Frank Logan: You find presents under a tree. I found a girl. Kate Frazier: You must have been a very good boy. "A man with a secret. A woman with a past."Despite its flaws, I really liked The Merry Gentleman because of its uniqueness and because it was one of the oddest emotional movies I have seen in awhile. It was
oddly emotional because the characters don't show too much emotion, but Michael Keaton's direction dictates the emotional feeling of the film. Everything about the movie had a feeling of dreariness.there really was no cheerfulness to be had and I think that's what made the relationship between Kate and Frank all the more emotional.The movie revolves around two people. A sweet young woman Kate, and a killer, Frank. Kate sees Frank on top of a roof after killing someone but doesn't see his face. She is questioned by police about the incident, but she can't really give the anything because he was to far away. Then the two actually meet and begin to become friends. There's no real plot to begin with, but the movie does do some great things with the characters. I love the way Keaton played with the viewer about Kate's past and her black eye. She would always give a different answer, but everyone really knows what it is.I liked Keaton as an actor and as a director with this film, but what really sold me on it was Kelly MacDonald. I loved her performance. She was so subtle with all the large emotions that were going on in her characters life and made the movie all the more effective. The relationship between her character and Keaton's was oddly believable. Now that I really think about the movie, everything was odd. It isn't like a normal crime drama, because it isn't really about the crime.It is easy to see why this movie is hard to like. It is slow, it is bleak the actors show no emotions, and the ending doesn't really feel like an ending. But Keaton didn't set out to make a movie that would be easy to like. He did a great job with a movie that is character driven, with two less than exciting characters. I don't know how he did it, but he did.
October 22, 2011
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