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Post by queenzod on Jun 3, 2018 2:07:23 GMT
Things I actually yelled at the tv while watching MM:
No! Don’t do that! Stop being a dick! God, he’s so brilliant! Oh, Christ!
Another amazing, riveting episode. It was so tense. He really needs to dump that toxic family of his. Horrible people, and my heart is breaking because he just can’t let his past go. His son, Robert, was played wonderfully. So much like young Patrick, the sensitivity, the watchfulness, the sadness.
So. Damn. Good.
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Post by mllemass on Jun 3, 2018 2:51:22 GMT
Me too! And not only that, but I yelled those things when I read the book, too. They did a fabulous job of bringing it to life onscreen. It's very upsetting for me to see Patrick that way - making bad decisions and messing up his life.
I loved the scene in the pool, when he goes underwater and screams. It sums up his life perfectly! I also love that they made him look more and more like his father, but he's not anything like him otherwise.
This was the book that upset me the most when I read it because the story was almost over, and it looked like things were not going to turn out well for Patrick after all. I know how it all ends, but I'm still nervous about the next episode!
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Post by queenzod on Jun 3, 2018 4:44:51 GMT
His eyes in this episode were incredible! Just the color /changing and intensity alone was enough to make me shiver. I think BC has actually reached transcendence. This is certainly his best work, to date. Amazing. 😍😍😍
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Post by sgev1977 on Jun 3, 2018 14:37:22 GMT
I just watched it and as with the books, I think this is my favorite episode. It’s extremely painful to watch! IMO much more that the second one. I can see the influence of The Ice Storm but not in the visual stuff (the beautiful place reminds more Guadagnino’s style) but in the tense mood and that feeling of imminent tragedy lurking everywhere.
And it’s crazy but BC is even better here than in the other three episodes. He really is sublime here suggesting layers and layers of different feelings at the same time. Contrary to the first episode in which he barely cared to hide his auto-destructive impulse here he tries and tries to protect his kids from him but he just can’t and he knows it. The frames comparing both men (Patrick and David) are much more obvious here with BC even looking a lot as Hugo Weaving in a very creepy shot. It’s about the horror of becoming the evil monster and being conscious about it.
The book is much bigger than the others and they sacrificed the happy moments at beginning of it. We don’t see how wonderful this family was before Patrick’s relapse but I am glad they included the bit about the ticks with the Lyme disease in the beautiful woods of New England. It’s a wonderful metaphor of the pain and damage hidden behind all that luxury and money. Maybe it’s beautiful to look but it’s so corrupted. Of course the metaphor is more explicit on page with Nancy telling a cautionary story of a local sick boy poisoned with the disease for playing out there. All this in front of a poisoned Patrick. That part is really important IMHO and it seems David Nicholls agreed.
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Post by roverpup on Jun 3, 2018 22:02:19 GMT
“The glory of Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance is that he can pitch Patrick in each register: he is both seething, writhing victim and cruel, clownish destroyer.”
This is his performance in this episode in a nutshell. I was totally blown away with this episode!! When I read MM at first I was thrown for a loop with the POV at the beginning, but grew to embrace what St. Aubyn was doing with his prose. In the end I fully appreciated the deep care he had taken to establish exactly the groundwork for this leg of Patrick’s journey. But I was anxious as to just how EB was going to get the essence of this book across on the screen. I didn’t know what to expect... but any fears I had were immediately set aside after seeing the opening scene! Everything was pitch perfect for me - I knew instinctively the ideas that were being telegraphed by the director and he managed to capture every nuance of St. Aubyn’s sharp writing. And BC’s performance! Wow! So subtle and layered. Even though I was so familiar with the plot Ben’s interpretation and delivery was mesmerizing and magnetic I just couldn’t help but feel I was experiencing Patrick at this stage of his life for the very first time!!
My heart cracked in two at the scene of him on the phone trying to phone Julia in a desperate attempt for a life ring before plunging over the edge of emotional stability. His eyes and whole body language was one of pleading despair - it was achingly sad and yet there was the hint of the dangerously manic at the same time. That scene was perhaps my favourite of the entire series (so far). but I say “so far” because just when I think I have seen the very best that this team can produce - they manage to outdo themselves EVERY TIME!!
Just a stunning penultimate episode!
:-))
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Post by sgev1977 on Jun 5, 2018 1:45:09 GMT
There is a great bit at the beginning of the new episode when BC and Jason Leigh are together on screen for the first time, she said she is very unhappy with her illness but then she adds “But I’m brave”. Both the way she says it (very pitiful and pathetic) and BC ‘s reaction (he looks sad and almost ashamed) are so precious. Brave is the last thing that woman is! It’s very short and subtle but great.
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Post by roverpup on Jun 5, 2018 11:57:18 GMT
There is a great bit at the beginning of the new episode when BC and Jason Leigh are together on screen for the first time, she said she is very unhappy with her illness but then she adds “But I’m brave”. Both the way she says it (very pitiful and pathetic) and BC ‘s reaction (he looks sad and almost ashamed) are so precious. Brave is the last thing that woman is! It’s very short and subtle but great. That was an amazing scene. I also liked how they ended the episode - with Eleanor looking up with that very fleeting beginning of a smile on her lips. She was so pitiful but also there was an element of creepiness about it to me. Like she almost intuitively knew about all the misery she was causing with Patrick... and then with the sudden onslaught of the jarring music with the credits on the screen, it just made me feel like shuddering and think... you just wait at what's to come! This whole episode - what masterful manipulation of the music, lighting and the camera! Some of the shots of Robert Melrose standing at the door of Eleanor's room placed to the left of the screen, perfectly drawing upon the memory of that visual image of Patrick standing at the door of the bathroom, before going out to be with his father and BC'S voiceover saying "I want to die.". And BC'S reaction to Eleanor's further betrayal of him even in her feeble old age. The bitterness, the self-loathing at his bitterness - all jumbling up and tumbling out of him. He is in full rage and panic mode. So beautifully done. But I could go on and on because every scene is a gem of perfection to me. :-))
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Post by sgev1977 on Jun 5, 2018 13:18:40 GMT
I don't think she understands she is hurting him. Actually the juxtaposition of young Patrick telling young Eleanor he wants to go (from the house/his father) with the scene in which she practically throw a tantrum when he was trying to tell her they could go broke because the medical bills if she just gives away the house and presumably her money, totally supports Jennifer Jason Leigh theory that she thinks she is actually helping him. That she is finally rescuing him and fulfilling his desire of escape from that place. It's just that it's too late and very dumb, she is just tormenting him.
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Post by roverpup on Jun 5, 2018 15:18:28 GMT
I don't think she understands she is hurting him. Actually the juxtaposition of young Patrick telling young Eleanor he wants to go (from the house/his father) with the scene in which she practically throw a tantrum when he was trying to tell her they could go broke because the medical bills if she just gives away the house and presumably her money, totally supports Jennifer Jason Leigh theory that she thinks she is actually helping him. That she is finally rescuing him and fulfilling his desire of escape from that place. It's just that it's too late and very dumb, she is just tormenting him. Excellent post! Spot on! :-))
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Post by queenzod on Jun 10, 2018 2:09:52 GMT
I am frigging gobsmacked. That was...stupendous. More thoughts later, when I can speak again.
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