Customer Reviews

Lakeboat

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I couldn't disagree more with previous review.
I enjoyed this film very much. There is a great story about a college student who ships out for the summer aboard an ore carrier on Lake Michigan.
The crew members he meets, and learns life lessons from are wonderful cast of real "characters" played by some great actors.
The reoccuring story about what really happened to the missing crew member is fun as well.
Not and action packed film, but a great addition to any David Mamet film collection.
By the way Ebert gave this film 3 stars. And wished this film had been made at the time he taught a class on Mamet and his films.

You enter this closed world aboard an almost phantom ship like secret corners of life composed of solitude, memory, inner yearnings and the desire to be remembered even if only for having imparted the trick of removing fingerprints from stainless steel.
The offerings of some part of themselves to take to another life of which they know nothing to someone who listened, who said yes, or I understand, the romantized stories about a missing crew member of this back and forth across the lake of people embedded in lives they unendlingly explain in the gestures that compose their lives is haunting, touching and often pure poetry.
The actors are breath-taking and the directing so beautifully done as to be almost invisible.
I love this film.

Re the DVD itself, not the film:
* Pan and scan only
* No close captioning
* Subtitles in Spanish only
Great movie, not the best DVD.

This is a guys movie about men teaching a grad college student about men's lives. They do it by association and without lecturing or posturing. Tough language in places, but it is how a lot of guys talk. Same idea as Duvall and Caine teaching the kid in "Second Hand Lions", except the 'student' was younger there. I enjoyed this movie a lot. Good acting and quite subtle for all the cursing. By the way, Jack Wallace, who initiates the funny Steven Seagal discussion, played Seagal's uncle in "Above the Law."

For David Mamet fans, dialogue over special effects fans, fans of charming humor and people intertesed in a view of men without women...this is a quality film. Even for people who aren't fans of any of those things, but open to good acting and even bizarre, absurd conversations, funny non-sequitors. There are three great scenes: One from Jack Wallace as Fred, describing his introduction into the battle of the sexes, another between Jack Wallace and J.J. Johnston about Steven Seagal, and Robert Forster's tour de force monologue towards the end.

Setting: a slowly moving boat and its crew with a young boy from a college to have a part-time job among them. Script: written by David Mamet for stage, now adapted for movie. Plot: almost nothing.

This is the shortest way to describle this film, but as enthusiastic Mamet fans (which I am not) would claim, the film's charm does not lie in the conventional story; it is a series of energetic and peculiarly funny dialogue filled with humanity between colorful characters that interests and amuses you, and this time first-time director Joe Mantegna does justice to its original merit (my favorite is rather silly discussion about Steven Seagal). During the film, nothing spectacular happens. No "Perfect Storm," no "Poseidon Adventure." What you see (or hear) is the portrayals of the mostly veteran crew which consist of reliable cast long familiar to movie fans. The old boat glides slowly on water, just like the life of the crew.

So, "Lakeboat" belongs to the groups of films like "Glengarry Glen Ross" and "American Buffalo" both adapted for movie from Mamet's stage play. It is heavily dialogue-driven, but without intense exchange of acting between heavy-weight actors of "Glengarry," which is perhaps better made than this one. As far as "Lakeboat" goes, in my opinion, casting Tony Mamet (brother to David, and one of the producers of the film) into a key role of a youth in "Lakeboat" is a mistake, I am afraid; frankly, he is not up to working with the caliber of the veteran cast such as Durning, Forster, and Falk. And the moviemakers should have reconsidered the idea of the unbilled Andy Garcia character (he appears only in flashback scenes), which does not simply work. However, Robert Forster (deservedly Oscar-nominated for his acting in "Jackie Brown") compensates for these, with his extremely humane, warm performance. When he recollects his dream of becoming a ballet dancer before young Dale; or when he remembers he considered of committing suicide, the film turns a little jem. "Lakeboat" is worth watching just for him.

As a whole, just like "American Buffalo," "Lakeboat" is a very stagy film, and that is the point our tastes differ. If you think movie is a thing to move on, you should forget it. But if you are willing to pay some money to see good acting from skilled actors, and Mamet's rough, but intriguing dialogue, watch it. It is strange but even after watching it, you might feel the boat is still going on somewhere around Michigan. The film is so true-to-life.

For the names that are in it I expected a lot more than what I got. This movie gives the false image that lake boat sailors are lazy, drunk, foul mouthed and in several cases severely mentaly ill. I guess as a former great lakes sailor I found the movie offensive. I don't know where the writer got these ideas but it wasn't on any boat I worked on! P.S. The movie would be a lot better if it had a plot!