I want more.

[impy]

After my CM failure (and mini success), I decided to watch Liz & Dick.

Yes. This is going to be one of those posts. I'd apologize but, um... no.

So, disclaimers up front.

I happen to like Lindsay Lohan. I do wish she'd find someone who isn't at all Hollywood (so, normal, I guess?) and stop speaking at all to either of her parents. Or, at the very least, ask herself, "What would they do?" and then promptly do the opposite. I've liked her since she won me over on the totally unnecessary remake of The Parent Trap and she cemented my love by having that ridiculous feud with the Duff. Mean Girls was just the icing on the cake, really.

The Elizabeth Taylor I'm most familiar with is the Elizabeth of the 80's sooooooo my view is completely skewed on the subject matter at hand.


That said, let's begin.

This movie should never have been made.


... No, wait. I've got more. The movie, as it was presented, should have never made it off the ground. I can only hope that there was something more to it at the start and that for whatever reason this is just a fanciful edit of questionable merit.


I wanted to like it. I truly did. But the way it was marketed was so different from what was actually delivered that one should be able to sue for false advertising. This is not the Liz & Dick story. This is the Dick chronicles with appearances by Lohan trying to channel Liz in brief snippets, frequently stalking off in a huff or throwing things with marginal success at walls and floors.

I'm not sure if it's the fact that LL couldn't manage to pull off a proper Liz impression and so the film changed directions as it was filmed or edited, or if this was always the set up, but it's decidedly not how I think of Elizabeth Taylor. I sincerely doubt she was so overshadowed in her own life.


L&D also relies entirely too heavily on the trick of being less a story and more of a collection of scenes that one suspects are meant to be Pivotal but without the proper story, are merely scenes. If there's no build up from one scene to the next there's also no payoff. The characters and actors are never really given time to breathe any life into any given scene because poof! Two minutes later, we've jumped to another scene. One cannot really have a movie made of montages and expect good things to happen. It's just not all that likely.

The set-up with L&D giving afterlife interviews was weird and is likely to either be the moment you realize Nope! or one of the highlights of the movie for you, if you're masochistic enough to watch. I happened to like it, though it's best not to think too much about the whys of it all.

LL did manage to occasionally capture Liz and it would happen with just enough frequency that you'd watch a little more to see it happen again. But then you wound up annoyed because she didn't pull it off enough or the movie didn't trust her to do or... something.

Ultimately it's something that should have listened to a line in its own script: More. The movie needed more. More time in every sense of the word, I suppose.

Comments

[luxken27]

You are a better person than I for sitting through this. I liked Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls - still do, actually - but she has become such a trainwreck, and seems just as delusional as her parents, really.

She must be getting eviscerated for her performance in this flick, because quite a few celebs on Twitter were offering her consolation and getting #StopBullyingLindsay trending. I don't even want to know, really...

[snarky-imp.livejournal.com]

Thing is, she's bad in it but she's not in it enough for all the hate to be rightfully thrown her way. In any given scene, outside of the interview clips where she's actually surprisingly good (considering I'd heard about them beforehand and was thinking "okay, wtf?") she's just... there. It's weird since I was expecting more Liz than Dick. :P

Sadly, it never came back around to hit "so bad it's good" territory, so I can't recommend it for anything other than Ifor love.

[irishgypsie.livejournal.com]

I like Lindsay too (I think my favorite LL movie is her remake of Freaky Friday, partly because she and Jamie Lee Curtis are both really good, and partly because the mom's boyfriend reminds me strongly of my wonderful stepfather who died WAY too young ten years ago). Anyway, I have not been tempted to see this movie because as a principle I don't watch made for TV movies because they're all awful. The only exception I have to this rule is the 1980s "Babes in Toyland" starring Drew Barrymore, Keanu Reeves, Pat Morita, and Eileen Brennan because while it is terrible (cheesy to the max) I grew up watching it every year and it's just so bad that it's actually good. :D

Now that you've reviewed it I definitely won't bother to watch it. It's a shame really. I think LL is actually a really good actress, but because she's such a hot mess no respectable directors/producers want to take a chance on her now. I think Mean Girls may end up being the biggest thing she's known for acting wise...she'll be remembered for her personal drama more than her acting abilities, and that's just sad.

[snarky-imp.livejournal.com]

FF was the first thing I saw her in, actually. Until that I was still very much in the camp of "did we need a Parent Trap remake? No. No we did not." and then a friend suggested FF and it was really good so I figured I'd give her other stuff a chance.

*hug* I'm sorry you lost your stepfather so early.


TV movies and I have an understanding. I watch some of them, I have relatively low expectations (lowered or raised accordingly depending on the star and the channel) and sometimes you walk away with a winner. (ABC Family's Christmas Cupid, for example, is adorable.) Usually you just walk away feeling bad for everyone involved. :p

But yeah. I can't say I recommend this one. At all. I sort of want to know if it started out this bad or if it's a result of LL's antics or what. Each time she tries to pull a comeback, I want her to succeed, but given the interviews I did manage to catch, the girl is still so far out in orbit that anything she does until she comes back to earth is just going to be more of the same. Even then, I think she's burned so many bridges that unless she's really lucky, you're right and Mean Girls will be her big credit. Still, I hold out hope.

I am going to have to hunt down Babes in Toyland because I vaguely remember seeing it and the 80'sness of Drew and company just screams for another viewing that I might actually remember.

[irishgypsie.livejournal.com]

Actually I realized after making that blanket statement about no TV movies that there are two others I've made the exception for. Interestingly, both are Christmas movies, so perhaps that's my weakness (I do love Christmas movies.) The first was an ABC family one called "Borrowed Hearts" with Roma Downey and Eric McCormack (of Will and Grace fame). It's ADORABLE. The other is "Smoky Mountain Christmas" starring one Dolly Parton that honestly is probably just as bad as "Babes in Toyland" but I love it all the same.

I keep wishing Drew Barrymore would take LL under her wing. If anyone knows how to make a comeback from a troubled youth it's Drew. It's why I love her so much. I have so much admiration and respect for her slogging through all the shit and coming out clean on the other side. Anyway, I just think she could really help LL.

[snarky-imp.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. Lord. I loved Smoky Mountain Christmas! (I may or may not love Dolly Parton massively.) I can still see my parents try and hold back the roll of their eyes every time it would come on. ;) Borrowed Hearts sounds like it's worth a shot. Maybe Christmas movies just have that extra bit of sparkle to distract from the tv movieness of it all?

And I was just trying to think of how many child stars who did screw up big time did get second chances, and while there are a few, I think Drew's the biggest name I could think of and I bet that if she were so inclined and LL actually listened, she could help. I'd imagine that ship will never sail, what with Drew being a new mama and LL probably not being someone you'd want around a kid but still. I can dream.