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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Since 1996 |
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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The Omen (2006) Stars: Julia Stiles, Liev Schreiber, Mia Farrow, David Thewlis, Pete Postlethwaite, Michael Gambon, and Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick Director: John Moore Scriptwriter: David Seltzer Music: Marco Beltrami 20th Century Fox Running Time: One hour and 50 minutes Rating: R We are in re-makesville again. Why remake a classic? David Seltzer who wrote the original 1976 screenplay for The Omen is trying it again. Jerry Goldsmith’s haunting chants won an Oscar for Best Music Soundtrack in 1976. In 2006, Marco Beltrami’s music is overpowering and repetitive.1976 had Gregory Peck in the lead role of Robert Thorn, while the expressive Lee Remick was his wife, Katherine. Peck, who was everyone’s favorite father from his role in To Catch A Mockingbird, nailed the role of the increasingly emotional Thorn, and Lee Remick was the elegant diplomat’s wife with an evil child. In 2006, Julia Stiles, not quite a lead actress, plays Katherine, while the who-is-he-again Liev Schreiber is a stone-faced Thorn. The comparisons just keep coming as The Omen (2006) just keeps thudding its way to its climax. David Seltzer wrote an imaginative horror story of Satan’s child, born on earth and come to fulfill Biblical prophesies. The first _Omen_ spawned two sequels, though none were as good as the original. Here, Seltzer’s dialogue sounds flat as the actors do their lines in situations that aren’t humorous, but bring about audience chuckles anyway. The basic story has Robert Thorn as a high-ranking diplomat serving in Rome. Katharine gives birth to a son. Eventually, Robert is transferred to an even higher post in London. Years pass, and at Damien’s sixth birthday party, his nanny mysteriously hangs herself in front of everyone. Mia Farrow (remember her from “Rosemary’s Baby?”) plays the nanny who is next in line to care for the child, Damien (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick looking positively robotic). No one is suspicious yet, even when an enormous dog suddenly appears in the child’s nursery and looks fierce enough to disembowel anyone who approaches. What does Robert Thorn say? “We’ll call the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the morning.” Who do you think got any sleep that night? Strange things happen near Damien, a priest (Pete Postlethwaite) warns Robert of his child, Katherine grows distant from Damien, a photographer (David Thewlis) gets startling pictures and then there is that dog everywhere. Secrets abound and none of them are pretty. Deaths are gruesome (beware of anything hanging above you), Mia Farrow is becoming possessive and it rains all the time in London. This _Omen_ has wonderful photography and mood by Jonathan Sela. There are three “scare moments” in the film that caught me unaware. With this going for it, one wonders why nothing clicks here and I believe it is in casting the lead roles. Stiles doesn’t convince me that she is a mother, partly because she looks way too young, and Schreiber looks as though he would rather be at a diplomatic meeting. Compared to those two, the rest of the cast (with the exception of the child) seem to be over-acting. The dialogue that causes laughter includes Mia Farrow, who after doing a dastardly deed says cheerfully, “There, my work is done.” The Omen (2006) is a story that needs a definitive lead character to propel it forward. Liev Schreiber, unfortunately, just isn’t that person. I wonder how Rachel Weicz and Ralph Fiennes of The Constant Gardener would have been in the roles of Robert and Katherine Thorn? We will never know and it still rains all the time in London. Copyright 2006 Marie Asner
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