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Tom Jones, 1963
Tom Jones (Albert Finney) is a foundling who is raised by a wealthy landowner. Tom is in love with Sophie (Susannah York), a young woman who returns his affections. But Tom's social status means that they cannot marry. The film follows Tom's many misadventures as he pursues Sophie and must endure the deliberate sabotages of the jealous Blifil (David Warner).
Have you ever been at a party/gathering and met a new person and gone "Wow! This person is fun and full of energy, yay!" only to 15 minutes later think "Dear lord this person is exhausting!"?
That was pretty much my experience with Tom Jones, whose frantic, mocking, absurd comic stylings were charming for the first half hour or so, and then slowly lost their charms as time went on.
Finney is charming in the lead role, which is tricky because Tom's constant drunken shenanigans can skew more obnoxious than endearing. But Finney gives him enough himbo naivete that you end up rooting for the big lunk.
The supporting performances are all in line with each other, the problem being that the film's over-the-top comedy tone is a lot to handle. At one point Sophie's father is rolling around in a pile of hay, yelling and farting and I was just like "Eh . . . ". Reading a little about the filming, it sounds like the director and Finney were not overall very happy and that there were some unfortunate tensions on set.
There are some stand-alone sequences that are fun. There's a ridiculously long flirty meal between two characters and some decent physical comedy. But overall it just doesn't come together in a satisfying way. With about 30 minutes left in the movie, I realized that I just didn't care what happened to anyone.
There's also an unfortunate amount of unkind animal handling, which never scores points with me.
Just kind of blah.
Tom Jones, 1963
Tom Jones (Albert Finney) is a foundling who is raised by a wealthy landowner. Tom is in love with Sophie (Susannah York), a young woman who returns his affections. But Tom's social status means that they cannot marry. The film follows Tom's many misadventures as he pursues Sophie and must endure the deliberate sabotages of the jealous Blifil (David Warner).
Have you ever been at a party/gathering and met a new person and gone "Wow! This person is fun and full of energy, yay!" only to 15 minutes later think "Dear lord this person is exhausting!"?
That was pretty much my experience with Tom Jones, whose frantic, mocking, absurd comic stylings were charming for the first half hour or so, and then slowly lost their charms as time went on.
Finney is charming in the lead role, which is tricky because Tom's constant drunken shenanigans can skew more obnoxious than endearing. But Finney gives him enough himbo naivete that you end up rooting for the big lunk.
The supporting performances are all in line with each other, the problem being that the film's over-the-top comedy tone is a lot to handle. At one point Sophie's father is rolling around in a pile of hay, yelling and farting and I was just like "Eh . . . ". Reading a little about the filming, it sounds like the director and Finney were not overall very happy and that there were some unfortunate tensions on set.
There are some stand-alone sequences that are fun. There's a ridiculously long flirty meal between two characters and some decent physical comedy. But overall it just doesn't come together in a satisfying way. With about 30 minutes left in the movie, I realized that I just didn't care what happened to anyone.
There's also an unfortunate amount of unkind animal handling, which never scores points with me.
Just kind of blah.