politicon2003 — 14 years ago(March 03, 2012 11:08 AM)

Apparently Payne could not make up his mind whether he would make, a comedy, melodrama or a tragedy. The comic aspects of the film on their own were good (particularly the elder daughters blunt boyfriend) so why did he not stick with that and forget the corpse? One would only have to alter the plot line by placing the wifes death some time before the film begins, preferably of natural causes. The "corpse actress performed a bit of terrific method acting- as in get the part, think dead or vegetable. You are going to be the corpse, so here is a blank page with all your lines. The actress should have won an Oscar for her efforts to keep her eyelids from flickering during overlong and painful intensive care scenes. The worst when George Clooney, as the husband, berates his brain-dead spouse. Under very difficult circumstances the acting of all was brilliant, particularly that of the teenagers. Why go all the way to Hawaii? They shot most of the outdoor scene during the monsoon. It portrayed the locals as heartless adroit oafs, and gave the impression that most island inhabitants dwell in picturesque slums and dress like beach bums in keeping with their bad manners. That the director could create a charming work like as Paris Je taime and bad-feel works such as this and About Schmidt is unbelievable. Is Payne schizoid? Except that Oscars often come up with rubbish and ignore really good stuff, it is hard to see why this was submitted. I would have awarded the actors Platinum Globe for valiant losing effort to make the thing work and for the most convincing corpse since Weekend With Bernie or Harry in The Trouble With Harry.