Deanna
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
dromasca
If there is something like an average B movie nowadays 'Method' would fill in this role. The story combines in two interleaved threads the story of a 19th century serial killer, a widow attracting older man with promises of re-marriage and killing them to rob them of their money with the story of the making of the movie, in which the the principal actors live their own love story which becomes soon a murder story. The rather thin premise of the movie is that the acting method of identifying with the real life character can lead to the violence of the story penetrating real life.Although decently filmed and acted the movie suffers because lack of ambition and imagination. Much more could have been achieved by a more skilled director out of the violent fiction story slowly penetrating life. Although crime and suffering happens on the screen, we really do not care too much about this as viewers, one of the reasons being maybe because it is not clear whether the suffering happens in the fiction plan we are less involved with, and also maybe because the flat performance of Jeremy Sisto, the weakest from all the cast, in my opinion.It's a film easy to forget. I will probably remember nothing about it in a week or so.
smiley-32
I saw this film today on DVD.. It was also known as DEAD EVEN.. I gotta hand it to you.. That movie bored the hell out of me.. Yeah! There may've been a plot.. but this was beginning to put me at a point where I wanted to press the stop button.No wonder Elizabeth Hurley claimed that the movie METHOD was horrible. Horrible cast. Horrible crew. Horrible director. Horrible film.It makes me want to think that has Elizabeth Hurley made up her mind on giving up acting in movies? The only movie I have of her is PASSENGER 57.. I liked it not because of Elizabeth Hurley.. but Wesley Snipes. He was one those 'action heroes' that kept me glued to the film.Well, I know for a fact that Ms Hurley has been struggling to get her acting career back on track. ..and I think with this movie.. it seems that it's killed her acting career off.Years ago, and I still got the newspaper 'cut-outs' of all the movies that Elizabeth Hurley have appeared in and they've all flopped as a result. Is there a curse going around Ms Hurley as we speak? I believe so..Anyway, I'm bringing the DVD back tomorrow and I'm getting my refund. Sorry Ms Hurley.. that movie was horrible for me! Blame the director..!0 out of 10!
lavatch
The expression "method" was coined by the acting teacher Lee Strasberg to describe his unique interpretation of the acting techniques of the Russian director Constantin Stanislavsky. In the 1950s, Strasberg was the guru of the famed Actors Studio of New York where many great film actors honed their craft with the master. Strasberg's authoritarian style was legendary as he watched the actors perform scenes and monologues and then proceeded to psychoanalyze the actors and their choices. Mr. Strasberg would be truly appalled by the trite and cliché-ridden "Method." The film seeks to weave two stories in a "play-within-a-play" style. Unfortunately, neither one of the stories is interesting, and the main problem is the script. Much of the dialogue was laughable. Also, the production values of this film seemed amateurish with special effects and scenes of violence that were not credible. Sadly, the good premise of a story about an actress who loses touch with reality and "becomes the character" was not realized, despite the good efforts of the cast. The classic film "A Double Life" (1947) was successful in developing this premise as the actor playing Othello is so enmeshed within his character that he commits a real-life murder. The screenwriters for "A Double Life" were the brilliant team of Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, from whom the writers of "Method" could have learned a lesson worthy of the great teacher Lee Strasberg.
PeachHamBeach
POSSIBLE SPOILAGE!!!METHOD is a fun "film within a film" story about a beautiful, glamorous actress who is trying to make a big comeback with her first leading role in 3 years. The cast is headed by Elizabeth Hurley, who after giving birth to a son, took some time away from her own films. In a way, this story of a modern day actress seems to mirror Hurley's own career. Although this film isn't too shabby, it is just the latest of Hurley's films to go straight to video. I'm not sure if this even got theatre play overseas. The reputation of the fictitious actress Rebecka Fairbanks is similar to Hurley in so many ways that I wonder if all the gossip surrounding the filming of METHOD was part of an attempt to get the public to be intensely interested in the film. Among the gossip was an alleged brawl between Hurley and director Duncan Roy in which some harsh things were said and then apologized for. The other big issue was Hurley's husband reportedly being jealous of Hurley's "love scenes". I thought I only saw one very hot love scene, not many.Before I continue, I guess I need to try to dispel my own confusion and any potential confusion I may cause readers of my commentary. I can only keep my sanity by referring to METHOD in its two entities: the film BELLE, which is the movie Fairbanks is shooting, and the MAKING OF BELLE, which is the documentary-style element in which we get more than just a glimpse of Fairbanks' personal life. See what I mean when I say confusion can set in easily unless things are sorted out??? Hurley as Fairbanks, Fairbanks as notorious 19th century serial killer Belle Gunness. It is the role of a lifetime for Fairbanks, and she wants badly to do her very best to turn in a stellar performance. At least that's what we assume when we first meet her. On the set, her mother Mona (Carmen du Satoy) seems just a little hovery, just a little bossy and just a little domineering. She treats her daughter Rebecka like she's a 5 year old superstar rather than a 34 year old mildly successful actress. Mother's ambition and daughter's resentment become quite clear, and not only because Mona's a pushy "stage" mom. There is also the matter of Rebecka's costar for the film, Jake Fields (Jeremy Sisto). He used to be Rebecka's boyfriend, and it's obvious he still has feelings for her, much to his wife Bethany's dismay. More reasons are revealed for why Rebecka resents her mother, and they are good, understandable reasons. Instead of the life she would have been overjoyed to have, Rebecka is living the life her mother chose for her. Jake is not as happy as he would have liked to be either, and before too long, the feelings he harbors for Rebecka ultimately drive his wife away.Yet instead of happiness when they get back together, Rebecka and Jake face strange on-set violence, and off set murders begin happening. Although no suspects are named, certain people seem to have a motive for killing. Both Mona and Jake have been pestered by a sleazy little media mouth named Timothy, and Timothy is found with his throat cut. Jake was not in love with his wife, and Rebecka might have been jealous, and Bethany Fields is found with her throat cut. The "film within the film" BELLE was fun to watch. I almost want to say that I wish they would have just made a movie about Belle Gunness and been done with it. It was done well. Hurley playing Fairbanks playing Gunness. Sisto playing Fields playing a farm hand named Ray Lamphere who falls under the spell of the beautiful widow and ends up helping her kill and dispose of over 40 men. On the set, Mona notices that Rebecka is not taking medicines that have been prescribed to her (for bipolar disorder or schizophrenia is my guess, since Rebecka protests to her mother, "They make me tired. I'm forgetting my lines. I can't FEEL anything.") So the actress has stopped her medicine, in spite of Mona's worries, because she wants to capture the spirit of the role she is playing. A method actor, she is. A few days without her balancing meds, and Rebecka seems to be hallucinating the spirit of Belle Gunness, hearing the serial killer's voice telling her that Mona doesn't want her to be happy, that all men are evil. Thus the lines between pretend and reality are blurred. I'm sure that METHOD will be a film that I will chew on for a while, trying to learn more about it, trying to figure out things that confused me, like: What happened to the little Romanian hottie that Rebecka picked up in the bar??? She took him home, but we don't know if she bedded him, or killed him, or both!!! That was most confusing. And whose was the burnt corpse in the morgue??? Did the Romania guy end up as one of the victims under the house??? As for the acting, well Jeremy Sisto was first rate as always. Hurley was better than usual. Du Satoy was great, and so was Oliver Tobias.Not perfect, but definitely unusual and fun!!!
