Director: Neil LaBute
Running time: 1 hour and 24 minutes
This movie is what we call a 2-hander, so be prepared. What that means is that there are only 2 actors on screen during the whole movie. And when i say only 2, i literally mean 2. There is noone else. In "Some Velvet Morning" 's case our two leads are Stanley Tucci and Alice Eve. He is a middle-aged lawyer who just left his wife. She is the seductive blond that taunts him. It's just the two of them and the tension is building...
This is the second Neil Labute film i've seen. The first being Some Girl(s), which i've reviewed for this blog (review: http://moviereviewsbym94.blogspot.gr/2013/11/some-girls-movie-review.html ) and which i loved. His films are very character-driven (my favourite kind of movies) and have a certain simplicity about them that i like. Some Girl(s) was a character study type of movie and so was Some Velvet Morning. So i had high expectations getting into it. And those expectation were met to a degree. But let's get more in depth into my review of "Some Velvet Morning".
One of my favourite things about the movie was Alice Eve. both her character and her acting. Velvet is an ethereal, effortlessly beautiful (in a way that doesn't exist in real life) blond. She is the woman men fight over and the woman women wish they could be. It was wonderful watching her putting on a red lip pencil and fixing her hair in two seconds while still talking and charming Stanley Tucci with seemingly no effort. To make this character convinving and so appealing for no apparent reasons it was detrimantal to have a great actress portray her and Alice Eve is as good as it gets. I can't imagine anyone else in that role and i am glad Neil Labute couldn't either.
In a simiral way that Some Velvet Morning is simple because of its limited cast, it is, also, simple because of its limited location (the movie doesn't move past Velvet's house). I have long loved movies that are confident and assured enough to limit themselves to a certain geografic spot and turn that "limit" into a possitive attribute that enhanses the plot of the film rather than hurts it. Examples of this kind of movies that come to mind are "Phone Booth" (which i love), "Exam" (which has its bad and its good moments) and many many more i'm sure.This kind of limitation makes the characters and their interactions stand out more and it gives the audience the chance to focus and pay attention to them and, even, think more about the intricate human mind and soul.To add a minor point regarding the location of the movie i have to mention that i loved Velvet's house. It's beautiful and SPOILER!! even though it doesn't suit Velvet's personality and character it looks like a house used for something like what the whole thing turns out to be, but i won't spoil it more.
I am, now, going to go more into what eventually happens, which is a major !!SPOILER ALERT!!, so consider yourselves warned. Throughout the film I would start noticing some inconsistencies in Velvet and Fred's characters. Fred would declare his love for Velvet at one moment and seem like he dismissed her as someone deserving of him the next. And Velvet would be fun and flirtatious in the begging as if she didn't know how dangerous Fred could be (which she would if it was real) and be surprised when he did turn violent towards the end. So after a point I was ready to classify Some Velvet Morning as fake and unrealistic, but then the came the end and it all started making sense. Their behavior was neither real nor created by an expert psychologist. They are just two people improvising the best they could, so the imperfections were, ironically, perfect in this situation.
And speaking of the end, I didn't see it coming for a second and upon thinking about it I realized that I went with it completely. Not only did it take me entirely by surprise but after the initial astonishment I, totally, bought into it. It wasn't just a shock for shock's shake, it actually made sense, in my opinion.
However, even though the end was intense and "edge of my seat" kind of stuff, the rest of the film comes very close to boring territory. The fact that the plot is somewhat limited leads to a number of moments being monotonous and repetitive. The task of grabbing the audience's attention for 84 minutes with, only, two leads and many conversations is a difficult one and Neil LaBute, almost, fails to complete it.
Another observation that came to mind after watching "Some Velvet Morning" was that both Neil LaBute movies I have seen seem to have a similar "character plot that eventually grows into a twist" quality to them. I do love Neil LaBute (and not many do) but I would like to see something different from him next time.
In conclusion, if you are a Neil LaBute fan, like me, you will probably like Some Velvet Morning and if you are not I, personally, think it is worth a watch. decide accordingly.
Final thought: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZEURntrQOg
Score: 74%
Tomatometer: 50%
m.
Courtesy of
Tribeca Film
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