The second act, on stage and truncated on film, I guess, is ghastly. All of those new Euro characters shoved in so late, none of whom we care a whit about, or serve as genuine obstacles to the central love story. The show is dreadfully constructed on stage, since we're forced to see all of that My Fair Molly stuff as dramatic fodder, very, very late, and none of it matters to us. But in the film, Reynolds is far more persuasive, and let's just say it -- calmed down -- in that section than playing the dirty-faced Tobin gal. Admittedly, an hour of the film in which all of her work shows, even in her eyes (you can see her beg us to appreciate how ill-suited she is to the gritty part) -- and how hard she is working. It's that part of "Molly Brown," the elegant lady gowned and touring the foreign capitals, that best demonstrates the kind of Dolly she might've made. To me, anyway.
It is all rather moot, now. And a bit sad. |
