A drunken playboy stands to lose a wealthy inheritance when he falls for a woman that his family doesn't like.
16 May Arthur (2011)
A Matter of Worlds
Remakes embed a history of abstraction, so even though both the concerned films may be trivial and uninteresting, the story of their difference can be quite engaging.
The original was simply constructed based on the drunk redemption story spliced onto the flexible rubber of romantic comedy. It was something of a risk to balance the damage of a pathetic drunk with the well established film humor of drunks, but it was pulled off.
Now this. It has the same name at least, and a comic doing what passes today for humorous excess (including sexual addiction). But the foundation is completely different because we are now well past the point were we can tell stories without telling stories about stories.
So we have a film about stories, and the collision of different stories. Our hero is not a victim of substance abuse, he is instead someone who lives in a fantasy world. His ‘nanny’ and ‘mother’ have their own stories. He has trouble harmonizing his with those of the rest of the world, as represented by these women.
But then he meets a girl, a storyteller who has the ability to bridge this gap. It is as simple a version of the redemption genre as the original ‘Arthur.’ But the shift to metastory is complete.
Posted in 2011
Ted’s Evaluation — 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
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