Watched Philadelphia today starring Tom Hanks. I had never seen it before and was really impressed by it. It's very similar in tone to "angels in America" but I think I actually remembered as i watched how good an actor Tom Hanks actually is. I think due to his recent roles in Angels and Demons and Davinci Code i actually forgot how good he can be, but i was really really impressed by him in this. Powerful movie, and Densil Washington is great too.
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DominicGee
- 2009-07-13 @ 11:50:46
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Davidives
- 2009-07-13 @ 13:28:25
I think you are definitely right about it being an oscar chaser, but surely it doesnt apply when being viewed 16 years after it was made.
I do see all those flaws and your right they did miss the issue a bit and it was a bit hokey, but i always try and judge films by how they make me feel and it did something for me.
Granted, not the best movie ever mae, and Angels in America did a better job but i think for its time it didn't do too bad a job.
I did find the higher up old boss characters to be very stereotypical though. Almost like the fatcats from Trading Places -
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I dunno, I saw this movie for the first time the other day, expected to be blown away. I found it entered into the shmultzy stage way too quickly, before I had started to care about Hank's character. I think it won all those oscars because of it's topic rather than it's fine film-making which I felt was at best slightly above average.
In terms of a courtroom drama (which it is) it works OK, but isn't a patch on A Few Good Men, and at some points felt cliched (final closing speech, sweeping music, unexpected testimony).
And for a film that claims to defend homosexuality, why do we never see Hanks and Banderas kiss?
Final conclusion - an Oscar chaser.