What I Like About You, Rebecca Pidgeon

11/20/2010

This is the first installment in what will be an occasional series called "What I Like About You."  The point of What I Like About You is to examine something that I do not like and find that one good thing about it.

Today I went and saw the movie RED with my dad.  I'd heard mixed reviews, but we both really enjoyed it!  Imagine a Bourne movie with a lot more humor and more sympathetic adversaries.  Great action sequences, good character interplay, clever script, and injected right into the middle of it all... Rebecca Pidgeon.

Rebecca Goddamn Pidgeon.  Rebecca who delivers every line in the same clipped, precise manner regardless of whether she's playing a romantic interest or a CIA boss Pidgeon.

But then I realized what I like about movies with Rebecca Pidgeon in them.  As soon as she shows up onscreen, you know that what you are watching at that moment will be the worst part of the movie, and that every other scene will be better.  Thank you, Rebecca Pidgeon!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm glad I read your description of what this feature was about because at first I was rather stunned to see a favorable combination of words together in a sentence with "Rebecca Pidgeon".

As soon as I finished reading I checked IMDB to try and figure out what David Mammet's involvement was in Red since that's the only explanation for RP appearing in a film. And stunningly, I couldn't find his name anywhere. Not as a writer, producer, nothing. It's truly shocking to think that she may have been cast in a major motion picture without the benefit of nepotism. What is the world coming to!?!?!?

K

Danny said...

That's what they call pulling you in with the headline, my friend. If dudes like me were working for the newspapers, the industry would still be thriving.

I didn't even think to check IMDB for that connection, so I'm glad you did that homework. Maybe somebody lost a bet, or was angling to work on Mamet's next film?

Will Meekin said...

To both your and "Anonymous'" point, she's been reading Mamet's words for most (all?) of her career and during that time she's been Mamet-trained, at home, if not on the set, and Mamet-directed, on those occasions he's behind the camera. She's made for theater. And, heresy to follow, HE's made for the theater with the infrequent exception.

At least he's not still married to the carved-from-wood AND tough-to-look-at Lindsay Crouse (House of Games).

Wm.

Danny said...

I agree with what you said, except that I think my argument still holds even in Mamet's work. The worst, most cringe-worthy parts of "The Spanish Prisoner" were the ones when she was onscreen.

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