Fiiiiinally saw Human Nature last night, braced for the worst,
and you know what? I didn't think it sucked. Michel Gondry did a better
job than I expected. With the hits he took from various reviewers, I
figured it must've been really over-directed. But I thought it was
okay. The film as a whole probably hit a lower target than its creators
were aiming for, and it's not as dense as Charlie's other work. But
putting that aside and judging the film on its own merits, I thought it
was okay. Not great, not particularly insightful, nothing
earth-shattering - and definitely Charlie's weakest script - but
certainly not horrible. Tim Robbins looked uncomfortable in his role.
Arquette was good and rather brave (that is, "brave" in the cinematic
sense, as opposed to "brave" in the sense of firefighters and war
vets). Bottom line is I'm a little less worried about Gondry and Eternal Sunshine than I have been. Everyone's expectations were ultra-high after Malkovich (except for my own, for reasons I've gone into ad infinitum). If Nature
had been scripted by someone else but otherwise remained 100% identical
to the finished product, I wonder if it would've been reamed as much as
it was.
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