It Might Have Been Better If...


I love this film and prefer it to Wolfe's enjoyable but overrated novel but it might have been a bigger critical and commerical success if:

First of all they'd left the plot how it was and not altered the characters (an American Fallow as opposed to a British)

Let Mike Nicholas (a talented satirist) direct it or Woody Allen (he loves a downbeat ending).

Elaine May (or Allen) write the screenplay (having done an excellent job with Nicholas on Primary Colours)

and cast Albert Finney perhaps as Fallow and someone like Don Johnson as Sherman McCoy

Letting them do it without studio interference would have certainly satisfied everybody.


reply

Wow, almost all of your suggestions are bad. Don Johnson? Really!? I think the movie was really bad. I think it could have been great, but the script, casting (really, everyone was miscast), and directing was terrible.

reply

Okay, which of my suggestions are bad? I think they all work pretty well, plus Sherman McCoy is supposed to be an arrogant and vain man brought down by his circumstances and I felt Johnson could play that kind of character rather well (in light of his recent troubles?)

reply

[deleted]

I know, I got my words mixed up. I meant to say left Fallow British as opposed to turning him into American. What did you think of my casting and director suggestions?

reply

Not sure that Fallow being British or American makes that much difference to the plot, but they probably should have cast a lesser-known actor and not elevated the character to the point where it's almost as much a film about him as it is about Sherman. Having Fallow narrate helps move along the plot, but Willis is off-screen for more than half the film, and given too much focus when he's in it. Other characters - Weiss, Kramer, the judge and the detectives - are given much less time for development compared to their parts in the book, but then it's not an easy task boiling a 600 page, very complex novel down to two hours. In some ways, they might have done as well as could be expected to get across most of the book's major points, but most of the characters, including Sherman, do not come across as vividly as they do in the book, and end up as caricatures. I don't think Hanks was the wrong choice, he just didn't give Sherman enough depth, and I can't see Don Johnson in the role at all. For the two female leads, I would play the popular game of switch 'em - Griffiths as the trophy wife, Catrell as the Southern spitfire?? I thought Griffiths was OK, but Catrell was not so much miscast as given a badly-written character to play. The Judy of the novel may have been weak, but she was not as airheaded as she is made to be in the film, and many of her lines are very unbelievable. Most of the rest of the cast did as well as could be expected.

"I'm-I'm just being honest" - Outkast

reply

I agree. Although DePalma is one of my favorite directors, I would have loved to see what Woody Allen would have done with it.
The only thing is that the book and movie are so grand in scope, and Allen's movies tend to be simple stories. I don't know if he would have been entirely succesful.

And I think Bruce Willis was terrible in this movie. I wish they went with either an English actor or simply a better American one.

reply

The thing about Woody is that he would not have bowed down to political and social hypocracy. He would have cast all the right actors regardless of race and would have been commited to the story and not changed it. Norman Jewison said it would only really work as a television series and I think he was right.

Bruce Willis was completely miscast, they originally wanted John Clesse but he turned them down. Perhaps Albert Finney might have worked?

reply

Lawrence Kasdan should be the director/screenwriter.

It needs to be almost 3 hours in length (if not a miniseries).

I really see Jim Carrey working as Sherman. Just picture him in that suit with handcuffs and the plastic packing peanuts sticking to him.

Bruce Willis could've been a great Kramer. Or Jason Alexander (there's a thought).

Ralph Fiennes or Gary Oldman for Fallow (actually British!).

Make Bacon and Killian into bigger characters.

reply

interesting ideas but why laurence kasdan?

reply

"Grand Canyon," "The Big Chill," "Body Heat," and "The Accidental Tourist" all prove Kasdan is good with 1.) big casts, 2.) flawed characters, and 3.) modern big-city stories. Plus, he's quite a good writer/director.

reply

Interesting, though still think he might be tempted to soft soap the racial elements as he did with Grand Canyon's black protagonists

reply

You might be right, that's why I say Robert Altman could also have a go at it. Altman is not one to soft soap anything.

reply

good idea, writing with someone like julian fellowes or bob balaban, who wrote and conceived Gosford Park, another social satire.

reply

You forgot "The Empire Strikes Back" & "Raiders of the Lost Ark" !






"it's all fun & games til someone gets hurt...Then it's REAL fun !

reply