We hear her voice before we see her. As cameras pan across the cold streets of New York City Reese Holdin’s (Zooey Deschanel) voice interrupts the urban blare with a fragile description of “her” apartment. Except, it’s not her apartment. Reese Holdin is an actress. She’s auditioning for a part. We’re fooled for a split second. And yet, when the truth is revealed, something of the illusion remains. Reese, like the part that she hopes to land, is damaged.
Zooey Deschanel gives yet another understated performance that captivates from the get-go. The slow, muted story suits her pokerfaced style. Surpringly, Will Ferrell turns up as the off-centre Corbit. Here, Ferrell isn’t flashing his over-the-top comic wares but instead, gives a gentle performance that audiences see again in Stranger than Fiction. It’s also nice to see the underexposed Amelia Warner on screen. Warner seems to have been on the cusp of stardom for years now but has unfortunately been unable to find a real break-out role.
Though nothing much in the way of action happens, glimpses into Reese’s existence reveal more and more of her character – and it is indeed broken. The pace is slow, but intentionally so. Right from the start, we recognise the crux of the story to be the answering of the question: “what happened to Reese?” But instead of setting us on a path of character self discovery right off the bat, Adam Rapp’s script deliberately lets the question hang in the air. By the time the journey does begin, the story has so mesmerized viewers that it’s not with a sigh of impatience that we watch, but of rapture.
Recent Comments