I don't like Tobey Maguire. For all those "he was good as Spiderman" people, I might as well share that I really don't like Spiderman. I never have...it has as much to do with how annoying of a character Mary Jane is as anything else, but I digress.We watched The Good German last night. I generally like Steven Soderbergh, I am a fan of The Cloon, and I like Cate Blanchett a lot, plus the movie is shot in black and white with lots of old timey touches, so I figured I was safe. Then, the movie starts, and Tobey Maguire is "acting" all over the place. He's horrible, worse than usual, and I worry that I'm not going to make it through the movie. "Maybe he'll get killed." I genuinely believe that any role played by Tobey Maguire would be better suited for either (if not both) Topher Grace (frustrating since he also appears in the Spiderman franchise) or Elijah Wood. Andy and I spent much of Maguire's screen time naming actors that would have been better: Andy's dream choice was of course Ryan Gosling, I suggested Shia LeBeouf and Adrian Brody (who Andy declared too old even though he's only 2 years older than Tobey). Heck, there's a pretty good chance that Justin Long would have been better. Luckily, McGuire ended up not being onscreen for the whole movie, and I was able to make it through, but his scenes were painful and distracting. I'll admit that I am okay with Maguire's preformance in Wonder Boys, since he is playing the one role he's capable of (much like Keanu Reeves in Bill and Ted).
By the way, The Good German ended up being just okay. It's worth a watch, espeically if you are into old movies, but it's by no means essential viewing.
3 comments:
I really can't take what you have to say seriously especially when you declare that a non-actor like Topher Grace is better suited to play any role that Maguire played. Grace essentially plays Eric Forman in every movie he's been in. He has virtually no facial expressions and he speaks in a complete monotone. But I guess there are people, like yourself, who believe this is considered great acting.
I will give you this, there use to be a time (and I emphasize USE TO BE) when I wasn't quite certain about Maguire's acting ability. What's great about him is his subtlety, naturalness, and realness. He has the ability to convey how a real person would behave, which apparently a lot of people like yourself deem as not being able to act. However, those who know something about the profession have said time and time again how a so-called "quiet, still" performance IS when an actor is at his or her best. Theatrics, which is most likely the type of acting you find good is actually considered by those in the profession to be over-the-top, and unnatural.
I think he's really good, actually. There's a scene in "The Cider House Rules" where he confronts Delroy Lindo's character about an incestous relationship Lindo's character is having with his daughter. Maguire conveys many different things just in his face and body. He starts the scene off conveying the awkwardness of confronting the situation, he conveys that his character hasn't learned to approach a subject of this nature in a more delicate way, you see that he may be second guessing confronting the issue, there's some fear there, and ultimately you see that he's angry with Lindo's character by the end of the scene. It's a quiet scene that's filled with tension at the same time.
You will most likely go on hating Maguire, and that's all well and fine. But I just wanted to put this out here.
Topher Grace as Peter Parker would have made those movies so much better.
Maguire is a one trick pony, and not a very good one. He would be best as the copy boy in a porn who watches in wide-eyed wonder as two people go at it on the copy machine. Maybe he'll become an actor as an old man?
I guess it should have been "The Just OK German".
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