not just the story of the family’s fall, it is more the story of the grandson of the family, what an arrogant and naive ass he is and had he not been such, how much of the misery could have been avoided. This little twerp is played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who is all too convincingly unlikable, I couldn’t tell if he did a terrible job, or if his character was as uptight and cardboard as he came across (I’m thinking the latter). The rest of the film is filled with quite charming characters, especially Uncle George (William Hootkins, from both Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark) and the young love interest Lucy Morgan (Gretchen Mol). It also features Jennifer Tilly as Aunt Fanny who I quite enjoyed as, while maybe not the best actress and the character was not particularly charming, she was well suited to the role. Sadly, the great James Cromwell is under-used as the family patriarch, The Major.

that familiar sinking feeling

Though it doesn’t have particularly exciting cinematography, (I did like the arial shot of Paris) the movie does looks good and after watching the washed out grayscale of the Welles dvd we saw, the colors seemed particularly exciting. So I would say that both versions are quite worthwhile as a historical dramas. The Welles one if you are interested in seeing the fine remains of what could have been a potential classic, and this version if you want to watch a nice little drama.