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Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
Picturehouse
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for graphic nudity, some sexuality and language
Starring
Nicole Kidman,
Robert Downey Jr.,
Ty Burrell,
Harris Yulin,
Jane Alexander,
Emmy Clarke,
and
Genevieve McCarthy
Fur creates a ravishing imaginary portrait of the visionary artist Diane Arbus. Much as an actual Arbus photo transports us into strange and unfamiliar worlds, Fur travels through the looking glass to explore the transformation of a shy woman into a powerfully original artist. (Picturehouse)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Erin Cressida Wilson
Patricia Bosworth (book Diane Arbus)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Steven Shainberg
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: May 8, 2007
Theatrical: November 10, 2006
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
122 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
80
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
Much of the film is as strange and oddly beautiful as one of Arbus' own photographs, bold in its attempt to find new ways of cracking the biopic chestnut and sensitive in its portrayal of a 1950s woman who, like so many of her contemporaries, finds herself imprisoned in a "Good Housekeeping" nightmare.
75
Chicago Tribune
Jessica Reaves
The result is a revelatory, challenging and deeply affecting portrait, anchored by what may be Kidman's most profoundly moving performance to date.
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Kidman brings her character to life with a fey, moth-to-the-flame enthrallment that's both touching and fascinating.
70
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Purists will howl at the liberties Shainberg has taken with the facts, but there's a bravery to Fur, an uncompromising commitment to its narrow focus -- of one woman's creative birth -- that rhymes with Arbus's own artistic courage.
70
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Yet whenever you get too irritated at Fur's pretensions, the remarkable acting of its two stars pulls you back in and keeps you watching.
67
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
Fur is that rare movie that's TOO understated, so quiet and deliberate that it effectively buries consuming passions.
63
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
This is a Beauty & the Beast romance between Nicole Kidman and Chewbacca.
63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
If the only measure of Fur's achievement was in how well it conjures the fairy-tale mood of Arbus' most memorable photos, then it is a modest success. But as a chronicle of the turning point in an artist's creative life, it falls flat on its viewfinder.
60
Empire
Angie Errigo
Far-out touches and liberal application of metaphor are compensated for by intensity and two mesmerising performances.
60
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
This arty and moody account of her formation as an artist, as its subtitle declares, is basically invented. Its nerviness only pays off in a few details and in Nicole Kidman's resourcefulness.
60
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
This Diane Arbus, as she's portrayed by a tremulous Nicole Kidman, radiates warmth and empathy that's nowhere to be seen in the work of the real Diane Arbus. Fur is intended to be a tribute to Arbus, but it's more a fancifully embroidered tapestry of wishful thinking.
60
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Picture is impressively crafted and acted but far too narrowly and benignly conceived to satisfy even on its own terms.
50
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
The tall, cool Kidman works hard to impersonate a woman possessed, but she's not the type of actress to fill in a role that hasn't been filled in on paper.
50
The New Yorker
David Denby
Wilson and the director, Steven Shainberg, draw on Arbus's family and on many elements from her life and her art, only to turn the material into feeble nonsense.
50
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
A misguided tribute to the woman his (Shainberg's) film identifies among "the greatest artists of the 20th century."
50
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Downey makes something lively, sexy and moving out of a role that's just a thin concept. But the movie feels like it's still in the darkroom.
50
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Fur is a misfire by the talented people who four years ago gave us "Secretary," whose tongue-in-cheek approach might have served this film better, taking the edge off much of its pretensions.
50
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Though sometimes boldly captivating, the movie is also occasionally pretentious and lurid simply for shock value.
50
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
Fur is a folly, though not a dishonorable one.
50
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Fur starts stylishly, and confidently, but the film dwindles down to a chamber piece in a claustrophobic chamber. Enter at your own risk.
50
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
The movie's considerable problems are not the fault of its dedicated star, Nicole Kidman. She does her job beautifully - which, come to think of it, may be something of a problem after all.
50
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
In the end, the sheer obviousness of Shainberg and screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson's take on Diane Arbus' perverse determination to examine and document the forbidden overshadows even Kidman's beautifully modulated performance, which takes Diane from brittle neurosis to a vaguely predatory ingenuousness.
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
Fur does what an Arbus photograph never would -- it leaves no room to imagine and removes any reason for doubt.
50
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
In theory, there's nothing wrong with this unorthodox approach to Arbus -- attempting to explain her from the inside out. (In its way, Harmony Korine's freakfest "Gummo" is a better Arbus movie.) The trouble is that Shainberg and Wilson don't connect their conceit to anything artistically enlightening, erotic, or truly deviant.
42
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Fiction can sometimes be used to access a deeper truth than mere fact, but in this case all it does is obscure and confuse a fascinating life story.
42
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
The result is this metabiography that says almost nothing about the great photographer's life or art.
40
Slate
Dana Stevens
That's the best thing that can be said about Fur: It feels good when it's over, and if you see it with a smart friend, it's a blast to hash over afterward.
38
New York Post
Kyle Smith
Problem: Kidman is the only one in the theater who is turned on. The rest of us are giggling.
30
Austin Chronicle
Toddy Burton
Fur dares the viewer to look into the eyes of Kidman and Downey Jr. and not see a whimpering housewife with a crush on Chewbacca.
25
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
It's as if a trumped-up biopic of Andy Warhol were to appear titled "Soup.''
16
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Shainberg reduces this most disturbing of all photographers to a portraitist of Halloween.
 The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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