Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Victor Khomenko (M) on March 03, 2006 at 06:32:30

Tear-jerkers and cute movies is probably what the Americans do best, and Paper Moon is a quintessential film of that kind.

Your brain is telling you: you are being manipulated, being fed horseshit in a candy wrapper, but your heart is melting looking at little Tatum... and Ryan ain't bad there either.

As far as the film art goes, the Paper Moon is mediocre at best. The script is weak and corny, and if not for Tatum, would have been a total disaster... just another schlock movie... a dime a dozen production everyone would have quickly forgotten about. We all know putting cute kids in films is not a mark of a good director, a cheap sure-hit trick, and here this is as obvious as ever, and yet Tatum is so wonderful in her completely fake role (and completely fake it IS!), that we forgive all those faults - for an hour and forty minutes - and just enjoy watching her.

It is OK to be manipulated every once in a while, and in that sense the Paper Moon is by far not the worst or the most offensive.
And... one can't help but lament the story of that family... the O'Neal family, his bad luck and Tatum's struggle. Sometimes early promises remain just that - promises, and life has other plans for those Little Darlings... how sad!

And by pure coincidence, I found a tabloid on my bathroom floor... with a story on Farrah and Redmond, her son with Ryan... their endless heartache...