19 August 2008 @ 9:26August (2008)
Can a movie be well-acted and still be dull and unsatisfying? The movie August gives us the answer to this question.
August centers around two brothers who are trying to keep their dotcom business afloat during August 2001. I had high hopes for this movie, both because I generally like Josh Hartnett’s work, and I’m also a geek. In the end I was ultimately disappointed by August. The trailer for August hyped up the movie in much the same way as Tom hyped up Landshark to the potential investors — a whole lotta hype with very little substance to back it up. Maybe that’s the point. Many dotcom businesses at the time were surviving solely on hype.
I continually had this nagging curiosity about what the Landshark company actually did. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who wanted to know, because Tom’s dad (Rip Torn) asked him, “What do you actually do?” Maybe we as the viewers aren’t supposed to know the answer to that question. But isn’t that what this movie is about? Or is this movie about the strain that a business puts on the relationship between two brothers? If that was the case, we should have seen more of Josh (Adam Scott) and Tom (Josh Hartnett) on screen together.
As far as other actors in August besides Hartnett, they received very little screen time and character development. I would have loved to see more of Adam Scott, Naomie Harris, Rip Torn, Robin Tunney, and David Bowie, but instead we get a movie consisting almost exclusively of Hartnett.
If you are a Josh Hartnett fan, you will want to see August for his commendable performance, but otherwise, I can’t really recommend it.
Rent:
Netflix
by Jon | Add a comment | Tags: Adam Scott, Andre Royo, august, Austin Chick, David Bowie, dvd, Emmanuelle Chriqui, film, Howard A. Rodman, Josh Hartnett, Naomie Harris, Rip Torn, Robin Tunney
Posted in dvd, film | Link to this
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