Macbeth (Shakespeare)

Another energetic and lively Elm Shakespeare production in Edgerton Park. I saw one with T&K my first summer in New Haven, and I've tried to ensure that I've seen each one since then.

Highly recommended.

Dido and Aeneas (Mark Morris after Henry Purcell)

My fourth immersion in this glorious fusion of music and dance, and once again, I see and hear what I've missed before.

Highly Recommended

The Train Driver (Athol Fugard)

A moving exploration of responsibility and guilt, of regret and redemption, and ultimately of forgiveness and forgiveness once again. Fine performances of a conundrum particular to post-apartheid South Africa but easy to universalize to any peoples anywhere.

Selvish (Carly Flint)

By re-imagining the Adam and Eve myth through the lens of Koranic additions and revisions, as well as modern conceptions of human love, this play adds Flint's voice to the voices of other, more established poets & playwrights--I'm thinking particularly of Zimmerman, Hughes, and Ruhl--who've taken ancient myths as their source text but made them so much more.

Excellent performances under strong direction.

Recommend.

The Secret in the Wings (Zimmerman)

I had high hopes for this production: I'm of fan of Yale Summer Cabaret, and Zimmerman seemed like the perfect playwright for the group.

Big disappointment, and I find that YSC was the primary source of that disappointment.

Do not recommend.

Union Square (Nancy Savoca)

Here's a movie I found it difficult to create any distance from. The two sisters, played in strong performances by Mira Sorvino and Tammy Blanchard, negotiate their past and their different responses to it. Though the film is primarily set in a tidy, upwardly-mobile apartment, it portrays the sisters' lives as tottering on chaos.

Recommend.

Hope Springs (David Frankel)

An all-too-familiar (though not on screen) story of faded love in a long-term marriage. Full of humor. Endearing acting by Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carell.

(Set in Omaha, NE and Maine, but filmed in CT.)

Recommend.

Ruby Sparks (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris)

Perhaps we're the only regular movie-goers who didn't see American Pie. And because we can see American Pie veteran actors in other films without carrying over any prejudice from the earlier movie, I more and more believe that's to our benefit--and in this case, Paul Dano's.

Clever, entertaining film based on the Pygmalion myth--and, according to the two young women in front of us--their lives.

Recommend.

Killer Joe (William Friedkin)

I remember when--it must be close to a dozen years ago--Mike saw Tracey Lett's play, Killer Joe, in New York with a friend. I hadn't been able to go, and on his return said it was just as well. As much as he had liked the play, he was certain I would not have.

He was right. I wouldn't have liked it then.

Though I don't believe I become desensitized to violence in the subsequent years, I have learned to disassociate from what's happening on the screen. And in this particular film, that's a good trick to be able to play.

Like so many Lett's dramatic works, Killer Joe is a psychological study, this time in crime-ridden, drug-addled, intelligence-challenged trailer park in Texas. Though he sometimes overplays the stereotypes, by and large he hits the target.

Fantastic performances by Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Thomas Haden Church, and Gina Gorshen. And Matthew McConaughey owes the role if Texas lawman.

The scene with the fried chicken leg is a bizarre as any on screen.

Highly recommended: with the caveat that the NC-17 rating is for the graphic violence and explicit rape.

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Superb film whose primary trope is the red herring.

Highly recommended.

Roseanne Case

A lively, lovely performance on the New Haven Green.

Recommend!

love fail (David Lang)

A wonderful performance by Anonymous 4, but the visuals detracted from the overall effect. We'll see it again in December at BAM.

Recommend...just watch with closed eyes.

Taiwanese King Lear (WU Hsing-kuo)

A fascinating production that takes the basic narrative of Shakespeare's King Lear and re-imagines it through the lens of traditional Chinese theatre--and then through the lens of a Chinese actor who has partially abandoned his traditional roots.

Recommend.

Yuval Ron Ensemble

We seldom leave a performance midway, but in this case we didn't even wait for an intermission. The ensemble is best described as an ineffectively combining superficial mysticism, faux learning and annoying self-conscious affect.

I won't put too much blame on Arts and Ideas for bringing this group of smug emoting because it was brought to New Haven by an ecumenical conference. Nevertheless, it didn't belong at A&I.

Avoid.

Ben Allison Band with Robert Pinsky

I loved, loved this performance...and I usually do not like jazz.

Highly recommend.

The Radio Show (Kyle Abramham/Abraham-In-Motion)

Fascinating performance followed by fabulous talk-back.

Recommend.

Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)

Funny, charming movie without an ounce of cynicism or saccharine. I enjoyed every moment of this love story between two misfits who find each other on the Island of New Penzance and, using the Sam's skills as a Khaki Scout, establish a makeshift hideaway they call Moonrise Kingdom. Their short escape doesn't last long, and yet their strong bonds of affection eventually help them return to family and friends.

Fine, nearly flawless film.

Highly recommend.

Nothing is Impossible (Philippe Petit)

This year's first Festival of Arts and Ideas speaker, and the overwhelming question was this: would a man whose fame (and survival) depends upon meticulous planning really come before an audience and give a talk that's completely spontaneous--or was the apparent spontaneity an act?

Snow White and the Huntsman (Rupert Sanders)

When did curled-lipped mouth breathing become attractive?  Even more to the point, when did it become acting?

Other than having to watch Kristen Stewart, this was a visually stunning adaptation of the Snow White fairy tale.  I'm not certain if it's refusal to let SW choose the lowly Huntsman over the the Duke's son is a nod to its medieval setting or to the 1%.

Recommend. (Even though my comments sound grumpy.)

Turn me on, Dammit! (Jannicke Systad Jacobsen)

A nifty Danish film about a fifteen-year-old (nearly sixteen!) girl with an insatiable hunger for sex but no one to feed her, so to speak.  Clever and humorous without being voyeuristic or condescending.

Recommend.

The Intouchables (Nakache & Toledano)

Fine French film that uses pathos and humor to dispel many stereotypes about wealth and disability while exploiting other stereotypes about race and poverty.

Highly recommended.

Title and Deed (Eno)

This fascinating production is the result of a close collaboration between Will Eno and Gare St Lazare, the theatrical company energized by Conor Lovett and Judy Hegarty Lovett. 

Conor Lovett plays an unnamed someone "not from here."  The not-quite bare stage, the man's uncertain posture, and his hesitant delivery place the audience in an ambivalent position that wavers between sympathy and amusement. 

The talk-back with Lovett and Eno was intimate and revealing.

Highly recommend.

The Long Day Closes (Terence Davies)

A quiet film of long, still shots, little dialogue, familial affection, classroom brutality, and lots of rain.  (1992)

Recommend

The Tempest (Shakespeare)

This is the first Shakespeare play Darko Tresnjak has directed at Hartford Stage since he began Artistic Director.  And as such, it promises many interesting productions.

This production is most distinctive in its visual imagination, its most arresting moment occurring in the first few minutes when a sleeping woman and lengths of cloth become the prow and sails of a ship in a tempest-tossed sea.  The play also features dancers and an acrobat in the frequently omitted masque of Ceres. And the porthole at the back of the stage is effectively used, especially when the fathers peer at Miranda and Ferdinand playing chess.  As far as interpreting the play, this production takes no chances and offers nothing fresh.

Recommend.

My Children! My Africa! (Athol Fugard)

(We sat next to Allie Gallerani's family.)

Highly Recommended.

Medieval Play (Kenneth Lonergan)

Solipsistic silliness or sly satire? Either could be possible in Lonergan's Medieval Play, though the first scene goes a long way toward establishing the first possibility as the dominant one.  Despite certain lapses into (somewhat tedious) absurdity, the satire frequently cuts sharp.  By infusing the dialogue of his medieval characters with the locutions and sensibilities of Gen Y'ers, Lonergan persuasively argues for our inability to act outside our historical constraints, no matter how self aware we are, no matter how much we are able to think outside those constraints.  Energetic acting by Anthony Arkin and Tate Donovan playing the two knights, and a special nod to Heather Burns playing Catherine of Siena.

Recommend.

Bernie (Richard Linklater)

This film is often called "darkly comic," but from my perspective--I recognized everyone in the film--it is a sober-eyed look at life in small-town Texas, where everyone knows everything about everyone and yet everyone tries (unnecessarily--see the previous clause) to hide a (well-known) secret.  If the Carthage, Texas citizens weren't played by themselves, outsiders might deem them parodies.  They are not.

Great performances by Jack Black and Matthew McConaughey.

New Times Review.

Highly recommended.

The Caretaker (Harold Pinter)

 For a long while, I've loved the words "caretaker" and "caregiver" with their simultaneous invocations of both "taking care of/giving care to" and "taking/giving care." (For instance, when I returned to work after the birth of my second child, my advert didn't request a "babysitter"; instead, it requested a "caregiver," and I hired the first respondent who noticed that shift in wording.  It turned out to be an excellent strategy.)  Pinter draws upon these denotations as well as the connotations of a caretaker as someone relegated to minding that which needs to be minded but the rest of us don't want to fiddle with: buildings and grounds, the old and the infirm.

The Theatre Royal Both Productions/Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse production, directed by Christopher Morahan with Jonathan Pryce, Alan Cox, and Alex Hassell, drew on the black humor found in the pauses in the script and ambiguities of its language. Though some audience members found the humor misplaced (as revealed during the fascinating talkback with the actors), I found it to be an effective means for highlighting the despair.   

Like many, I find Pinter challenging, and I enjoy his plays more in retrospect than I do watching them.   Nevertheless, during this performance, I was held captive by the performances of all three actors and after the talkback wished for a chance to see a replay.

Highly recommended.

Isherwood's 5.6.12 NYTimes review

Headhunters (Morton Tyldum)

Great suspense film that achieves much of its effect by presenting the protagonist as a scoundrel whom the audience roots against.

Recommend

American Buffalo (David Mamet)

A terrific, persuasive performance. 

The 3rd in Elm Shakespeare Company's annual Kehler Liddell Gallery productions.

Recommend.

My Name is Asher Lev (adapted by Aaron Posner from Chaim Potok novel)

When I was in high school, Chaim Potok's novels introduced to me to Hassidism--in truth, Judaism.  Though I lived in the middle of the West Texas Bible Belt, I identified with the protagonists in both The Chosen  and My Name is Asher Lev as they struggled to understand how they could accommodate their their desires and inclinations with their native religion. 

Thus, I was naturally inclined to enjoy My Name is Asher Lev, a 2009 play derived from the 1972 novel. And I did.  It avoided being overly sentimental, and any gaps in the script were papered over by the excellent cast.

Recommend. 

Wall Street Chamber Players

Bach, Trio Sonata in C major, BWV 1037
Mozart, Piano Quartet in E-Flat major, K 493
Brahms, Trio in B major, Opus 8

Recommend

Gatz (Elevator Repair Service, based on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby)

We'd been hearing about Gatz from friends since it first appeared in the states a couple of years ago.  The premise sounds improbably: a reading of every word--and only the words--of Fitzgerald's novel.  6 hours. Every word. Yikes!

Believing in the good judgment of friends, we tried it any way.  And what a wonderful confirmation of their recommendations. 

Set in a nondescript warehouse office, it begins with a clerk picking up the novel and reading it aloud while he waits for someone to come repair his computer.  Gradually, other office workers are drawn into the reading and they begin to act (and speak) the parts, until the first guy becomes Nick, and the others become the other characters in the novel.  Difficult to describe, but not at all difficult to become absolutely engaged by.

Highly recommend.

Ritorno d'Ulisse In Patria (Monteverdi)

Another reason why I love living in New Haven: seeing amateurs perform a Baroque opera because they love opera, not because they plan to become professions.  Hurray for Ellen Rosand's Yale undergrads. We'll be back for next year's production.

NYTimes review

Recommend.

Die Schopfung (Haydn)

Yale Schola Cantorum, Yale Baroque Ensemble, and Juillard415 joined forces under the baton of Masaaki Suzuki for a fabulous performance of Joseph Haydn's Die Schopfung (The Creation).  Soloist Jessica Petrus (soprano), Steven Soph (tenor), John Taylor Ward (bass), and Megan Chartrand (soprano) were excellent.

A perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Highly recommended.

The Realistic Jones (Eno)

Fascinating Will Eno play that foregrounds the multiple layers of meaning in every utterance.  Great acting brought together by forceful direction.

When Yale Rep takes chances like this one, I hope the plays success with audiences and critics will encourage them to take many more chances.

Highly recommended.

The Kid with a Bike (Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne)

This film has all the components of an overly-sentimental heart-tugger: abandoned boy, single foster parent, a brush with the law, etc.  The Dardennes avoid the temptation and create instead a singular movie about the dangers of loving and trust, a movie that ultimately argues that the dangers not only test love's temper but they make the love all that much truer.  It was a difficult movie to watch because the difficulties were so palpably real.  I was equally a difficult movie to forget for the same reason.

Highly recommend.

Bully (Lee Hirsch)

Very distressing documentary.  Query: why not title it "Bullied"? 

Recommend.

Being Shakespeare (Simon Callow)

Much better than I would have expected.

Recommend.

New Music New Haven

Another wonderful performance by NMNH, and another reason why New Haven is a great place to live.

Highly Recommended.

De Profundis (Yale School of Music)

 A program of music for low instructions, my favorite timbre. There's not a flute that I wouldn't trade for a bassoon, a violin for a cello, or a trumpet for a trombone.  Thus this program was ready-made for my tastes with nary a flute or violin or trumpet.

Heinrich Schutz. Absalon, fili mi
Mozart. Duo for bassoon and cello in B-flat major, K 292
Jacob Druckman. Valentine
Sergei Prokofiev. Scherzo Humoristique, Op. 12b
Bach. Prelude and Fugue in D minor
Bruckner. Two Aequale
Penderecki. Serenata for three cellos; Capriccio for solo tuba
Sofia Gubaidulina. Concerto for bassoon and low strings

Recommend

Cindy Sherman Retrospective (MoMA)

Exciting and revelatory.

Highly recommend.

The Maids (Genet)

Once again, Red Bull Theatre has pulled off a daring yet lucid production of a difficult play. Concerned with the nature of identity and performance, Genet's play always has the audience--as well as the characters themselves--wondering who or what is the authentic self and how can it be distinguished from its doppleganger. Through all these twists and turns, Jesse Burger's keen direction goes beyond presenting a comprehensible performance to involving the audience in those very questions. Great set that turns audience into voyeurs. Highly recommend.

'Tis Pity She's a Whore (John Ford)

I've never read this Ford play from the late 1620s, so my impression of the production is based solely on the production.  That is, I didn't come to the performance with any notions of what the play was about or what I expected to see.

Cheek By Jowl modernized this production by setting it in the bedroom of a 16-year girl, complete with posters on the wall and clothing strewn about.  This girl, however, will be courted and eventually impregnated and murdered by her fawning older brother.

I found Lydia Wilson's performance as the Annabella who is pulled between her brother Giovanni (Jack Gordon), her maid Putana (Lizzie Hopley), and her (eventual) husband Vasques (Laurence Spellman) engaging and convincing. 

The production, however, tends to be too busy: do I really want to watch actors dance and/or sing for more than 12 seconds? And should I be expected to understand lines delivered while actors are jumping about to loud music? 

Recommend...highly, if only because this play deserves to be seen.

The Lady from Dubuque (Edward Albee)

Signature's Theatre's revival of The Lady from Dubuque is an excellent production of an intriguing, moving, yet nevertheless flawed play.  The characters from the first scene, three couples, none of whom seem to like another, suffer from a dearth of kindness and intelligence.  None of the witty repartee that we expect in an Albee play.  That appears, like a breath of fresh air, when the Oscar and Elizabeth (The Lady from Dubuque played by Jane Alexander) arrive to bring comfort to the hostess Jo, who is dying. Though Elizabeth claims to be Jo's mother, her husband Sam vehemently refutes that claim.  Jo, reduced to whimpering pain, merely embraces Elizabeth without identifying her one way or the other.

Elizabeth and Jo are more than the charming urbanity that we've been wishing for.  And they are more than Jo's mother and her friend (or not). They are allegorical representations of Death, who confront the reality of Jo's imminent death (which neither her husband nor her guests are willing to do) and gently usher her beyond the pain.

Fine performances by all..though I can hardly imagine what it's like to inhabit such distasteful characters eight times a week.

Highly recommend. 

The Winter's Tale (Shakespeare)

A fine, refined production by Yale Rep and directed by Liz Diamond.  Except for the inexplicable decision to have Autolycus sing many of his lines, the production provided the audience with clearly conceived characters whose lines are so well delivered that no notes were necessary to follow the plot.

Highly recommend.

Friends with Children (Jennifer Westfeldt)

Fun romantic comedy that questions the role of sexual attraction in a successful, long-term marriage.   After lots of ups and downs, friendship rules.

Recommend

February House (Gabriel Kahane)

A couple of years ago, I spotted Sherril Tippins, February House, on a library shelf and checked it out on a whim.  Though it sat beside my reading chair for several weeks, maybe months, I never even opened it because more professional reading duties beckoned.  Apparently Gabriel Kahane was able to align the book with his professional duties better than I, for when the Public Theatre commissioned a new work from him, he decided to base the book of his next musical on Tippins' work. 

The narrative arc is the story of George Davis' efforts (both high-minded and low-minded at the same time) to create an inexpensive living community for artists.  The audience watches him lure Carson McCullers, W. H. Auden (and his lover), Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, Erica Mann, and Gypsy Rose Lee into taking up residence at 7 Middagh Street in Brooklyn during 1940-1941, and we watch them leave, one-by-one (sometimes two-by-two), until Davis is left alone in the crumbling Victorian.

The cast and direction of this production at Long Wharf (before it moves to NYC in April) were surprisingly good.  (I'm not a fan of musicals.)  Perhaps that's because this musical could fall under the genre of "chamber musical": no big rousing numbers, only two musicians (generally playing piano and banjo), and plenty of dialogue to keep the storyline moving along.  

Recommend.


The

We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay)

...but, of course, no one ever does.  In fact, no one really even talks to Kevin.  They ask his permission and apologize, but that's just about it.  A maddening film about bad parenting gone bad.  And we're never given reason to understand why Eva, Kevin's mother (Tilda Swinton in an excellent performance), is vilified by her community; instead, we're given every reason to understand why the community might grieve along with her.

Joins Sid and Nancy as one of the great, all-time depressing films.

Caveats.

In Darkness (A Holland)

This Polish film recounts the gripping narrative of a Lvov sewer manager who helps a small group of Jews survive 14 months in the city's sewers. Sympathetic portrayals of the reluctant savior and his Jews. Recommend.

The Yiddish King Lear

A delightful recreation of an art form that has almost disappeared.

Recommend.

Hurt Village (Katori Hall)

I learned a great deal from the play set in a condemned housing project in Memphis, Tennessee.  Though parts of the play didn't work as well as others, I'm glad we saw it.

Recommend.

Macbeth 1969 (adapted from Shakespeare by Eric Ting)

Well, this thoughtful adaptation of Shakespeare's Scottish play uses lines derived solely (I think) from Macbeth, but rearrangements them and distributes them among only six parts to tell an entirely different story.  Despite the obvious difficulties with such a project, I think it could work.  For example, the new version is set in a Vietnam-era VA hospital, and the lines of the Weird Sisters are given to the three nurses who staff the ward (and two of whom are also married to Macbeth and Macduff--or is it Banquo?).  Sometimes it is clear that when the nurses recite the Weird Sisters' lines, they are the hallucinations of the traumatized war hero, Macbeth; other times, it's just the nurses speaking those lines.  Nor is it clear what role Macbeth's PTSD plays vis-a-vis his murder of Duncan: does the PTSD cause him to kill his king, or does he kill his king because of PTSD? 

I think there are ways that the lighting and sound (which are already used to great effect) could answer some of these questions and give the production more coherence.  Because I have faith in Ting's ability to pull all of this together, I'd like to see the next iteration.  I bet it will be provocative.

Recommend.

The Women on the Sixth Floor (Philippe Le Guay)

Predictable but absolutely charming.  No one does a romantic comedy like the French.

Recommend

Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki)

This Finnish film makes a simple but eloquent statement:  when you're down and out, your best source of help are the others who are also down and out...just not as far down or out.  Set in the gritty, yet almost nostalgically impoverished working class neighborhood near Le Havre's dockyards, the movie follows the efforts to help a young Gabon refuge reunite with his mother in London.  With nothing but their wits and their hearts, they simultaneously hide him from the authorities while raising the 3000 francs needed to smuggle him out.  Surprising lack of sentimentality.

Perhaps the best moment, though, is the Roberto Piazza (aka Little Bob) gig.  Why isn't this guy better known?

Highly recommend.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Daldry)

Yes, this is a moving, maybe even sentimental, film, but that doesn't keep it from being a timely story well told. 


Recommend

Shame (Steve McQueen)

Intriguing examination of sexual addition spinning out of control, with only (very suggestive) hints about the underlying cause. 

Fantastic performances by Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan; however, it's the director's willingness to hold the camera still for long cuts that most captivated.

Highly recommend...as long as you remember its NC-17 rating

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird)

What a hoot!

Recommend with caveats

Carnage (Roman Polanski)

When my son was in second grade, he was in a schoolyard fight and came out on top. I was horrified when I learned about it. We were in West Texas, a land of machismo and guns, and I had been fighting my own battle and against violence: T was allowed to carry sticks only when they weren't used as weapons, and toy guns were (initially) banned. My feelings became more complex when I learned more details from the cohort of second grade teachers. By their account, once they disrupted the fight--pulled T off the other kid-- they checked for injuries and then questioned each boy independently. T, a smart but not a standout student, came alive when they asked him about the incident. After first informing them that his parents did not condone fighting, he fired a litany of humiliations and sly bullying that he and others had suffered from the other boy since kindergarten. He then concluded with the simple statement that he couldn't take it any more. Based on his eloquent defense and their own knowledge of each boy's character, the teachers decided punish not T but the other boy.

I don't remember ever discussing the event with the boy's parents, though we did later carpool and socialize. That anecdote, however, became part of the narrative I would tell when someone wanted to know about T. And as much as I told the story to illustrate his rhetorical prowess, I also admired his willingness and ability to stick up for himself.

I relate this story now because it resonates with the themes in Carnage, Polanski's adaptation of Yasmina Reza's play, God of Carnage. In it we are introduced to two pairs of parents dealing with a similar situation and similar reactions. Then, within the confines of a Brooklyn apartment, we watch as each parent admits to and/or rejects each of those reactions and feelings. In the process, we also witness the exposure of the faultlines of their marriages and the fragility of their values. It's a brutal and uncomfortable --even more so than on the stage because the audience is brought so close in.

Great performances by all four actors.
Recommend

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Tomas Alfredson)

Pretty darn good remake of the 70s television mini-series based on the LeCarre novel.  Of course, transforming the tale into a 2-hour feature movie requires much condensing, and I found the first 45-minutes very confusing.  Once, however, all the characters are introduced and the main plot elements laid out, the film was a great thriller.

Great good shots emphasizing the nature of constant watching and being watched.  I especially liked the opening Budapest shot.

Recommend.

The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)

Great movie that revisits the transition from silent films to talkies (and then on to the dance extravaganzas) by focusing on the conventions of each. As the camera switches between the actors and the embedded film's audience, we become aware of what causes us to react and why.  For a silent film, it's not the clever dialogue but the juxtaposition of images or the exaggerated expressions that convey the characters' emotions.  The music also does much of the work, but I found myself resisting the way it tried to manipulate my reactions.  Most importantly, though, the film demonstrates how the interplay between the lack of talking and the intertitles can be ambiguous. For instance, what is it that goes "Bang" in the penultimate scene?

Sound only appears twice in the film: during George Valentin's dream, when he can hear everything but he has no voice, and then briefly at the end, when he and Peppy Miller are dancing for a film (a la Rogers and Astaire) and we hear him speak two or three words. 

Interesting note: this is the second film of the season that looks at the earliest period of film history (see my comments of *Hugo*).  Makes me wonder if the convergence is coincidental or the leading edge of a phase.

Recommend

Hugo (Martin Scorcese)

There are not many films we'd go out of our way (as well as pay extra) to see in 3-D. However, because I'd liked Selznick's graphic novel for children, The Invention of Hugo Cabret and because Martin Scorcese is the director, we decided to make the extra effort.

First, regarding the 3-D. When we're shown George Melies's filming in his pre-WWI studio, the 3-D works to stupendous effect. Apparently he shot through fish aquariums in order to achieve underwater effects, and when the process is filmed, the 3-D is absolutely enchanting, capturing perfectly the dream state that Melies sought. The rest of the time, the 3-D is either superfluous or distracting. It made the characters feel much more cartoonish than the book suggestions (or even the film requires). It provides a false sense of depth--too often the foreground and/or background are blurry, forcing the eye to remain exclusively on the child actors who are lovely to watch but their acting range was rather limited). In fact, when we see a famous scene that causes early film-audience members to leap from their seats--they are trying to avoid a train that's rumbling towards them--the flatness of THAT film (which isn't translated into 3-D) fails to cause a sympathetic reaction in tonight's audience. Considering how perfect the 3-D was for specific segments of the film, I would have loved to have seen Scorcese imitate The Wizard of Oz and film the non-Melies scenes without the 3-D and reserve the 3-D for the Melies studio segments.

Otherwise, this is a lovely homage to Selznick's novel and to Melies.

Recommend.