Soap Opera Opera

A day has passed and I am now ready to post my impressions of "Man on the Moon."

Let's get my one criticism out of the way first: Forced.

What do I mean by forced? OK - There's a scene where Buzz's wife is talking/singing to a friend about the troubles in her marriage. It's the same scene where I first noticed that no one was inhaling their cigarettes. It just seemed forced for them to be singing the lines.

The mission control scene- Go/No go. C'mon. It was supposed to be serious but it seemed comical to have these guys singing this.

These scenes that seemed forced to me compromised my suspension of disbelief - they just didn't seem natural, they didn't seem to fit in.

OK, on to the good stuff:

Nathan Gunn- Excellent! Great acting, awesome screen presence. Very convincing. Evoked emotional responses as you shall see if you choose to continue reading. The scene in the church - the telephone call- explaining what it was like on the moon- all captivating. I don't know anything about Buzz Aldrin to know how accurate a portrayal this story is of his life. He came across as a bit self-centered. "I've been to the moon, what else is there" and "I guess I'm 2nd choice again." C'mon, get over it.

Actually his admission about the Other Woman was when I really got sucked into the soap-opera quality of the movie. It was fun to hate the character- I wanted to reach into the tv and slap him. Gotta love a movie that incites me to violence! Hmm I'm trying to avoid using the web acronyms but I really did just laugh out loud when I wrote that. Must... resist... writing... lol. Whew.

Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, the slap. Patricia Racette played the wife. Maybe it was the music but her singing was a little too soprano-y for me. Can't explain it. I'm sure I've heard her on YouTube and liked her voice, so my guess is it was the music. Her acting was good - very convincing.

The scene with the nurse checking out the astronauts (so to speak) was cute. I also really liked how they mixed in the real footage. And the obnoxious aunt - "I know my nephew better than you do." No, I don't think so...

I also liked the exchanges at the beginning in the press conference. I guess the subject matter was too serious to keep up that style of lighthearted rhyming banter throughout the movie.

So... I've seen Nathan Gunn in both a comedic and a dramatic role. Give me the comedy (and the Mozart) any day. No surprise there- I'll almost always choose something lighthearted over something serious. Real life is serious enough, I don't want to escape to someone else's problems. I want to escape to laugh! So my next goal is to see him (live?) in a comedy. Too bad I can't just fly off to Chicago this month or France this summer. Never say never- maybe I'll win the lottery. Maybe I should buy a ticket...

This is the post of... ellipses... ... ... ... and so on...

Heh heh spell check wants to change "Gunn" to "Gunny" and "Gunk."

Brain systems are breaking down... it's obviously past my bedtime.