A number of different curiosities of mine were addressed by seeing this movie. (1) After surprising everyone with how good she was in The Handmaid's Tale, I want to go back and see if Alexis Bledel's talent was hiding in plain sight all this time. She's been unfortunately miscast for most of her career. She was asked to be a little Lauren Graham for a long time, which isn't her strength. I'm curious if The Handmaid's Tale should've been a revelation, or has she just been better in small movies before The Handmaid's Tale that no one saw? (2) I've seen an awful lot of Saoirse Ronan's movies and she doesn't have that many credits. I might as well watch them all in case she really does become this generation's Meryl Streep. (3) James Gandolfini's film work intrigues me. After being the lead of a pivotal show in television history, he relaxed into being a super-supporting actor. He's one of those guys like Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Michael Pena who are always the best part of whatever movie they are in, even if they aren't the lead. Given that list, I wish nothing but the best of health for Michael Pena. I hope he sticks around for several decades.
I [somehow] didn't see the Tarantino connections when I watched this movie, but I can't stop seeing them now. This movie really is a Tarantino knock-off. But a decent one. The mix of hyper-violence and eloquent dialogue is something Taranino popularized in the early 90's, so it's a little ill-fitting in a 2011 movie (by then, even Tarantino had moved on to doing it in period pieces or genre pastiches instead). There's something knowingly off about this movie. It tries to mix childhood wonder and humor with that hyper-violence. Something like the internal bleeding dance or Violet's story of how she got more bullets ending with her slipping on a banana peel are innocent while also being disturbing. Most of it doesn't work, and I can pick holes in the story too easily (there's no way Daisy could've survived that long while using blanks) for me to say I liked it. Gandolfini acts circles around the girls and does a lot of the work selling the movie. I like Ronan's ill-fitting performance. Bledel could've added some more depth to her character, but I think this was a better use of her skills than, say, Tuck Everlasting. She works better the less she's asked to let her face betray her emotions. I'm never sure what's going to break her.
Oh, and Tatiana Maslany shows up late. That's notable because I love Tatiana Maslany and it's from before I knew who she was. It also underlines how weird this movie is with ages. Let's say this movie was filmed in 2010. That makes Ronan 16, playing someone who just turned 18 (it's rare to see someone that young playing older). Maslany would be 25 playing someone the same age as Ronan or possibly younger. Then there's 29 year old Bledel probably playing someone barely 20, but certainly looking only slightly older than Ronan. I shouldn't think too hard about this.
Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend
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