death at a funeral

i'm writing this because i follow, with interest, the films of actor peter dinklage.

he was utterly wonderful in a small part (proving there are no small parts, only small actors) in tom di cillo's living in oblivion (with catherine keener and steve buscemi), and lovely, lovely, lovely in the station agent

it seems dinklage is the kind of actor who inspires people to write great parts for him, or to adapt a character to best use what he brings to the screen.

the problem for directors is that what peter brings to the screen is a capable actor who happens to be a dwarf. a handsome, thirty/forty year old dwarf.

and although dinklage seems happy to smash the dwarf stereotypes on screen, the combination of 'dwarf' plus whatever other attribute his character may possess, is thus rendered amazingly potent in the context of the film's greater narrative.

the two choices for the director appear to be - revel, explore and reveal the character as a dwarf, with all the internal dialogue it would incur in the character, or use the comic wrongness of the lowest common denominator's perspective on dwarves (that they are irresistably provocative of a response)

if there is a third option, i'm not sure it was looked for here, but i did find things to laugh at



though - the over-sweet palliatives to the film's core of offensiveness indicated that the film required redeeming in some way

which maybe it didn't, and never did




think of the horror death of the hooker in very bad things

we laughed because it was a hilariously awful situation for the other characters to be in, pushing their relationships' dynamics to ever more shrill and tense places... but the hooker character was never allowed time to connect to the audience. kept simple, kept shallow, the black comedy laughs were liberated

in a way dinklage's worst characteristic as an actor is his emotional sympathy. he is an actor to love, and when he isn't meant to be, much like kate winslet, he can't be any less than he really is on screen.

wonderful

handsome

funny

and a dwarf


... so did it work?

that, in all cases, is the fundamental question

my honest answer?

sort of



it could have been blacker.

it would have been funnier if it had been more, not less, uncomfortable.