[HPFGU-Movie] Dan's acting

[Richard]

At 14:44 28/11/2005 , Lynda wrote:

<VERY reluctantly, self-confessed "rant" snipped>

I was quite amused reading that (and the other contributions to this 
thread), because despite professing to disagree with me, not a single one 
of the examples proffered went against anything I've ever said (or thought, 
even if I'd not said it).

Let me repeat, for the record, something that I've said more than once, not 
only over the last few days about GoF, but in one way or another over the 
last five years, since the HP movies first appeared. Dan has incredibly 
expressive eyes, and if acting was all about looking 
scared/delighted/worried/etc./etc., he'd be getting Oscars (TM) for his 
performances.

Regrettably (for him), acting is about more. Dan has made tremendous 
strides forward (pun intended) with his physical acting since PS/SS and 
there's not really much I can fault him for overall in Gof (unlike CoS in 
particular, in which other than in action scenes, he walked like an 
automaton and his body movements were anything but naturalistic). And I 
have said several times how much this has improved.

However (and nothing in your "rant" disproved this), he still has a great 
deal of work to do to get dialogue delivery right. Most of his lines in GoF 
(although thankfully, not all) are spoken as if he's read them for the 
first time and is trying to work out what they mean. Sure, he's getting a 
LOT better than some of his cringe-worthy deliveries in PS/SS and CoS, but 
he still has a lot to learn.

Emma has an annoying tendency to over-act her lines, but because she's on 
screen for so much less of the time, it isn't quite as obvious (and for a 
lot of the stuff Hermione has to say, she is anxious or otherwise 
heightened, so it's not so bad).

>I've rarely been impressed with child actors (it requires a GREAT  director
>to get a good performance out of most of them),

Because most child actors depend on charm rather than acting ability to get 
by, any rational and dispassionate view of child performances must admit 
that they are, overall, "limited" (to be generous). There is good reason 
why child actors VERY rarely manage to get nominated alongside adults for 
major awards of any kind.

Haley Joel Osment's string of nominations and awards for The Sixth Sense 
several years ago was utterly deserved: although (like Dan), his doleful 
eyes did a lot of the work to make his character believable, he did a 
terrific job with every other aspect of his performance. The same goes for 
Jamie Bell in "Billy Elliott" or, indeed, the ensemble cast in "Stand By 
Me" (which is, for fear of getting boring, one of my favourite movies of 
all time, and one of the best examples of acting by 14 year olds in the 
history of cinema). Or, for that matter, current darling Dakota Fanning - 
whilst acting Tom Cruise off the screen  is no big deal (hehe), doing it to 
Denzel Washington (Man on Fire) or Robert de Niro (Hide and Seek) takes a 
LOT of doing!

Sorry, but none of the HP leads are anywhere in the same league as those 
other kids, so let's please have a bit of perspective when heaping on the 
praise.

>That's enough of a rant for now.  I'm excited to see Dan in  "December Boys"
>to see how well he can portray a different character, but I  think he'll be
>fine.

I sincerely hope so. Although it seems that Dan does seem to be making a 
speciality of playing downtrodden but spirited orphans. :-)