Wednesday 22 February 2017

The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989 Steve Kloves & scr)

Quality casting of brothers Jeff (very cool) and Beau Bridges as pianists who team up with singer Michelle Pfeiffer.

They get it right early when Beau says something like 'There's no call for two pianos these days' and Jeff replies 'There never was'. That's perhaps at the heart of this story in which the brothers are unnaturally bonded together by their craft and actually need to break free (in Kloves' wonderfully subtle screenplay, we see that Jeff is certainly the much more capable businessman; he's just let Beau have the role as something to do).

Don't understand why Bridges is so horrible to Pfeiffer after she quits, though ending is redemptive.

Good direction from Kloves - stays on performing and key acting where possible, unfussy set-ups, really gorgeously shot by Michael Ballhaus (Florian first assistant camera). Further subtlety evident in story of girl who Jeff looks out for.


Need now to catch up on Flesh and Bone (the only other film he also directed) and Racing with the Moon.

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