I saw Cradle Will Rock last night. Hard to believe that
the guy who directed Dead Man Walking, a finely nuanced
movie, also directed CWR. It's a shame because it's an
interesting Depression-era story and has a dream cast, at least
in part.
Was that Cherry Jones playing Hallie Flanagan, the Federal
Theater director? God, she was excellent. Vanessa Redgrave is
making a second career of eccentric rich matrons. The Orson
Welles and John Houseman actors seemed to be engaged in silly
play-acting (hope that Carey Elwes is only padded for the
Houseman part). Emily Watson always brings complications to her
characters, and the first scenes of her as a penniless waif were
painfully connected. After her character gets work in a
theatrical production, she seems overwhelmed. Billy Murray is
creating darker characters with each film, this time as a burned
out vaudeville ventriloquist. Ruben Blades was fun as Diego
Riviera.
The best part of the movie was the Hank Azaria moments at
composing his musical, and scenes where the actors rehearse the
musical. The final scene of the actors putting on a concert
version of a musical shut down before it opened reminded me of
the movie with Glenn Close about the opera company in Paris that
overcame a jillion obstacles in order to produce an opera.
The worst part was the idea that abstract art was subsidized
by industrialists as a way of taking politics out of art. Lots of
cartoonish propaganda from the 30s about good lefties and bad
rich people. Very preachy and flat. The final proof of the bad
guys winning is a picture of Times Square lit up today with
advertising.
