This film was a big disappointment to me. I could not stop noticing Redford's "eye-job" long enough to ever suspend disbelief and become really involved in the plot. The parallel plot in my head kept spinning out likely scenario's of Redford and his plastic surgeon with Redford being reassured of how "rested" he was going to end up looking. Yeah, right. If "rested" is resting in intensive care after having the character lines around your eyes scraped off.
Maybe because of this, I never gave Redford's performance here a chance. I don't know. But to me it fell far short of what Helen Mirren and Willem Defoe brought to this movie. Both of them, especially Mirren, added a great deal to the film. They were excellent. But things became tedious for me a lot of the time when Redford was on the screen.
A great deal of this film depended on nuance and intensity. An actor like Anthony Hopkins could have brought that in spades and with him playing Redford's part, I think this film could have been salvaged. Actually much more than salvaged. With Hopkins in the central role, it could have been a film well worth seeing.
Maybe because of this, I never gave Redford's performance here a chance. I don't know. But to me it fell far short of what Helen Mirren and Willem Defoe brought to this movie. Both of them, especially Mirren, added a great deal to the film. They were excellent. But things became tedious for me a lot of the time when Redford was on the screen.
A great deal of this film depended on nuance and intensity. An actor like Anthony Hopkins could have brought that in spades and with him playing Redford's part, I think this film could have been salvaged. Actually much more than salvaged. With Hopkins in the central role, it could have been a film well worth seeing.
