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    As I Lay Dying

    Reviewed by
    pietroantoni@

    Written and directed by James Franco, As I Lay Dying from the William Faulkner novel is a film that will appeal to few individuals. I see I'm the first to comment on the film which sort of proves my point. This rather grim but classic American novel and now FILM deals with the Bundren family of Mississippi. The mother of the family has passed on, her wish being that she be buried in her home town. So, in essence, the film becomes the most unexpected of Road Movies. According to Murphy's law, if something can go wrong it will. In As I lay Dying everything does go wrong in the mere 40 miles it takes to get from the wretched Bundren home to the burial place for the mother. Much inner turmoil of each character is seen as they make the voyage, the problem being that personal feelings are difficult to transfer to the screen. The movie becomes fairly weighted down and eventually pretty tedious. James Franco stars alongside most actors I don't recognize. It's not that their performances are bad, they simply have nothing to do during this sad trip. The toothless father of the clan is almost unintelligible every time he opens his mouth and his physical appearance is truly a big turn off in this film. James Franco seems to be making all sorts of esoteric films from difficult material from the likes of Ginzburg, Faulkner and others. The trouble is no one wants to see these films; most have no clue who these great authors are and secondly, they don't translate well to the screen. Mr. Franco has reached a crisis of sorts in his career! If he continues with this type of film-making he soon will be unable to fund them as no one apparently wants to see such films. Further if he continues to be in BOMB after BOMB his career is not going to last as long as we previously thought. What he must do is find GOOD, COMMERCIAL ROLES like his Oscar Nominated performance in 127 Hours, his last film to make any real money. Ever since graduating from one of the Ivy League Universities he seems to be on a mission to film works that are worthy of celebration... the problem is that FILM is not the right medium. That is abundantly clear! The last Franco film I enjoyed was 127 Hours, quite a few years ago. I am giving the film a 5 out of respect for the Faulkner material and a serious effort on Franco's part to turn a great book into a good movie. Were I a vicious critic, I would give the film a 2 at best.

    5
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    pietroantoni@  23.9.2014 age: 36-49 14,551 reviews

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