Incongruety

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rusty shakleford

New member
I have been thinking about this for a few days, ever since we saw "Book of Eli". I don't think it was that good but we stayed with it until the scene in the house in the middle of nowhere with the elderly couple of cannibals.

Was I the only person disturbed by the fact that they were Miss Jones and the Singing Detective?

I couldn't take it seriously after that and I wondered how on earth those two ended up in that film and if the person who cast them had any idea how it might be perceived by an English audience. It's not the only one either, bizarre or inspired? Just wondered what the forum thought!
 
???

I am sure most people would just think that it was Frances De La Tour and Michael Gambon.

Two actors that have done FAR more in their careers than the two roles you have just mentioned.

If an actor plays a role well, then you accept them as the character they are playing, without being concious of previous well-known roles they have played.

I fear if you cannot do that...then maybe movies are just not for you...perhaps you should just settle down with the DVD box sets of Rising Damp and The Singing Detective.
 
I could move beyond those roles if they could but they were both as they always have been, Miss Jones offering cups of tea and Michael Gambon being weird and enigmatic.
(And can you name anything else Frances Delatour has been in?)
 
Are you seriously trying to tell me that both actors were basically playing the same roles they apparently 'always' do?

Are you serious?

I think the problem is you - you have a problem accepting certain actors in different roles, so much so that it literally takes you out of the movie. You seem to associate certain actors with one role, and cannot accept them in anything else.

It's significant that you simply named their most famous roles and not the actors in your opening post. You seem intent on associating actors with a specific role, and it jars with you when you see them in something else.

Sad...
 
No, you misunderstand. We're sat watching Denzel doing his stuff, as I said not a brilliant film but it chugs along fairly nicely, and trying to buy into the whole post-apocalyptic thing.

Then they get to the house and the first thing I think is "OMG, it's Miss Jones" and hubby chimes in "And the Singing Detective". It's incongruous and distracting and no matter how good at acting they may be, they were out of place. Maybe if the film had been better it wouldn't have mattered but we were struggling to buy into it at that point and ended up laughing so much the rest is a blur.

Come on now, are you telling me, for example, that Hugh Laurie's transformation from George to House was easy for you? Or seeing Gareth from The Office pop up in Pirates of the Carribbean wasn't a bit distracting for a while? There are many other examples but this one was, to my mind, one of the worst - she was offering cups of tea for chrissakes!
 
Nice one! I struggle with Jason Statham - loved him as Turkish but does anybody know how he got from there to be the next Bruce Willis?

It's a mystery, I guess these Hollywood casting types have never been to Romford market....
 
I understand perfectly - you have a penchant for identifying certain actors with specific roles, and have trouble seeing them in any other role. So much so that you allow it to distract you from the movie itself.

I think you will find that most people will just look at it and pass comment...and then forget about it.

And it has nothing to do with not enjpying the movie...you said your were not enjoying it even up to that point.

And in the examples you have given, I had no problem accepting those actors in those roles. Like I say...there may be a very brief 'oh look, it's so and so from that other thing' moment, but after that most people tend to forget about it.

Like I said before, if this sort of thing bothers you (and it CLEARLY does), then you should probably check the cast lists of movies on IMDB before going to see movies.

Either way...I think it's sad that you allow yourself to be distracted in this way, and have your movie enjoyment spoilt by something so sillly.
 
What's your point? Robin Williams playing a psycho?

Hardly unusual...he has been acting as long as he has been doing stand-up comedy, and has done plenty of other serious roles.

In Insomnia he played a killer.

He played a teacher in Dead Poets Society.

He played a psychiatrist on Good Will Hunting.

He played a Doctor in Dead Again.

He played Osric in Hamlet.



What was your point again?
 
I think the problem only occurs when there is such a gulf between the familiar and the new it requires such a huge leap it distracts from the film, or alternatively when the setting is half familiar and half alien as in the case of Miss Jones - she is doing Miss Jones in every respect on a set that looks like Rigsby's beRABit and offering tea and sandwiches BUT in a post-apocalyptic world with Denzel Washington. It's surreal, bizare and it takes getting used to. When the character is only on for ten minutes there is no time to adjust, it just pops up, bitch-slaps you and is gone. And worst of all, and I appreciate I can only speak for us here, it made us laugh!
 
I don't know why you seem to be getting so het up about it, it's just now and again casting is bizarre and unexpected and occasionally, as in Book of Eli, it destroys the little belief you have in a film. For films to work you have to believe, buy into what is going on, relate to the characters. We tried our best with Book of Eli and gave up after Miss Jones, what more can I say? I am not you I guess!
 
Excuse me? Het up? You were the one so 'het up' about the whole thing that you decided to start a thread about it.

As I have already said...of all the comments and critiscisms I have read about the movie, your's is the only one that has ever passed such a silly comment...even to the degree that you think Frances De La Tour is still playing Ms Jones, serving tea, and the set has been purposely designed to look like the Rising Damp set.

I really think you need to take a step back and look at how ridiculous you sound.
 
Look, I didn't come on here to fight with you but if you keep attacking me it will end up going that way because we're both human so why spoil a Bank Holiday Weekend over it?

Let's start again: In my opinion, the not-very-good film that is Book of Eli went from barely plausible to ridiculous by, for me, the unfortunate casting, for me, of Frances Delatour (referred to above as Miss Jones cos it's easier to type) as a middle-aged cannibal and the unfortunate, for me, setting of her appearance bearing an uncanny resemblance to Rigsby's beRABit and her offering of tea and sandwiches in a very "Miss Jones" manner. I have never seen Ms Delatour in anything else other than British dramas, she always plays pretty much the same character, she is instantly recognizable, something of a British institution, and she seemed desperately out of place as a cannibal in a post-apocalyptic world, a fact that was added to by Michael Gambon playing her husband. This caused both my husband and myself to start laughing and rendered any further engagement with the film impossible. This does not happen to me often in fact I can count on three of the fingers of one hand how many times it has happened. Sometimes bold casting works very well, I think Jim Carrey pulls off Truman Show very well for example; sometimes it grows on you, Like House, and sometimes it shocks you out of any involvemnt with the characters and plot and therefore doesn't work. In my opinion. Does anyone else agree?

How's that?
 
So...Ms Jones in Rising Damp was actually an American cannibal lady all along?

Damn...guess my memory of the series is not as good as I thought...

And you need to calm down...you are not being attacked, you are being challenged and disagreed with.

And I don't see many people rushing to agree with you.
 
I wan't looking for agreement, just asking what people thought but the two hapless souls who did try and get involved promptly scarpered after you waded in and got going.

I've met you before; not "you" you but people like you, telling others what to think, dismissing anything you don't agree with, insulting and sledgehammering your way through anybody else's opinion. Well, you win, I'm off back where I came from, where there is a little more humour about people and a bit more give and take and I leave you to what you obviously perceive as your dominion, your personal frustrations that obviously have no other outlet, your miniscule appendage and your ulcer.

Happy Holidays!
 
And I have met your sort too.

You post a somewhat bizarre statement on a forum, you expect a chorus of agreement and approval from others (which does not materialise...no one has agreed with you on this at all), and when that does not happen and someone has the temerity to disagree with you...you throw a hissy fit!

You are free to post anything on here you want, like anyone else. But others are also free to challenge and disagree with you.

If that concept bothers you...then I would say that such forums are not for you.

I have not insulted you, called you bad names or been disrespectful. And yet what do you do...pathetically and childishly insult my manhood.

I have merely said that I find your assertions somewhat ridiculous and do not agree with them.

You...are a child. Run along now, the grown ups are talking.
 
I also saw this movie, and actually thought it was ok.

And when I got to that scene with De La Tour and Gambon in the house...it actually took me a while to realise it was De La Tour. Gambon is obviously more recognisable.

But for me the fact that I accepted the character without realising who the actor was, means that they have done their job properly.

Yes, once I realised who it was, there was a bit of an 'Oh...it's 'her' moment'.

But for someone to sit and think 'Ooohhh look, it's Ms Jones and the Singing Detective in an American movie...and the set even looks like Rising Damp(?)...and look...she's even making tea!'...is just totally bizarre!

I mean...British actors appearing in US movies...when did that start to happen!
 
Both Michael Gambon and Frances De La Tour are very accomplished performers with extensive CVs. I very much doubt the casting director was concerned that a tiny proportion of the worldwide audience would associate them with British TV roles they played in the '70s and '80s.
 
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