This amazing film
gets the audience breathing rarefied Hollywood air and it isn’t at all
comfortable. It’s a world most of us can’t even imagine because it’s so
specific to West LA. Filled with not just opulence, but intimidating
style, it’s populated by very smart, hardworking people who also happen
to be unusually good looking.
Adapted by Craig
Lucas from his play, The Dying Gaul puts us alongside a talented
screenwriter at the precise moment his career takes the leap he’s been
living for: his prized script is going to sell for seven figures. Better
yet, it’s a highly personal script, a passionate tribute to his lover
who has recently died from AIDS. Even better, the studio executive is
smart and “gets it,” and really believes in the writer. There is one
small change the writer must make seal the deal: he must change the lead
character’s gender from male to female.
Full of twists and
turns, the script nods to various movie genres, but it stakes out its
own ground- film noir with all the lights turned on. The performances
are stunning: Scott, Sarsgaard, and Clarkson are sleek, tough and
vulnerable, sympathetic and not, by turns. Playwright and first time
film director Craig Lucas has created a sophisticated new work to add to
his already distinguished theatrical career.
--Jed Dietz
Presented by: David
Newman
