J Edgar

[Lord Jim]

I finally got to see a "grown up" movie yesterday...(the first one I've seen in a movie theater since "Nixon and Frost"...Friday we're going to see "Happy Feet 2"...I enjoy taking the kids to see movies like that, but every now and then it's nice to see a film that was made for adults)

So yesterday I took The Queen Mum to see "J Edgar"...

And I have to say, I was really impressed...

I'm not a big fan of Leonardo DiCaprio; I've always considered him to be a "pretty boy" light weight as an actor (When he was cast to play Howard Hughes, I felt Johnny Depp would have made a much better job of it...Richard Chamberlain was a much better Man In The Iron Mask)

But credit where credit is due; DiCaprio's performance was magnificent; it really is Oscar material...

The movie itself is somewhat over long, but it's worth seeing just for DiCaprio's performance...

I've done a fair bit of reading about Hoover; he was an enormously complex man, and I assumed this film would portray him as an "evil bad guy" cartoon character...

I was wrong.

Kudos to DiCaprio, and Kudos to Clint as well...

[dgs49]

I thought Leonardo did well in Gilbert Grape, as well. It's easy to pass him off as a lightweight because he is pretty, but I think he does good work as an actor. It took balls for him to even accept this role.

[BoSoxGal]

Someday you should rent This Boy's Life and The Basketball Diaries. Both show DiCaprio's early promise.

I look forward to J. Edgar, but will have to wait for it to come to Netflix. The dearth on intelligent films at the local theatre is one lament of a rural lifestyle.

[Long Run]

I didn't think much of Leonardo after the melodramatic Titanic, despite the good job he had done in Gilbert Grape (and he was good in The Quick and the Dead, which wasn't very good). But he turned me into a (semi) fan with Catch Me if You Can and The Departed.

[quaddriver]

I always say I like his movies in which he dies.....

that being said, check out blood diamond.

[loCAtek]

I thought the storyline and subject matter of The Basketball Diaries was provocative, but DiCaprio's performance wasn't strong enough to carry it, and I was disappointed.
He's gotten by for a long time on his looks, (Gilbert Grape doesn't count, as that was 'full retard') ...and I don't think he 'arrived' until he finally stopped being so boyish with, The Aviator.

[rubato]

delete

[Sean]

I have a lot of respect for DiCaprio as an actor, especially as he could so easily have coasted by on his looks*.

It was always going to take one hell of an actor to replace DeNiro as Scorsese's muse and I think that DiCaprio has got the talent to be at the top of his game for many years.

*A cranky old lady who was a scriptwriter on Home & Away once described him to me as looking like "a 12 year old lesbian".