#daily-mcgregor

[fairweathermyth]

favorite actors 2/? | Ewan McGregor

Women are always expected to be naked. I like to try and be naked in films, and have the woman not be naked. It’s a feminist thing that I do.

[magess]

Ewan McGregor Retrospective: Cassandra’s Dream (2008)

I find that I don’t have much to say about this film. The most remarkable things actually have nothing to do with Ewan.

It’s a quiet dramatic thriller set in London. Apparently if you’re familiar with Woody Allen’s previous movies, this one will hearken back to those. I’m not. What I can say is that it felt old. It was made the same year as Deception but seems like a film from an older era. Part of that is the pacing, and part is the music.

Ian (Ewan) and Terry (Colin Farrell) are working class brothers trying to raise themselves up in the world. And one of the things the movie spends a lot of time on is their characterizations. Ian seems like a nice guy on the surface, but there are sequences sprinkled throughout which show that he’s also a jackass. Like, for instance, talking about his new girlfriend, classier and more amazing and better than any woman he’s ever been with, in front of his previous girlfriend, largely because he doesn't even know she’s there.

All the character moments slow the pace, something that I think gets sacrificed much more often now, but also makes me as a viewer used to a snappier narrative.

The music was just overwrought in a way that made me think of the 80s. It may even have been synthesized. It definitely made me laugh at a few points, which I am sure was not the goal.

Ewan’s acting is solid as the more together, more ambitious brother. But it’s really Colin Farrell who shines. He’s playing completely against type as the anxious, depressed, easily spooked, “thoughtful” one. His anxiety and inability to just pick up and get on with life after the horrible thing they’ve done is a major driver in the plot.

Notable for being unexpected: Hayley Atwell as a high maintenance sexpot actress. She’s suitably shallow and perfectly down with using sex to get what she wants. Not too different from the brothers in the pursuit of getting ahead. But if you’re used to her as Peggy Carter... It’s a bit of a surprise.

I call the movie a thriller because the advertising does. I’m not sure it was that thrilling. Suspenseful, sure. Shocking, not really. A movie about the banality of evil seems likely to come off as banal itself. There’s no big emotional takeaway.

It was well acted, well crafted, but I’m not sure there’s any reason to suggest people actually see it.

[magess]

Ewan McGregor Restrospective: Deception (2008)

There are two salient things worth discussing about this movie: the deleted scenes and Ewan’s acting. 

The setup is this: Jonathan is a shy, socially awkward accountant with no real connections to anyone, no social life, nothing but rules and a deep love of numbers. He’s a man who calls a sex line and ends up giving financial advice. He meets Wyatt (Hugh Jackman) who is, well, Hugh Jackman. He’s rich, charming, experienced, vital and virile and everything a man like Jonathan wants to be. And through this, Jonathan gets involved in an anonymous sex club. Intrigue ensues.

(There must be a clause in Ewan’s contracts that says he gets to take his clothes off in every movie.)

The movie is pretty solid right up until the end, and this is where the deleted scenes come in. There are three, two of which should have made the final cut. In one, Jonathan has an encounter with some hustlers who offer him whatever he wants, girls, drugs, fake passports. He runs away from them, but the scene provides an important piece of information that leaves you scratching your head later when it’s left out.

Jonathan is a resourceful guy, but he’s not a criminal mastermind. Faking passports isn’t something he could just do on his own. So without that encounter, his later gotcha moment is puzzling.

The second deleted scene is actually an alternate ending, the director’s preferred ending. The theatrical release was reshot to have a very Hollywood end. The bad guy gets his just desserts, the hero gets the girl. All well and good, except that it doesn’t make sense. There’s no way for Jonathan to have found the girl. The pieces don’t line up right.

The original ending is less about the cosmic karma of the thing and more about Jonathan himself. And this is where Ewan’s acting is worth talking about.

When we first meet Jonathan, he is painfully awkward. Everything about him is pitch perfect to make you wince in embarrassment. He walks and holds himself like he’s trying to disappear from the world. When he speaks, it’s cautious and unsure, as though his voice doesn't deserve the space is takes up. There’s a desperation about him that’s pathetic.

That whole effect, awkward as it is, is something Ewan is actively crafting. And the short, final scene of Jonathan at the end makes this even more apparent, because in the director’s version, the focus is on how he’s changed. The scene has no dialogue, and yet there’s no question that something’s opened in him, a new confidence and way of being in the world.

The deleted ending says that a happy ending is finding yourself, and having seen the two versions, I think it would have been the better one to go with.