Music Babble

Carlisle is supposed to be sort of wet behind the ears in the carnival scenes, but that mostly concerns sex. I guess I don't really feel like Cooper's age was that much of a problem, but that's because he looks like he could still pass for 34 when he's 46. DiCaprio probably wouldn't have had that much better luck with that problem. Toni Collette and Cate Blanchett are both verging on Botox Disease and I guess Rooney Mara, despite probably being a better actress than Colleen Grey, isn't even really a spring chicken herself. She also played the character as far more "sad-faced" than I would have guessed from the book.

Stanton Carlisle is supposed to be one of the great characters in noir fiction. Reading the reviews for both versions of the film was an exercise in reading long-winded explanations of the character and what he is doing and why. And yet neither version of the film, nor even the book really, does he ever really come across as that nefarious. The book was better about this than either film, but that sort of goes without saying, doesn't it? I guess this is why I think the book is just okay and both films are lukewarm.