The Jacket

[CountryTomboy91]

Originally Posted by Mandy

I'm pretty sure that's what it was. It's been a year or so since I've seen it and it was completely forgettable. I remember Keira having the SHITTIEST american accent.

Originally Posted by Hazzle

Mandy's right, the accent's terrible.

She said in an interview that she took her voice down about an octave and tried to make it huskier to sound less British....
Then my friend Shelby said she saw the trailer and dear old keira still sounded undeniably British.
So, which is it?

DOWN WITH BLOCKBUSTER, THE LATE FEE CHARGING, LYING PUKES!!!!!!!!!!!
DOWN WITH MOVIE GALLERY AND THEIR CRAPPY FACILITIES!
When in doubt, turn to..... Netflix?

[kingdumbass]

Actually, the accent is very good....

[allied_assult]

I thought it was all right but i've only seen it once. I think they shouldn't have made her do an accent though. It made her seem really dark.

[Mandy]

Originally Posted by kingdumbass

Actually, the accent is very good....

Actually no, it really wasn't. It was an effort...but you could definitely tell she really had to fight her accent.

[kingdumbass]

Her accent was just fine....
It was her acting BEYOND the accent that left much to be desired. Like, when she ordered Adrian Brody out of her home. Up until that point, I thought she was doing pretty well; then..."You get out!!!"

I cringed. For me, It fucked up everything past that point, even though she was, objectively, fine for the rest of the movie.

I want to see her try an American accent again, for something more light-hearted.

[Swordsman]

The accent is alright here and there, but for the most part it's pretty bad. You can just sort of tell she's trying to keep that accent going. I thought the movie was alright, the first time around. Then i saw it a second time and noticed the terrible, terrible plot holes.

[Immortal]

hazzle do you have to fuck up every damn topic of mines?

[Hazzle]

Originally Posted by Immortal

hazzle do you have to fuck up every damn topic of mines?

Do you have to post? No. Do you have to post a thread that was already up? No, because you should know how to use the search facility.

I commented ON topic. So shut the fuck up.

YOU need to stop arguing with the officers (first Mandy, now Foeni). They're actually senior to mods, and deserve your respect as much as any mod. All I was doing was pointing that out. So far I'm being incredibly civil with you. In the same vein, I advise you strongly against stirring up a fight with me.

Back ON topic: CountryTomboy, Mandy's right. She still sounded undeniably English (it's English damnit, British could mean she sounded Scottish!). In parts you could actually HEAR the underlying accent, in others it sounded just like an English person trying to put on an American accent. Which it shouldn't have. You could tell it was an effort, like Mandy said. And Dumbass, have you ever struggled with alcohol abuse? Because I thought she captured that well. So her acting otherwise wasn't that bad. Although that one scene you highlighted was, I put that down entirely to the accent. Acting is both verbal and physical, whilst the physical acting was superb (she convinced me she was struggling with alcoholism) the verbal suffered (like when she orders him out of her house) because of the strain she was putting her voice under anyway in trying to hold the accent. In that scene I thought her face conveyed the character's mood well, but her tone was poor, because of the accent.

[Leonie]

Am I the only one who finds that even her English accent sounds forced these days?

[Hazzle]

No, no you're not. Her acting seems forced these days

[kingdumbass]

Heh, I once encountered a guy online who insisted that Keira used to work as a check-out girl at some grocery store near London, and his big problem with her was that "she doesn't REALLY talk that way!!!"....
Just a pointless anecdote for ya.

Anyway, Hazzle -- I maintain that her American accent in The Jacket was, in and of itself, convincing. I think that anyone seeing the film who didn't know in advance that Keira was English would not have thought twice about her accent. The crux of our disagreement on this matter seems to be that she had trouble doing BOTH and accent WHILE giving a good performance. Something was off there.

And yes -- I have dealt with alcoholism, and I found her portrayal of an alcoholic to be rather derivative. I didn't even really get the sense that she was a drunkard until reading later that's what she was supposed to be. To me, she just seemed depressed, in a general way.

Although I bet that she could pull the part off much better now than she could back then.

[Hazzle]

I think the way she held her drink suggested alcohol dependency. At least it reminded me how I used to, gripping it tightly, almost huddled over it like some precious commodity.

But yes, the overwhelming thing was her depression. Not that that was a bad thing because she was a depressive first and an alcoholic second. My problem was the same, although I suppose it's an individual experience that no two people share EXACTLY.

And I still maintain her accent was gash. I've heard some English actresses do it well. She wasn't one of them. However I still maintain overall that it's easier for Americans to do English accents than vice-versa. Why, I don't know, but I think it's true.

[kingdumbass]

That's interesting....
It's odd because I tend to be annoyed when I hear an American actor doing an English accent. For instance, Natalie Portman (even though she's technically from Israel, she grew up mostly in America), in V for Vendetta, distracted me with that accent for the first half of the movie until I got used to it. There are other examples, but I'm too tired to think of them now.

Regarding English actors playing Americans -- like I've said before, I think Kate Winslet, in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" did a GREAT American accent...and Bob Hoskins is always good with them, in anything. As I've also said, Kristin Scott Thomas did the worst American accent I've heard, in some movie with Harrison Ford, the name of which escapes me.

Oh, and the way in which Keira held her drink is part of what threw me off, as far as the alcoholism thing was concerned. At the height of MY alcohol issues, I was actually pretty sloppy with my booze, spilling it all the time, and guzzling it with bits dripping all over. Maybe that has more to do with the fact that I was a beer drinker, and in The Jacket, Keira appeared to be going for the harder stuff. I guess it all just depends on one's perspective.

[Hazzle]

With the alcohol thing I think it's different for different people. I don't know your reasons for it and to be honest, it's none of my business, so I won't pry, but for me the drink was my salvation from my crushing depression, so I clung onto it tightly. Then again, I rarely drunk out of glasses, and one holds bottles entirely differently.

I actually think Bob Hoskins' accents are AWFUL. He sounds like a cunt from Peckham pretending he's from New York. HATE it. I actually thought Natalie Portman's accent was excellent in V, and she's someone who does do it well. Interesting.

Perhaps to "locals" accents done by foreigners sound more impressive? For example Americans are foreigners and the English accent is my "local" one, so I'm more inclined to be impressed, and you, as an American, are more impressed with foreigners (Brits) doing American ones? Maybe it comes down to the perspective we have on it?

[Mandy]

Originally Posted by Immortal

hazzle do you have to fuck up every damn topic of mines?

If I seriously see you ask this question to anyone in "your" threads again, because this is probably about the third or fourth time, I'm going to go outside, find an animal, name it "immortal" and kill the shit out of it. You really don't want me to do that.

[kingdumbass]

I drank to overcome my more destructive addiction to amphetamine....
So I kicked the speed, but got hooked on the booze. But I suppose that, like you, a deep-rooted depression was really the cause of it all. Whatever. It's all good now. It's my belief that if you haven't suffered, you haven't lived.

And that's neither here, nor there.

Anyway, you could very well be right about the perspectives on accents thing. When I see an English actor doing an American role, if they're convincing at all, I think, "HEY! He's (or, she's) doing GREAT!" However, when I see someone who I know to be American trying to play an English person, I think, "Quit it, you show off!"

I grew up watching Bob Hoskins in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", so to me, he'll always seem kind of American. In fact, I find it odd when I hear him speaking like an Englishman.

[Mandy]

Originally Posted by kingdumbass

I grew up watching Bob Hoskins in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", so to me, he'll always seem kind of American. In fact, I find it odd when I hear him speaking like an Englishman.

Now THERE'S someone that can pull of a great american accent. I thought that as well. I never would've guessed him as English.

I just didn't like Keira in the movie...maybe I'm just kind of used to her playing period pieces as opposed to more modern day settings.

[Hazzle]

Heh. Bob Hoskins was awful in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. So blatently Peckham.

Then again I think it's because I can tell he's not American, but a Brit showing off

Couldn't agree more with the suffering thing Dumbass. It's part of life.

[CountryTomboy91]

Originally Posted by Hazzle

I commented ON topic. So shut the fuck up.

Haha, that's right!

Originally Posted by Hazzle

Back ON topic: CountryTomboy, Mandy's right. She still sounded undeniably English (it's English damnit, British could mean she sounded Scottish!).

I'm sorry! I feel bad now.... Damn my American-ness....
Thanks for all your info guys, I think I'm gonna rent the movie and watch it....
Any plot holes or anything? I still want some more information on Keira's role!
TY!

BTW, Ociffer Mandy, I love your Avatar.... V for Vendetta, right? Good choice for an avatar!

[Hazzle]

No plot holes that I can think of, but to be fair, I hardly paid it much attention.

It bored the tits off me. I pity the women who watch it.

Except those with breast cancer. Obviously. Saves them a lot of painful surgery.