Stuck in Middle Earth

[Eruwen]

From the start, this topic is not meant for yelling and criticising about comments made. It is for your opinion.<P>Anyway, I was reading a review on the movie, "Ash Wednesday" starring Elijah Wood as Sean Sullivan. A comment said by lou lumenick (ny post) states that: <P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Wood, who sounds like he's been vacationing in Middle Earth, is simply ludicrous as Sean.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Whether seeing the movie or not, (I havn't), as a LOTR fan how would you take this quote? It sounds to me like this critic is making Elijah out to still be "playing Frodo" if you will. <P>Now if I believe this critic and say that Elijah is still acting like he did in LOTR, it brings me to the point of this topic...<P>Do you think that making this movie would impact the actors so much that it would be hard to play a different character outside of Tolkien? <P>They always talked about how great it was making the movie, and being there for a year and a half, it would seem true. It was almost as if the actors were the characters living in ME. How do you think this effected their careers as actors?<P>Again, I don't want answers like, "Well he doesn't know what he's talking about. Elijah was great in that movie." type stuff. Think about if Elijah really was acting like that in Ash Wednesday. What is your opinion on this matter?

[Iarwain]

Hmm. Well, I must say that I'm just about as far as one can get from yelling. I could comment more, perhaps, if you gave us a link to the article or quoted it in deeper detail, and if you explained what "Ash Wednesday" is about, but right now, I'm feeling quite confused. Please give a little more background info, then maybe I'll be able to give you my opinion.<P>Until then,<BR>Iarwain<P>P.S. I just got it. I think that it is ridiculous that a two year filming experience could deter an actor from playing various roles. If it does, that reflects on Elijah's acting skills (which, by the way are not that phenomenal)<p>[ March 15, 2003: Message edited by: Iarwain ]

[Manardariel]

I´ve never even heard of that movie, but I can see the point. I wouldn´t say that they´re saying Elijah is stuck as Frodo, but the audience is. You know that IS true.<BR> I saw Aramageddon sometime ago, and Liv Tyler is the female lead. And believe it or not, I seriously had problems getting off the "Arwen" thought when I was watching it. I spent about half of the movie going. "It´s Arwen in jeans! She has betrayed Aragorn with Ben Affleck! No, wait, different movie. Crap!"<P>So it´s sort of the audiences thought when they can only see Elijah as Frodo, right?

[Eruwen]

I guess you could look at in that way. Here is the whole article by this critic. Maybe it will explain it a little more.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>WRITER-director-star Ed Burns abandons romantic comedy with mixed results in "Ash Wednesday," an ambitious, guilt-suffused melodrama crippled by poor casting.<P>The problems start with Burns, whose unvarying laid-back style as an actor doesn't fit the tortured character of Francis, a bartender in the pre-gentrified Hell's Kitchen of 1983.<P>A former tough guy, Francis has been walking the straight and narrow since his younger brother Sean (Elijah Wood) was supposedly killed trying to stop a hit on Francis.<P>But now Sean has been spotted in the neighborhood - and Francis has been getting a little too friendly with Grace (Rosario Dawson), who thinks she's Sean's widow.<P>Dawson is the best thing here, and Malachy McCourt, James Handy and Oliver Platt deliver nice cameos as a gang boss, a priest in cahoots with Francis and a hit man.<P>But Wood, who sounds like he's been vacationing in Middle Earth, is simply ludicrous as Sean.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[MLD-Grounds-Keeper-Willie]

wll, that's very general on what he means by 'sounds like he's been vacationing in Middle Earth'. Well, it does say 'sound' so maybe they're talking about his voice? I'm not sure. It could also be his style of acting in LotR. I think that doing LotR could have affected the way he acts, as said already, and he still might be stuck like that by habit. And maybe Manardariel is right by saying 'they can only see Elijah as Frodo'. Anyways, this is a very general thing to have an opinion. I'm also very far from yelling. I seem to be more curious, but in order to fully take an opinion on that quote, I think I'd have to see that movie.

[Arvedui III]

I think Manardariel has it right. <BR>Audiecnes can't get over LOTR. Not that it's a bad thing, but people from now on will see Elrond with sunglasses in the Matrix(or maybe Agent Smith in elven robes during LOTR), Arwen in jeans during aramageton :shudder:,Boromir as a IRA terrorist in the Patrite games, etc.<BR>People will also probibly see Frodo Baggins in all the new movies Elijah Wood does.<p>[ March 15, 2003: Message edited by: Arvedui III ]

[Gorwingel]

Well I thing the only thing that Elijah may be stuck with because he did LOTR is his accent. Before he did this film he sounded very American, with no accent, but now he sounds a mix of American, Scottish, and British. That was the thing that surprised me so much during his interviews.<BR>But yeah, all the actors did charaters that they will be known by for the rest of their careers. I don't think they doomed themselves by doing LOTR. And besides this Ash Wendesday film was a very small movie, it did not even go into theaters nationwide. So this film will probabaly be greatly ignored. We are going to have to see what happens when the actors come out with bigger, larger films, because you would think that some of them are probably going to try to distance themselves from LOTR in some way. (Though Orlando is continuing to do roles where he has very weird hair )

Perhaps,it's a reference to his angst ridden portrayal of the brother being very similiar to his angst ridden portrayal of Frodo. Which, of course, was very similar to his angst ridden porrtrayal of the brother in"The Good Son"

[Ruler of the Frogs]

From personal experience, I would think the audience has become used to associating Frodo and Elijah. I watched LotR before watching some other movies with the same actors. It was hard not to think 'Boromir's evil!' While watching that movie...oh what was it called? That 'I'll never tell...' where he kidnaps the girl. It completely slipped my mind! Hate it when that happens Anyway, the audience is probably just so used to seeing Elijah as Frodo, that they can's see him as this Sean guy.

[mark12_30]

I read a kinder review, someplace... I recall that the reviewer was rather down on Burns. But what he had to say about Elijah was that he was "miscast". Although I haven't seen the film, that (theoretically) makes sense to me. <P>Wood shines best in roles where he plays somebody well-meaning but rather confused. (Bumblebee Flies Anyway, for instance. Or the older kid in Radio Flyer. Or that short pointy-eared guy... nevermind.)<P>The role in Ash Wednesday may not fit him that well; I haven't seen it, but he doesn't seem like a harsh Irish-Mafia city-kid-bartender-thug capable of murder, to me. So maybe he was miscast.<P>Or, maybe, the rest of the movie didn't come together around him, and he stuck out like a sore thumb because of his open, honest, vulnerable acting style. Which would again mean that he was miscast; not for the specific role, perhaps, but not fitting in naturally to the rest of the cast.<P>I also find myself wondering if he took the role mostly to get back on the set and back on the payroll. He does have a practical business-oriented side to him, and it's easier to get a job when you are employed than when you are not.

[Birdland]

Hmmmm, I just rented "Ash Wednesday", and gave up watching it after a half-hour. For one thing, the movie was impossibly sloooow. (OK, OK, people saw the kid. We get it. Let's move on now.)<P>I can appreciate E.W wanting to take the role of a lower-class Irish Ghetto kid. It's a sign that he understands the dangers of typcasting, especially when you've been in a extremely popular film where your face is associated with a particular type of character. The character of young "Sean" is about as far away from "Frodo" as you could get. <P>Unfortunately, if you are going to play someone who has grown up in New York, you would think the actor would make some attempt at feigning a New York accent. I didn't "see Frodo" when E.W. was on the screen, but I <I>heard</I> a nice midwestern teenager that had grown up in the suburbs and attended a good public school. Not one of his finest moments on the screen, IMHO.

[Tigerlily Gamgee]

Well, when it comes to acting there are those actors who completely transform themselves for every role, and there are those who use different version of themselves for every role.<BR>Viggo transforms himself<BR>Elijah uses himself<P>Therefore... Frodo had a lot of Elijah in him, so it makes sense for other characters to have Frodo in them because that is Elijah. That's how Julia Roberts acts too.<BR>Perhaps the person who said that prefers one type of acting to the other.<P>But I will admit that Ash Wednesday was a pretty bad movie. It wasn't Elijah's fault, though.