Some Velvet Morning (2013)

How sad is this?

Awesome Movie

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Tell them to skip this flick altogether!The give away that this movie is a set-up for the viewer is throughout the entire story. Velvet is constantly saying she must leave to meet a friend. But she never leaves the house! Plus she has every reason to leave because her relationship and conversation with Fred is 'rocky' at best. Fred is a most unpleasant fellow! But she stays to continue the conversation that she is clearly disturbed by. Something is surely afoot!I had never heard of this flick and because Stanley Tucci is a name in the actor world I decided to watch. Not such a good idea. The story drags on and on and you keep wondering why doesn't she just leave? By movies end you are ready to smack yourself for sticking with it! It's a trick! Hint, Hint!

Neil LaBute's work has always been raw in tone, frequently offensive, yet never lacking in punch.SOME VELVET MORNING proves no exception to this rule. Set in a split-level apartment in a big city, is concerns an apparently unstable relationship between middle-aged lawyer Fred (Stanley Tucci), and his twentysomething former mistress Velvet (Alice Eve). Fred claims to have left his wife and returned to Velvet after a four-year absence, while Velvet apparently resents his unexpected appearance in her apartment.Most of the film's eighty-two minute running-time is devoted to a roller-coaster depiction of the characters' relationship as it veers from protestations of love, false demonstrations of passion, and the more obvious depicting of male power based on strength. In the final reel there is an unexpected denouement that calls into question the entire basis on which the plot has been constructed. Some might consider it artificial; others a too-obvious elaboration of the film's basic theme.In terms of style, SOME VELVET MORNING has much of the rawness of David Mamet's OLEANNA (1994), another two-hander based on the clash between a man and woman of varying ages, combined with the destructive potential of Mike Nichols's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (1966), wherein the main characters tear emotional lumps out of each other in pursuit of emotional as well as physical mastery.As director, LaBute refuses to let his characters out of sight of his penetrating camera. We feel uncomfortably close to them, especially Fred as he tries to ingratiate himself once again into Velvet's emotions. Yet there is a sense in which the film glorifies as well as condemns male power; Tucci portrays Fred as the initiator of most of the conversations he conducts with Velvet. Until he achieves his desired aim, he will never give up.In truth the plot begins to pall as it unfolds, as we wonder why Fred is so insistent on achieving his desired aim. Is it part of his own feeling of insecurity; that he is an emotional wreck with a pathological inability to articulate his emotions? As Velvet, Eve tends to be too much of a foil to him; in Beckettian fashion she tells us she is going out but never actually takes any positive action.It might be said that SOME VELVET MORNING gives an uncompromising portrait of modern relationships. In truth it actually reveals the bile at the heart of the writer/ director's consciousness, which manifests itself in a consciously sexist piece of work.

Well... I mean, F*CK! And I'm just talking about the plot twist! I'm still pretty much speechless about it...About the acting... Both Alice Eve and Stanley Tucci were pretty intense in their role... Alice was... Alice... I mean the Alice interviewed in a Talk Show... She was totally believable, lovely and authentic... Stanley Tucci felt like his stressed out version! Non less authentic, I have to say! His character is not very likable, but Stanley is sympathetic, so of course at some point you cheer for him... The characters suit perfectly the actors, as if the parts were written for the actors...At first, I thought that the movie would be a little, or maybe a lot, more comic... Not much of the heavy drama it is... I probably thought that 'cause both actors would pull-off the comedic characters easily... But they were great in this dark piece of art... Some Velvet Morning was my first of Neil LaBute's movies... And won't be the last! This movie is very well made, surprising, not as fun as the trailer makes it looks like... The lack of a score can be felt... Maybe the absence means to make the movie a little claustrophobic... I think that Some Velvet Morning is really underrated... It worth a couple prizes...Call me for a discussion of the plot twist... Specially if it made you feel cheated, angry or confused! Will I answer your questions? Probably not... But this movie deserve to be more discussed!

"Some velvet mornin' when I'm straight I'm gonna open up your gate And maybe tell you 'bout Phaedra And how she gave me life And how she made it end." Lee Hazlewood.Writer/director Neil LaBute acknowledges Swedish playwright August Strindberg after the credits of Some Velvet Morning. And well he should, for his Some Velvet Morning has naturalism with touches of Ibsen in an entertaining two hander that barely covers the violent potential of its male, Fred (Stanley Tucci) and female (Alice Eve). The film is contemporary-dialogue driven, and that works swell for me, a word guy.Lee Hazelwood's lyrics, above, sung by Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra in the '70's, suggest that the mythical Phaedra, whom Hippolytus spurned, holds questions to be unanswered about the ballet between the sexes. LaBute's modern romance, albeit she is a prostitute, suggests few answers for lovers are yet to be found even over thousands of years. As in Strindberg's Miss Julia, the sexual play is masked by a restraint that is in check only part way through the film. Fred returns to Velvet after four years expecting her to drop everything for him. The dialogue dance grows intense as it's clear she does not want to resume the relationship. She repeats, "You need to leave, before I get..." as he demands she finish the thought. Hers is largely a reactive role that harks back to times when women were barely heard or seen.Although the intense sexual battle in the film might lead to violence, as it did in the Phaedra legend, restraint holds sway, just as you might expect from attorney Fred and classy call girl Velvet. The verbal violence does not have the high class intonations of, say, Tracey Letts' August: Osage County or the middle class rudeness of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf; it does deftly display the hidden horror of relationships gone bad. LaBute lets his actors suggest the bad blood between former lovers and by extension the dangers of any male-female contests.I hope the film's success does not rest on the surprise ending, which may trivialize an eternal contest between males and females. The hooker- with-a heart of gold motif doesn't apply. This Adam and Eve are in charge of their fates, and it's not pretty.