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Author Topic: Life Itself (2014) Mark Ogden Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 943 From: Little Falls, N.J. Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-06-2014 08:23 PM                     A documentary look at the life, career and death of film critic Roger Ebert. At the Film Society of Lincoln Center Elinor Munroe Theatre, New York City. ***** This is half of a good movie, and half a not-very-good one. The good half deals with Roger Ebert’s early years at the University of Illinois, his beginnings and growth as a film critic, his problems with alcohol, and the start of his television career alongside notorious playboy Gene Siskel, a man who he had a difficult and stormy relationship with (as revealed by some hilariously vicious out-takes from their TV show). There are many amusing anecdotes and remembrances from various newspaper and film types, Martin Scorsese gives a moving tribute at the verge of tears. This is a warts-and-all film; it’s plain that Ebert, while a great writer, was also something of an egocentric dick at times (“He was a great guy, but not THAT great,” recalls a friend of his). But there’s not enough interesting stuff to pad out the unnecessarily long two-hour running time, so the other half of the film deals with Ebert’s late-in-life medical care. We get to see him intubated, suctioned, poked and prodded, with his adoring wife hovering over him as the struggles to speak with a synthetic voice program, and it goes on forever. It’s great that Ebert faced his demise courageously, but it’s pretty hard to look at and an awfully tedious thing for a moviegoer to sit through at such length. The book “Life Itself” is very interesting and contains a lot of material not seen in the film. Seek that out if your interested in his life, because the movie version is not that compelling.  |  IP: Logged

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