Word: woodstock
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...movie has no stars, few recognizable faces. And unlike so many American films, which cast gentiles in Jewish roles (Imelda Staunton, for example, as the stereotype mother in Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock, also about suburban Jews in the '60s), this one actually has ethnic-appropriate casting. The Jews here are sometimes broadly drawn - Larry's family slurps soup at a decibel level that even the Simpsons would find deafening - but they're fully assimilated. Nobody says, "Oy vey!" or talks shtick. If people answer a question with a question, the first would be Larry's plaintive "Why me?" when...
...lower body count and slower pulse, Julie & Julia and The Time Traveler's Wife kept purring along; Meryl Streep's impersonation of Julia Child has now earned more than $70 million, while the Eric Bana-Rachel McAdams love story is nearing $50 million. In its opening weekend, Taking Woodstock - Ang Lee's tale of peace, love and outrageous Jewish stereotypes - took in a wan $3.7 million. That wouldn't be too big a disappointment for a low-budget film, but Woodstock cost a mediumish $30 million - the same as District...
...million; $90.8 million, third week 5. G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, $8 million; $132.4 million, fourth week 6. Julie & Julia, $7.4 million; $71 million, fourth week 7. The Time Traveler's Wife, $6.7 million; $48.1 million, third week 8. Shorts, $4.9 million; $13.6 million, second week 9. Taking Woodstock, $3.7 million, first weekend; $3.8 million, first five days 10. G-Force, $2.8 million; $111.8 million, sixth week
...actors crawl out of the rubble. Give Jonathan Groff (a major new cutie) a hand for turning the Woodstock weekend's chief promoter, Michael Lang, into a figure so charismatic, and so central to the actual concert, that viewers will think the movie should have been about him. Liev Schreiber also earns credit for not being buried under the stereotype of a muscular cross-dresser who serves as Elliot's security chief. The vaunted Broadway actor shows something we hadn't seen before: nice legs...
...rest of the movie is a mess - Lee's first total miscalculation, his first wholly inessential film. He'll do better; he almost has to. The rest of us with any interest in a 40-year-old rock concert can get the DVD of Woodstock, and maybe sing along to a new version of Joni Mitchell's tune...