The Best of Me
I want to start by saying: All heartfelt condolences to Paul Walker's loved ones, friends, colleagues, and fans. He will be missed; it was a tragic shame. I'm really sorry.
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I'm glad that Marsden is being looked at for the older lover in The Best of Me. I hope that the negotiations are successful to everyone's satisfaction.
Marsden needs a good love story, for a change. He needs to be in a romantic film where he's actually romantic and a true loving man in a romantic, even sexual relationship.
I'm not crazy about Nicholas Sparks, but my friend tells me that it's a good story; I've ordered the e-version.
The closest Marsden came in recent years to having something like a loving relationship in a film I've seen was The Box, and everyone hated that (I didn't).
The scene where he was outside, looking at C. Diaz through the window as she was dancing - he had that poignant look on his face, and it was excellent.
Straw Dogs was not a love story - and their relationship was too ambivalent. In Death at a Funeral, he was good, but then again, there was no real physical affection between him and Z. Saldana.
It's been like he's been almost afraid to show that side of himself -- I'm assuming, of course, that he does have that side to him. I really know he does.
He needs to get hold of the right story, the right script, the right director, and for it not to be another one of those d@mned independent films which no one gets to see.
They're putting As Cool As I Am on television, by the way. That had the worst lighting of a Marsden film I ever saw. It was as if they used no light enhancement in the indoor scenes. And the sound quality was terrible, too. It was my least favorite Marsden film (in fact, I have to admit I hated it), and there too, it portrayed an ambivalent marital relationship. In fact, a down-right disastrous one.