As intended, I got around to watching this movie earlier today. It was good and I'm kind of surprised that I hadn't been aware of it previously, until I went to looking up Peter Sarsgaard's filmography. He is certainly not the main attraction in this movie; he has a small, non-speaking (save for perhaps a gasp when he is accosted by the murderers) role as a murder victim. The movie was done in 1995 so he was quite young and youthful looking in it. It was cute. The movie had Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn in the main roles; I think they both did a good job, especially Susan Sarandon. Her appearance in this role reminded me of one of the characters in Requiem for a Dream, which I'm always up to rewatch. It would've been interesting if Peter had been cast instead of Jared Leto in that movie...
The premise of the movie, which was based on a true story, is about a nun in Louisiana who befriends a prisoner on death row as he faces execution. I think that kind of a story is intrinsically interesting, at least for me - the topics of crime, punishment, possible innocence/guilt, the criminal justice system. There are a couple of other things dealing with similar topics that I've seen: Devil's Knot, season 3 of The Killing, The Shawshank Redemption. I know I've said I'm trying to get away from the subject matter of murder/crime in the things I watch, but it's just so interesting. I also have been trying to ponder about stuff other than journalism and all that that entails, but I just can't seem to escape it. Alas.
The dynamic in this movie between the nun and the prisoner seemed fairly similar to what transpires between one of the detectives and a prisoner in season 3 of The Killing.
Now is as good as a time as any to tally up the various Peter Sarsgaard things I've seen so far - it would be nice to have them in writing.
- Experimenter *
- The Magnificent 7
- Shattered Glass *
- The Killing *
- Lovelace
- Dead Man Walking
- The Man in the Iron Mask
- Jarhead *
- Documentary on rock climbing that he narrated
- Black Mass
- Documentary about drug addiction that he was involved in
(asterisks denote my favorites so far)
Not too shabby for 1 month's time. I noticed today that he was the voice of a robot in some movie, which is kind of interesting, but obviously as a robot, his voice isn't completely natural which is kind of a shame. It's still recognizable as his voice though. But in a roboticized form. Kind of like how Siri talks. Which then got me thinking/imagining if his voice were used for Siri. Wouldn't that be fun!
I'm still at a bit of a loss for what to watch next. There are other Peter Sarsgaard movies that I haven't seen yet, but they aren't on Netflix, which is sort of inconvenient. I'm trying to find a tv show that would be to my tastes and ideally of a different subject matter than crime/murder (which rules out Broadchurch, but I think I would enjoy that show. It also rules out The Wire and Oz, neither of which are on Netflix).
In other matters, my books shipped this evening and should be here within 1 or 2 weeks. I eagerly await their arrival.
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