Nonureva
Really Surprised!
Exoticalot
People are voting emotionally.
GetPapa
Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible
shanki-k
I watched Arthur Newman simply because I found it by accident. While it's not the best film I've seen, I do believe everyone did a credible job with very little material. Colin Firth and Emily Blunt are good, doing the best they could with the somewhat underdeveloped characters. However, I feel the characters are presented as such on purpose, to make of them what we personally will.The film moves slowly, but is in no way boring. An experienced film buff would be fine with its pace and be relatively engaged in the story line as well.Arthur Newman is not for a generic audience. It requires a specific taste in films to be enjoyed for what it is - a thought-provoking story
phd_travel
A total yawn. Don't know why they made this movie. Two uninteresting people doing a silly thing on a silly road trip. A silly golf pro fakes his own death and ends up with a troubled woman. They break into people's houses.Emily and Colin are not convincing as Americans. They need to stop casting British actors as Americans when they are not suited to the role. Nice to see Anne Heche again but she is totally wasted.How could he do that to his son? Faking his death because his young son is a bit sulky? What a bad father.And things end when it's time to give him a tight slap for all the nonsense he put everyone through.
secondtake
Arthur Newman (2012)Though the whole enterprise is built on a huge and somewhat false contrivance (a man taking on a new identity and picking up a troubled woman along the way who also is playing games with her identity), it all works better than you might think. And it's largely because of Colin Firth and Emily Blunt, both strong and understated leads. Blunt in particular has qualities that are interesting without merely being "star" material. Firth, of course, is a mega-star and he's playing his quiet man with familiarity here.The director Dante Ariola is only on his second film and the writer is on his first (after a few screenplays based on other people's stories). And I guess it shows in many little ways, including a script that doesn't seem believable at times. Then at other times it's believable but not that interesting. What keeps it floating through these waves is a sense of pace and ease with the two actors, who of course are seasoned and respected stars.This is both a downer movie with two unhappy leads trying to survive their lives and a feel-good movie about people who find something in each other to survive. It's not quite a romance that develops (it's not "Leaving Las Vegas"), but there is a kind of loving co-dependence. It's meant to be deeper and more moving than it is— mostly a issue of the writing again—but you get the drift and it works overall.In the end, at the end, you wish so much it had been more than it was. It has so many interesting qualities that don't get pulled out—the surprising convergence in the plot, the game of taking on identities, the psychological depth of being who you are and accepting that—I felt let down by what did happen. The solutions are a bit obvious and almost cheap, depending on formulas seen before. Which is too bad because the set-up and the actors are worth more than that.
gradyharp
Director Dante Ariola may not have a lot of credentials as yet, but taking chances with stories such as this one written by Becky Johnston (Seven Years in Tibet, The Prince of Tides, etc), stories that dare take the unexpected path for how people are finding the human condition rather chaotic, suggests that we have a very creative artist in the making. Blessed with a quartet of fine actors in the leading roles and a small but impressive supporting cast, this film is just far enough off center to make it refreshingly refreshing.The story follows the mid-life travails of sad sack FedEx floor manager Wallace Avery (Colin Firth) who is estranged from his ex-wife and angry young son Grant (Sterling Beaumon) and spends his time with his 'lover' Mina (Anne Heche in a fine performance) who loves him despite the fact that Wallace is boring. He decides to refuse to face a life he hates, stages his own death and buys himself a new identity as Arthur Newman. However, Arthur's road trip towards a new life is interrupted by the arrival of the beautiful but fragile Mike (Emily Blunt), who is also trying to leave her past behind: her mother committed suicide, her sister is in a mental institution, and Mike has assumed her sister's name to avoid having to create a life of her own. Drawn to one another, these two damaged souls begin to connect as they break into empty homes and take on the identities of the absent owners - elderly newlyweds, a high- roller and his Russian lady, among others - all supposedly brief moments on their road trip to Terre Haute, Indiana where Arthur believes he has a job as a golf pro - the promise of a chance encounter with one strange Fred Willoughby (the gifted David Andrews). That goal is a dead end, and through this process, Arthur and Mike discover that what they love most about each other are the identities they left at home, and their real journey begins.Colin Firth and Emily Blunt are consummate actors and bring these odd characters to life: they successfully manage comedic situations but always hold closely to the sad underpinnings of their characters' tortured souls. The story is odd, being a variation of a road trip by very lonely and desperate people, but somehow it enters the head and heart and is cause for contemplation. Grady Harp
