Unquestionably seems to be DiCaprio's weakest film by FAR
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Latinfilms — 18 years ago(June 06, 2007 11:42 AM)
I felt that Leo was too young to handle the Rimbaud role. To a certain extent Leo pulled it off. I also felt that if Total Eclipse is a french production, the dialogue should be in french. The movie didn't feel french.
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naleyever23-1 — 18 years ago(November 03, 2007 10:59 PM)
if leo was gay and didnt want anyone to know i dont think he would be in a film where he had to kiss a man.and if you hate leo (which i cannot understand because he a great actor and a great person) then why did you see the film cause there's not much chance that you'll like him in it.
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eYeDEF — 18 years ago(November 28, 2007 12:50 PM)
Huh, you're accusing me of being a liar when I said I'm hardly a DiCaprio hater?
Hardly, this is really the only movie where I really dislike his portrayal. I even liked The Beach, which most people could not stand. Nor do I believe your premise that DiCaprio himself is gay. I would have to agree with naleyever that if he were truly gay he would need protect his true sexual preference to the world to maintain his marketability in leading male roles and would not have dared to play this role. He's not Tom Cruise.
And upon further reflection, I'm more inclined to agree with LikeaRose2k that he's actually been a decent actor all along, but this film made him look inconsistent. My original thought that he has gotten better with age I think was largely influenced by my being very impressed with his performance in Blood Diamonds, and the very large stretch he made in playing Howard Hughes in the Aviator. I did like the job he did in The Basketball Diaries though, but I didn't consider it THAT much of a stretch for him to play a junkie with Mark Wahlberg, as he was going through his rebellious phase at the time.
"But, but, but, CLINTON!!!"
~Any reich-winger when confronted with their miserable failures -
greenegg — 16 years ago(January 26, 2010 01:37 PM)
I run for the hills when I learn DiCaprio is in something. Aside from Gilbert Grape, I find him supremely irritating. If I want to see a troll, I'll pull out one of little dolls from the 60s. That said, I turned off this terrible film because I can't stand films about people in other countries that were "Americanized." I'm one of those Americans who flocks to films in all languages. Many of my favorite films are foreign, with subtitles. I detest dubbed films. Creating less sophisticated films without any thought for authenticity is a nauseatingly American, read Hollywood, trait I can live without. I boycott nearly everything made in Hollywood. If some Americans are too lazy or vapid to follow a foreign film, then they don't deserve to see the story that film will tell. The more we keep dumbing everything down, the more our culture sinks into the morass of mediocrity. Hearing all those accents in Total Eclipse, along with the poor script, rendered this film unwatchable. While there are those rare performers (Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon) who can pull off foreign roles, DiCaprio is not one of them. He always seems to be playing himself, though the blame for these casting debacles lies with the producers and directors. Why can't they try to make the best film, rather than cater to the lowest common denominator?
Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops! -
Dragoneyed363 — 15 years ago(April 26, 2010 08:28 PM)
Really? I thought he was very likable and I enjoyed his performance in this movie. I think his weakest film is definitely the
1996
Romeo + Juliet
; He gave a better performance in
Critters 3
than that.
"There's no business like grow business"
-Weeds -
Calmerkindastorm — 15 years ago(April 28, 2010 11:30 AM)
after recently dscovering Rimbauds work, and reading several biographies I did wonder which actor would be best to play him, I settled on the young DiCaprio, only to discover later he actually played him early in his career.
While the film seems to fail to capture the intensity, drive, and brilliance of Rimbaud, though it might be fair how any film might, I think DiCaprio managed to capture a lot of what drew and still draws people to Rimbaud.
Maybe like Johnny Depp's The Libertine the film as a whole suffers from assuming those watching it already know the historical figure intensely well, that is more a potential flaw of the film, than DiCaprio's acting.
I enjoyed seeing this film, and would say although far from perfect, it is also very far from his weakest performance, in fact I am sure it will grow on me the more I see it.
life is not a succession of urgent "nows". It's a listless trickle of "why should I's". -
reel-star — 15 years ago(November 25, 2010 09:18 AM)
Rimbaud had a very complex personality, and a 2-hour film wouldn't be enough to go deep enough in the character's mind. But watching the film last night, I thought DiCaprio's performance was quite powerful and compelling. It's one of his best from his early career, and I think it's a good preview of what was coming. I can't see anyone else playing Rimbaud as good as Leo did. River Phoenix was the first choice, but I can't be sure he would have pulled it off like DC did. And I didn't even like studying Rimbaud at school.
"I just want to be inspired."
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snoho — 13 years ago(February 05, 2013 09:18 PM)
Personally I think the reason why DiCaprio was so good in this film was because he made it his own. I barely even noticed the accent. What the hell does that have to do with fine acting? They even had one of his family members with the same accent.
Personally I would probably have found this to be a rather bland film if it were to cast your usual run-of-the-mill TV movie "star". Instead of going for nationality they went for the emotions they wanted to show.