Quote of the Day

Although I think he overestimates what he calls The Ruins' "expert pacing" (pacing is my biggest issue with the film, and kept me from truly loving it), Rich at FourFour's (spoiler-filled) defense of the film does contain a ton of terrific points, most importantly the following:

"One of the biggest points of criticism The Ruins has faced is that its characters are one-dimensional and frivolous, this impossible to care about. This brings up one of my biggest pet peeves of movie reviews: the assumption that one most emotionally wrap himself around a film to appreciate it. So not true! But more than that, of course what happens to these characters is so much bigger than they are. They're consumed by a tangle of vines on ancient Mayan ruins. I'm not sure that any character would be a match for that, and it seems foolish to go looking for Anna Karenina in plant food, anyway, you know?"

So very much word to that. I think that one of the film's greatest strengths (and the book's, although we do get to know them better there) is the way it offsets the enormity of the situation with the banality of the character's early-on concerns. These are regular folks. Kids having fun. Kind of annoying kids at that.

No more so than in the performance I have raved hither and thither over, Jena Malone's performance as Amy, which I just think is straight-up genius. Malone's an actress I always see so much going on in - an intelligence and weariness beyond her age - and all of that is just gone with Amy. She makes Amy an infantile mess from the out-set, petty and childish and erratic, and having my preconception of Malone going in only makes the performance even more astonishing. She's so different, and so heartbreaking, here.
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