The Vertical Hour

So I was in New York (this is Kevin) a couple weeks ago, and I meant to blog earlier, but I didn't. So today I'm on a little blog run. First off, The Vertical Hour.

The Vertical Hour seems like it should be awesome, huh? Starring Julianne Moore, written by David Hare (who wrote Stuff Happens). Unfortunately, it was not. I haven't read the NYTimes review yet, so this is going to be Kevin's thoughts as best as I can remember them.

So first off, the plot. So the question for this play is less, "what's the plot?" as "why did he bother with a plot?" David Hare writes basically an argument for two sides of our involvement in the Iraq war and tries to put it into a play. There really was no reason. The fact that it was an essay disguised in a play just made it annoying. The play was thin and plotless, and brought very little value to what Hare was trying to say. Julianne Moore plays this Yale professor who has very strong pro-Iraq involvement views (which was at least interesting). There are two basically pointless exposition/concluding scenes that seem like they might be interesting, but ultimately are separate from the rest of the play and are not revisited. They are apparently only there to give Julianne Moore's character some introduction. So then Julianne Moore goes to her boyfriend's dad's place. There's a big argument about the relationships and the dad (played by Bill Nighy) and his character. It's something about the boyfriend being mad because he thinks his dad is trying to seduce Julianne Moore. It's pretty lame. It's just that the Bill Nighy's character is very anti-Iraq war, and he has a debate with Julianne Moore. Yeah, that's it. So Hare, I believe, is saying some things about peace, and how it reflects lifestyles and views. But it was pretty dry for a play, and probably would have been more entertaining as a lecture.

Unfortunately, I also suffered from what I like to call the "Faith Healer syndrome." This means I stood for the first act and got an awesome seat the second act, not taking into consideration how comfortable the seat was. So yeah, I dozed. But I shouldn't have, because they were shouting on stage when I was dozing. Obviously the play was that gripping. I won't lie, I'm not a huge politico, so that might have been an issue, but if it were gripping or entertaining, I still would have enjoyed it.

So the play itself...notsogreat. As for the acting, I thought Bill Nighy was great, as was the younger male character. Julianne Moore, I guess I'll just say, was better than Julia? Barely? I don't know. I think she's a great film actress, but everything that came out of her mouth sounded kind of awkward and forced. The dialogue was so unnatural-sounding (although I'm sure the writing didn't help). She is, however, a very very nice person (I stage-doored her afterwards. I'm a tourist in NY now, I'm allowed to do that).

So all in all, I'd say skip it, even if you loved Stuff Happens or love Julianne Moore.