While waiting the film to start, I thought in myself that this will be a total different thing what I read in the play from book. Knowing that John Malkovich will cast together with Joanne Woodward and Karen Allen, and it's directed by famous Paul Newman I expected to see something commercial. The film started in a very unusual way for me, where Malkovich narrated about happenings, but the camera movement was very strange with a detail that was very unique to me, the hands of Malkovich were shown very often. In the book, it starts with the apartment that gives the impression that is very dark and small, but in film it's yellowish, light and bigger where I could saw the building itself which I couldn't imagine from book, and its very ruined. The cast of Karen as Laura is good, but it gives a different impression about Laura compared to the play in book version, in which Laura is described as a very shy girl who doesn't have any goal in life but playing with her glass animals.
John Malkovich at 44 th Karlovy Vary International...
Screenshot of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman from...
Screenshot of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward from...In film she looks more like a strong girl, not that shy and she definitely doesn't play with her glass animals whole day. Malkovich's play is in my opinion excellent with his great ability to change his personality and acting, where I especially liked the scene where he gets into argument with his mother Amanda and very cynically speaks about his going out every evening to the movies. His role in the film is again a bit different where he is much more tolerant with his mother and gives a impression of a nice, quiet young man which is always under "attack" of his mother. The role of mother Amanda played by Joanne Woodward is pretty much I imagined reading the play. She is very determined in her plans, with a tone of speaking which irritated me very much, very good performance. There are some other things that cant be read from the play and experienced by watching the film, like the noises. In the film, even the small footstep is heard very loud. The whole ambient is in dark yellow tone which I think represents the age and poornes of the family. The music is very much shown in the play, but from watching the acting, it becames just an secondary element which describes the ambient a little more. The words are preety much the same in the film, and the play which I thought will be totally different.
In overall from the point of view a critic, I could say that the film is very good and follows the play very tight, but by no means a great one.
Cropped screenshot of Joanne Woodward from the tra...
Cropped screenshot of Joanne Woodward and from the...
Cropped screenshot of and Joanne Woodward from the...