I never saw Gattaca, but I did enjoy The Truman Show, mostly for Jim Carrey’s and Ed Harris’ performances. It also had an interesting premise, and a really great line: “cue the sun”.
So now comes Simone from the same writer-director, Andrew Niccol. I found this premise kinda cool too... and seemingly getting closer and closer to becoming reality every day. A director creates the perfect actress to star in his movies. The problem is, with the media circus that exists everywhere nowadays, how does he keep his secret?
Al Pacino. He’s growing on me. I used to find him to be a cartoon character, way too over the top for his own good. But lately I’ve started to like him, and this movie seemed like very different territory for him. He does a great job here, creating a sympathetic character that you care about and root for, even if he is a little over the top.
Playing his ex-wife, and as a studio exec, his boss, is the great Catherine Keener. She’s a really great actress, and her character, while a little bitchy, is still cool. His daughter is played by Evan Rachel Wood, a nice young actress who was on TV’s Once & Again, and is actually the lead in a new flick I’ve heard nothing about, Little Secrets. She’s a pretty good actress, and maybe she’s on the road to a nice career, a la Jena Malone and the like.
Here’s where it gets tricky.
I don’t like to give away anything when I write about movies.
So I don’t know how to handle talking about “Simone” herself. Sure, there’s been talk all over the ‘net and TV about who is or isn’t playing the role, but I feel that discussing it further really breaks my own rule about spoilers.
Spoilers.
No sir, I don’t like ‘em.
I will say that the image on screen representing “Simone” is a little…different. She’s stunning, yet strangely off putting. Either director Niccol did a great job, or “Simone” is a very unique individual.
Simone is a not a great movie, and I really wish Niccol would have fleshed it out more, and explored even deeper connections to real life Hollywood. Hollywood is so ripe and ready for skewering. Simone isn’t a parody, but it is a statement.
It just needed to be a stronger statement.
But it is entertaining though…