Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

So I went to the theater to see "Lincoln" this afternoon (Excellent! And more engaging and human than I'd expected) and then stayed to see "Oz the Great and Powerful", which I ended up enjoying more than I'd thought I would, given the very "Meh!" review I'd heard on NPR this morning.

"Oz", is a good, visually rich and affecting Sam Raimi movie with some gently quirky humor (in fact, I couldn't help likening it in tone to a MUCH kinder and gentler "Army of Darkness", at times), but I agree with the NPR reviewer I heard this morning about James Franco's performance as the central character being just not up to carrying the weight that this movie places on his shoulders.

The character of "Oz" is written as the sort of lovable/deplorable rogue, con man, and committed coward that Bruce Campbell has played so well in a number of incarnations, including his recurring role as Autolycus the self-styled King of Thieves on Xena and Hercules in the mid to late 1990s. Twenty, fifteen, or possibly even ten years ago, Bruce could have played this character to the hilt, with his ought-to-be-patented combination of leading man good looks and character actor talent.

James Franco, unfortunately, seems to be more of a strict leading man type, to the point where there were numerous points in the movie where I felt that he was James Franco trying to play Bruce Campbell playing Oz, and like a hand-me-down suit from a slightly bigger cousin, it really never sits quite right on him.

Apart from that one caveat (that it feels to me as though James was trying to fill Bruce's shoes and coming up short too often), I did enjoy seeing "Oz" and I give it an overall positive recommendation (worth seeing for matinee prices, but maybe not for a full price ticket).