MovieChat Forums > The Comfort of Strangers Discussion > So Bad it's Good

So Bad it's Good

posted 18 years ago by jervistetch
13 replies | jump to latest

This is one of those movies like "Mommie Dearest" that, after the first viewing, you're not sure that you could have possibly seen what you think you saw. It's so over the top that you need to shower afterward. And then, for some twisted reason, you watch it again and you start to like it. Everything about it is preposterous (though, Venice looks cool). Natasha Richardson and Rupert Everett play, perhaps, the dullest couple to ever grace the screen. It is impossible to care about, or even understand, the emotional quandry they're going through. Helen Mirren is completely insane, but nothing can prepare you for the vintage, bravura Walken performance. His monologue about his father (that he delivers more than once in a dubious Italian accent) is a zenith in the Hammy Hall of Fame. Seek out someone else that has seen it and recite that monologue to each other in a bad Italian dialect and you will seldom in your life laugh harder. Rent (or buy, as I have) quickly and brace yourself.

[–] chaosmotic-1 18 years ago

I saw this film when it originally came out at the Angelika in NYC. At the climax of the film the person sitting next to me got up and ran from the theatre, in horror. It's that wacked out by the end. Absolutely disturbing.

Years later, I was at a writers conference and there was a talk given by Paul Schrader. All he wanted to do was talk about this film. Few people in the audience had seen it. Everybody asked pretty dull questions about Taxi Driver, and American Gigalo. This was the movie Schrader wanted everybody to see. He was pretty proud of it. I talked to him one-on-one later and he said it was one of his best efforts as a director of something he had't written himself. It's got a great score by Angelo Badalamenti, and amazing cinematography by Dante Spinotti. Check it out.

[–] maxzorindresden 18 years ago

I've got a fear of razors....needless to say this movie doesn't make it any better lol

[–] onepotato2 18 years ago

Oh my god. that was just like my reaction. the first time i was incredulous and pissed off, but it was so beautiful and the music was so gorgeous it really stuck with me. so I'd go back to it every once in a while. since I knew the ending would piss me off I concentrated on other parts, trying to decipher it. I even read the book. I still have no idea what Pinter and MacEwan want me to take away from this movie, but it makes me think about behavior more tha movie that would just give me a pat ending, which I'd never think about again.

I own the videotape of this. Is it out on DVD?
Pick up the score on CD. it's beautiful and ominous.

[–] pencho_2003 18 years ago

I'd say it was a very good movie.

[–] joel-280 18 years ago

you got it Jervis baby!

if i ever watch it again, though, i think it will be without the sound. unlike many others who have seen it, i can do without the Badelamenti (what does that mean? sorry it's bad?) background swells. But Venice never looked more gorgeous -- or more empty, at least since the 19th century. What did they do with all the people????

too bad there's no tape or dvd of my favorite Venice flic, "one never knows" or "no sun in venice" or "sait-on jamais." maybe some day.

[–] mbs 18 years ago

its on dvd...i've seen it in the stores....I found it on VHS in the cheap ass bins at my video store the other day (trying to get rid of their stock natch!) and man it is as whacked out now as it was when i watched it soime years ago half conscious as the late movie at 3 AM....I wouldn't say its good exactly its actually kinda dreary and rather non-sensical it could have been much more campy it takes itself much more seriously then it should...but it is true that as one of the users' comments puts it "Christopher Walken has never been more Christopher Walken then he is here!"
and its totally serious also, there's no trace of the self parody winking that he's been indulging in since the later 90's. the fact that he's being totally serious here helps the movie a lot. if he were to show that he was half kidding it def wouldn't be as effective...man he rockets this movie out of the doldrums whenever he comes on, and you know its gonna be good when it starts out with his narration of that ridculous "my father had a black mustache" story! only he with that voice and his mannerisms could sell that story. unfortunately by the fith or sixth time he tells it it becomes less and less hysterical and more and more all right already!

that said i would never put this in the so bad its good catagory---i think it would either need to be way worse, or more lively for it to really qualify..perhaps if it was more campy and Walken did indulge himself it might have made it into the so bad its good cat. what's here is well worth watching (if you like Walken or just creepy films set in Venice in general)...but isn't really worth remembering.

[–] onepotato2 18 years ago

abslutley. I agree with your reaction, etc. I was so angry with this movie when I first saw it, but since key explanations are missing it's become compelling to me as a puzzle. Badalamentis score is ravishing.

[–] BlondeIsBetter 17 years ago

I can't really decide... I THINK I liked this movie, but I am not sure. It's kind what the ???? But I LOVE Helen Mirren and Christopher Walken. Rupert kind of gave me the creeps the most. Even more than Christopher Walken... I don't know. Very strange film.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] icequeen_vienna 17 years ago

I have always liked this film - watched it last night for the first time in ages. My boyfriend was wondering what it was all about and I told him 'It doesn't HAVE to make complete sense' meaning that I just love the music, beautiful settings and the atmosphere of the whole thing. And also some of the dialogue is rather implausible, I still think that the couple's relationship comes across as convincing. I really identify with a lot of it - also that feeling of getting lost in Venice, which is all too easy!

[–] zurichpoet 16 years ago

That’s what I was told going into this.
But on the first go around I go with the story in all sincerity.
Maybe I’ll see it that way the next time around.
While Mommie Dearest is about someone’s actual life.
Which doesn’t make it that funny to me. Outisde of the fact that I've heard California mothers do possess an extreme prejudice towards wire hangers.
That is funny.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Melton (2601) 5 months ago

The film has haunted me since I first viewed it maybe 3 years ago. Gearing up for my first revisit.

Walken suddenly punching a guest in the stomach, comforting him, then winking at him… was priceless.