MovieChat Forums > The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) Discussion > just watched it for the first time, have...

just watched it for the first time, haven't read the book

posted 12 years ago by yojimboy
1 reply | jump to latest

I thought it was okay except:

1) Kim Catrall and Melanie Griffith's accents, which seemed incredibly phony and over-the-top. That said, I could accept them as comic touches.

2) Morgan Freeman's speech. That really made me roll my eyes. Could not believe how corny and unconvincing that was. I saw someone on this message board say they thought the judge wasn't supposed to be likable and that it was intentionally phony, but that doesn't seem played up enough to be true to me. All of the other characters who were being satirically mocked were over-the-top obvious clowns who were shot in grotesque close-ups at times, but not Freeman. I just couldn't forgive the movie that simplistic speech.

[–] Martina_Helene 12 years ago

Judges speech was not in the book AT ALL nor was the corney "happy" ending for Sherman (Maria had a sad self centered ending but let's just say it did NOT turn out like it did in the movie at all) and while Fallows fate was the most "successful" fate in the end it still was relatively miserable.
By putting this corney ending in with the judges speech and Sherman basically getting away with what he did it really undid everything the book had to say, but it wasn't just the ending. The entire film was a superficial explanation of a pretty deep, albeit unsympathetic and starkly negative (yet with a satirical wink/*beep* you to Soceity), outstanding character study and novel.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4604197/