I watched the movie Escanaba in da Moonlight last night, and I would have to say I wasn't too terribly disappointed, as others have told me I would be. I guess going into it knowing it's kind of weird in the first place, I was prepared for some strange things to happen in the B-movie. Boy am I glad I was prepared. I can't imagine the people that saw it when it first came out, or what they must have thought of Jeff Daniels' movie. For those of you readers that have never been to the U.P., it's a special kind of place, and when something happens, like a movie about it or takes place in it, people get pretty excited about it. Like, everyone up there owns a copy of Anatomy of a Murder. Seriously, everyone. Now that I live in Nashville, there is that same feeling here as well, it just happens more often. Like, if a local gets national attention, the local media covers it. Well anyway, I'm sure you could understand peoples disappointment when a movie finally gets made about the U.P., with a real Hollywood actor, and it kind of sucks.
I didn't think it sucked all that bad. I guess I see where some people would complain, like, the aliens and what not, but all in all, the movie captured that huntin' camp vibe without being Jeff Daniels just acting out a Da Yoopers song. As we watched, my lovely wife pointed out that it had a feel of a play, and not so much a movie. When she pointed that out, I realized that too, the scene changes were very infrequent. At one point, they stayed on the same scene for a good five minutes, going on and on about the oldest one to never bag a buck. I'd have to totally agree that this looked distinctly like a play adapted for the screen.
But there were some funny parts to it. The plot was pretty good, the comedy parts were pretty good. The only parts that were losing me were the parts that weren't meant to be funny. All in all, going into it with bottomed out expectations, I couldn't be let down, and I wasn't. I liked it, actually. Three out of five stars for me.
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