This is great criticism. I thought the film was beautiful (loved the quietness which would’ve been interesting juxtaposed to Irene constant worrying) but having read the book, so much of the important interior stuff was left out and I honestly feel a little yikes for the folks who watch the movie w/o context of the book. Too much flattening of a text that wrote ambiguity with such fine detail. Only so much a movie can do but hadn’t yet arrived at that point.
Not to be a fanboy, a 71 year old fanboy at that, but you have become the best film critic in America with drama swiftness. Watch out, enemies may loom.
Excellent, extremely eloquent review. I felt just as you describe after watching the movie but couldn’t put the words to what I felt; or should I say didn’t feel. You nailed it. Thank you.
How interesting! We saw opposite things in Hall's approach. A few thoughts: I loved the book, which is so subtle and complex, and I was worried a movie couldn't possibly express it because, yes, it occurs almost entirely inside the head, the thoughts and feelings, of the character of Irene, who is unaware of most of her own real feelings, I agree with you that the movie seems very focused on exteriors. Movies are pictures. But Larsen's writing even at times (wrongly I think) criticized for focusing on decor, on exteriors. But her exteriors are not "decor", they express meaning -- she provides visual images and paints the settings to allow us to focus on the impressions her characters are trying to make in the world. Similarly, I think the movie points us to what is going on inside the women, esp inside Irene. The movie is "passing" for its own exterior, starting with the dazzling white at the beginning, and Hall really wants us to look beneath, I heard Hall say they intentionally chose furnishings for Irene's apartment that expressed nothing of her true self. I see that you don't think or feel that Hall succeeded in getting beneath the exterior, but I think she did. I think every scene points us to distrust the surfaces and to look beneath them! Everyone and everything is "passing"! Hall has said this repeatedly in interview, she says her movie is even passing for other movies. Irene is so confused! She doesn't envy Clare for passing, she envies (and fears) Clare for always trying to get what she wants. It is Irene who thinks Clare is so beautiful, but her husband (sincerely I think) doesn't. She is vivacious and "goes for it" and everyone enjoys that. But in the book, Irene has a clear terror that Clare will stop passing and her racist husband will find out that is is Black. There is no ambiguity about this in the book, Irene is terrified that Clare will use that "freedom" of being discovered as Black to steal Irene's life, to steal Irene's husband Bryan from her. But Clare isn't in love with Bryan! She is perhaps more in love with Irene and with what Irene's life represents -- but Irene is even more attracted to Clare (perhaps more than in the book). One tiny other thing: I think you meant to use a different word when you wrote that Hall's adaptation was "often obtuse". Don't you mean Hall's work was "often obscure"? Your review criticizes her for being unclear, making it hard to see (covering up, obscuring, hiding, making invisible) the important points, I don't think you meant to say that Hall was actually stupid (which is basically what "obtuse" means). Thanks for all you wrote, I am sorry my comments are perhaps overly obscure but I hope you don't think me obtuse.
"The characters have no insides. No interior states. And in such, it becomes a movie not even really about passing. It’s a movie about our contemporary hyper fixation on the exterior of racial theater." I stopped myself from watching Passing it based on getting this same feeling from the trailer. Loved your take!
I have never read the original novel and don't know that I will get around to watching the movie, but I just finished reading Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half so I've had passing on my mind. This essay was a great accompaniment to my thoughts.
I was hesitant when I started reading the book, because passing, quite frankly, felt like an anachronism. Not just for the racial reasons, but because it seems logistically impossible today. Social media, the need for educational credentials, enhanced ID requirements, they all make the idea of just walking out of one life and into another seem like something from another era.
There was a point just shy of halfway through The Vanishing Half where I feared that the book had lost me, that it had gone down too many character tangents. But then something happened that introduced narrative tension and I was instantly grateful that Bennett had put the time and effort into developing these characters. The result was that I was deeply invested in whether certain things would or would not happen. I really devoured the second half of that book.
The idea of passing is still not very interesting. But that the idea of being trapped in a life that you chose and went to great effort to construct, that is fascinating. You either stick with the lie or allow your whole life to implode. It is a fitting metaphor for some of our current racial conundrums. We are trapped in this racial caste system that used to be all-encompassing. It has atrophied but it still has a tremendous hold on us and we cannot seem to come to agreement on how best to get out of from its confines.
As an aside, I have noticed that movies directed by actors can have a certain ephemeral quality about them. I am thinking of movies directed by Clint Eastwood and Angelina Jolie. The Good Shepherd directed by Robert Di Nero also comes to mind. They are movies that tell the narrative quite well. They hit the beats. Everything is clear. But they feel a little bit hollow and a little bit forgettable. What's missing is usually that interior element of character. You would think that good actors would be more attuned to character, but I suppose that character and performance are not the same thing.
I have the book and I plan on watching the Netflix show, but haven't done either yet. I have however seen several interviews with Rebecca and the actresses. I guess I didn't realize that "passing" was something that was done until I read Brit Bennet's recent book, The Vanishing Half. I'm excited to read the book and watch the movie, especially after reading your review here. Thanks.
Thank you, Brandon, for the best movie review I’ve read in quite some time. Made me think of a truth that I don’t see mentioned much recently, but one that sticks I in the front of my mind. Race is a social construct. In the novel I’m working on, a girl growing up in a small town in the sixties is deemed white, but is maligned behind her back as “tainted” because of her fulsome lips and bronze skin. She isn’t passing—she pasted. She’s not pretending anything—just dealing with the insane power of a social construct. Not too dissimilar from one of of her friends who grew up way out in the sticks who is maligned as a hick.
This is great criticism. I thought the film was beautiful (loved the quietness which would’ve been interesting juxtaposed to Irene constant worrying) but having read the book, so much of the important interior stuff was left out and I honestly feel a little yikes for the folks who watch the movie w/o context of the book. Too much flattening of a text that wrote ambiguity with such fine detail. Only so much a movie can do but hadn’t yet arrived at that point.
I think the problem with Hall's film is that she didn't play Clare herself.
Not to be a fanboy, a 71 year old fanboy at that, but you have become the best film critic in America with drama swiftness. Watch out, enemies may loom.
Thank you. This is a brilliant lesson and reminder to work from the inside out.
Excellent, extremely eloquent review. I felt just as you describe after watching the movie but couldn’t put the words to what I felt; or should I say didn’t feel. You nailed it. Thank you.
How interesting! We saw opposite things in Hall's approach. A few thoughts: I loved the book, which is so subtle and complex, and I was worried a movie couldn't possibly express it because, yes, it occurs almost entirely inside the head, the thoughts and feelings, of the character of Irene, who is unaware of most of her own real feelings, I agree with you that the movie seems very focused on exteriors. Movies are pictures. But Larsen's writing even at times (wrongly I think) criticized for focusing on decor, on exteriors. But her exteriors are not "decor", they express meaning -- she provides visual images and paints the settings to allow us to focus on the impressions her characters are trying to make in the world. Similarly, I think the movie points us to what is going on inside the women, esp inside Irene. The movie is "passing" for its own exterior, starting with the dazzling white at the beginning, and Hall really wants us to look beneath, I heard Hall say they intentionally chose furnishings for Irene's apartment that expressed nothing of her true self. I see that you don't think or feel that Hall succeeded in getting beneath the exterior, but I think she did. I think every scene points us to distrust the surfaces and to look beneath them! Everyone and everything is "passing"! Hall has said this repeatedly in interview, she says her movie is even passing for other movies. Irene is so confused! She doesn't envy Clare for passing, she envies (and fears) Clare for always trying to get what she wants. It is Irene who thinks Clare is so beautiful, but her husband (sincerely I think) doesn't. She is vivacious and "goes for it" and everyone enjoys that. But in the book, Irene has a clear terror that Clare will stop passing and her racist husband will find out that is is Black. There is no ambiguity about this in the book, Irene is terrified that Clare will use that "freedom" of being discovered as Black to steal Irene's life, to steal Irene's husband Bryan from her. But Clare isn't in love with Bryan! She is perhaps more in love with Irene and with what Irene's life represents -- but Irene is even more attracted to Clare (perhaps more than in the book). One tiny other thing: I think you meant to use a different word when you wrote that Hall's adaptation was "often obtuse". Don't you mean Hall's work was "often obscure"? Your review criticizes her for being unclear, making it hard to see (covering up, obscuring, hiding, making invisible) the important points, I don't think you meant to say that Hall was actually stupid (which is basically what "obtuse" means). Thanks for all you wrote, I am sorry my comments are perhaps overly obscure but I hope you don't think me obtuse.
everything you write fills me with excitement -- what a beautiful argument you're making with all of your work !!
well done and an incisive take on a bland story
"The characters have no insides. No interior states. And in such, it becomes a movie not even really about passing. It’s a movie about our contemporary hyper fixation on the exterior of racial theater." I stopped myself from watching Passing it based on getting this same feeling from the trailer. Loved your take!
I have never read the original novel and don't know that I will get around to watching the movie, but I just finished reading Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half so I've had passing on my mind. This essay was a great accompaniment to my thoughts.
I was hesitant when I started reading the book, because passing, quite frankly, felt like an anachronism. Not just for the racial reasons, but because it seems logistically impossible today. Social media, the need for educational credentials, enhanced ID requirements, they all make the idea of just walking out of one life and into another seem like something from another era.
There was a point just shy of halfway through The Vanishing Half where I feared that the book had lost me, that it had gone down too many character tangents. But then something happened that introduced narrative tension and I was instantly grateful that Bennett had put the time and effort into developing these characters. The result was that I was deeply invested in whether certain things would or would not happen. I really devoured the second half of that book.
The idea of passing is still not very interesting. But that the idea of being trapped in a life that you chose and went to great effort to construct, that is fascinating. You either stick with the lie or allow your whole life to implode. It is a fitting metaphor for some of our current racial conundrums. We are trapped in this racial caste system that used to be all-encompassing. It has atrophied but it still has a tremendous hold on us and we cannot seem to come to agreement on how best to get out of from its confines.
As an aside, I have noticed that movies directed by actors can have a certain ephemeral quality about them. I am thinking of movies directed by Clint Eastwood and Angelina Jolie. The Good Shepherd directed by Robert Di Nero also comes to mind. They are movies that tell the narrative quite well. They hit the beats. Everything is clear. But they feel a little bit hollow and a little bit forgettable. What's missing is usually that interior element of character. You would think that good actors would be more attuned to character, but I suppose that character and performance are not the same thing.
I have the book and I plan on watching the Netflix show, but haven't done either yet. I have however seen several interviews with Rebecca and the actresses. I guess I didn't realize that "passing" was something that was done until I read Brit Bennet's recent book, The Vanishing Half. I'm excited to read the book and watch the movie, especially after reading your review here. Thanks.
Thank you, Brandon, for the best movie review I’ve read in quite some time. Made me think of a truth that I don’t see mentioned much recently, but one that sticks I in the front of my mind. Race is a social construct. In the novel I’m working on, a girl growing up in a small town in the sixties is deemed white, but is maligned behind her back as “tainted” because of her fulsome lips and bronze skin. She isn’t passing—she pasted. She’s not pretending anything—just dealing with the insane power of a social construct. Not too dissimilar from one of of her friends who grew up way out in the sticks who is maligned as a hick.