I can’t help but believe that when critics demand “sympathetic” characters, what they mean is that they want characters who, however unsympathetic, are formulaic. That is: they show us some good moments, they show us some bad moments, and they are forced artificially to choose between the “good” and the “bad” in themselves (in a Scorsese flick this will be achieved by a fight with the neglected wife), and will either make amends (happy movie) or self-destruct further (sad movie). The reason that Hollywood movies so often seem superficial is that the medium is ill-suited to carry on this essentially novelistic formula: it can give us too little of any character’s interiority. Unless, that is, the whole movie, all of its images and actions, are to be understood as the character’s interior.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 13:16:08 +0000
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