Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

schines_22 This is apparently a twist on the 1958 original in which instead of a young, sexy nurse, it is a middle aged lesbian who falls for the French plantation owner on a south pacific island during WWII. I started watching this because I liked the original, but honestly, I couldn't finish this travesty. Harry Connick Jr is the only cast member who is remotely watchable. It seems to be universally acknowledged by everyone except Glenn Close that Glenn Close is decades too old for the role of Nellie. Songs have been deleted or changed. I'll never know why people try to remake classic movies with major changes just for the sake of change. No reason to watch this unless you need a laugh. Please don't judge the original by this farce!

Scott Amundsen Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical drama masterpiece was given a rather bloated and unsatisfying film treatment in 1958, a badly shot film with a poor sense of pace; a cast that can best be described as uneven, and some wacky and inexplicable choices such as dubbing Juanita Hall's Bloody Mary when she was perfectly capable of singing her own songs, having created the role on Broadway. The two male leads could not do their own singing either, and Hollywood's practice of dubbing vocals has always irritated me.So in 2001, director Richard Pierce set out to do a remake. For television, of all things. And all things considered, with just two rather egregious missteps, the proceedings were much better this time around and I found this remake far more satisfying than the 1958 film despite its flaws.They start with a real winner: Glenn Close as Nellie Forbush. It is clear they were thinking more of Mary Martin here than of Mitzi Gaynor; Nellie is not yet middle-aged, but she is not a young girl, either. And Close's voice is more than equal to the task; she even manages to infuse it with the same "gee whiz" quality that Mary Martin did so well.Her Emile is Rade Sherbedgia; his baritone is lighter than previous Emiles, so his renditions of songs like "Some Enchanted Evening" and "This Nearly Was Mine" are persuasive rather than bravura. But his voice is lovely, and his chemistry with Close far better than that between Mitzi Gaynor and Rossano Brazzi in the first film.Also on hand are Lori Tan Chin as Bloody Mary and the late Robert Pastorelli as the comic-relief Luther Billis. I found Chan's speaking voice a bit unnerving at first: she speaks in a sharp, high-pitched whine that I found hard to believe was her natural speaking voice. But her singing is another story.Here comes the first egregious mistake: Bloody Mary's sweet little number "Happy Talk" was cut because the producers felt it was too "politically incorrect (?!?!?!?)." Yeah I know; don't ask me either. But thank heaven, they did NOT cut her signature tune, "Bali Ha'i;" her singing voice is lovely and she truly makes the song her own.Billis, of course, is the one character who does not need a great singing voice; in fact it is better if he doesn't have one, and Pastorelli certainly has the necessary comic chops to make his Billis a proud successor to that of Ray Walston.Now I come to the bit of casting that, if the rest of the picture were not so wonderfully done, would have sunk the proceedings completely: Harry Connick, Jr as Lieutenant Joe Cable. He looks way too old for the part, for starters; Connick was thirty-four when he made this but looks ten years older. And his voice is totally wrong for the part. It is a swell voice for a lot of things, but not for a Broadway musical. Cable is supposed to be a tenor; Connick, a baritone, could not possibly reach the notes in the original score so his songs were all transposed down a third. "You've Got to Be Taught" does not suffer too much from the transition; it is sung with a soft intensity that any vocal range can accommodate. But Cable's signature tune, "Younger than Springtime," is a disaster. For starters, having a man who looks like he is tottering on the edge of middle age sing a song called "Younger than Springtime" creates an irony that was not intended by the authors, and the climactic final notes of the song simply fail to land when the highest note is an E as opposed to the high G of the original. And Connick being a crooner, even if he had been able to sing the higher register, is not and never has been a belter. Power was what was needed here, and the song simply fails to land. It would have been better had they simply cut it.But all in all, there is more right than wrong with this mostly remarkable production, and the fact that it was done for TV and done successfully is all the more remarkable. At the end of the day, the evening really belongs to Glenn Close and Rade Sherbedgia, and they acquit themselves so beautifully that even with the flaws I have mentioned this is a joy to watch.

edwagreen Rodgers and Hammerstein's great music is the salvation of this 2001 movie.For starters, Glenn Close was too old to play Nellie. Her singing voice can't be compared to Mitzi Gaynor.Emile De Becque as played by the Rade person had no singing range at all. He was like dumbfounded in the part.Some good acting is displayed by Lori Tam Chinn in the role of Bloody Mary. Her speech pattern works and is similar to that of Juanita Moore. Her singing of Bali Hai was inspirational to say the least.John Kerr fared much better in the original movie. There was a certain depth to his performance which is missing in Harry Connick Jr.'s interpretation of the role of Cable. Yet, the music and scenery transcends all. The original show and movie were definite achievements for facing racial prejudice. How original to depict prejudice via the musical route.

BadWebDiver I think this version of the classic stage musical works very well. It manages to capture the drama and a lot of the comedy of the original stage play, as well as fleshing out the locations and presenting the character drama very well.I especially like the way that the musical numbers are presented "dramatically"; not just glorified pop songs that are tacked on to the storyline as in a lot of contemporary musical films (like EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU and even MOULIN ROUGE). It helps that the songs are purposely written for the story. The lyrics are delivered like dialogue that has been set to music, and I can tell the actors have been told to play their characters even through the song numbers.It's the main reason I think Glenn Close actually works as the lead female role here - even if she may be technically a bit old for the young love-lorn romantic; she certainly has the personality, and presents her role with enthusiasm; which goes along way in musical presentations.And Robert Pastorelli as the mischievous Luther is also very well-cast and has the right "feel" for the role; even if he isn't the sort you would normally associate with a classic musical role.As as an Aussie I have to congratulate Jack Thompson for playing the role of the Commander, who I think is one of the most underrated non-singing comic support roles in a musical. He puts a lot of personality in the role, and his balance or enthusiasm and dramatic gravitas was very well presented.Harry Connick Jnr is still one of my favourite modern singers, and he handled the military aspects and the romantic ballads very professionally. His personality seems somewhat subdued in this production; though I personally attribute that to the rather bland character that I think Cable is. I haven't seen any performance of this character I would regard as memorable.Overall a very high standard production that plays the story very well - and really kicks the stuffing out of the earlier film version, quite frankly.