Is #7 the charm, Richard Armitage?

Claude Becker (Richard Armitage) and Daphne Kluger (Anne Hathaway) kiss for their lives in Ocean’s 8.

Well, I liked it on first watch, too. But I found a “dadsitter” tonight and took off for two hours of staring at the big screen. It’s been a while since I’ve felt this Purple Rose of Cairo-ish as a spectator, but I’m addicted and this was great. Two hours of silliness. I saw Into the Storm a lot of times, too, but this is better even if Armitage is in less of it. I think it’s because the scenes are all really short, the film is really well scored, and I like all the gags. But even if I didn’t like all the gags, none of them last very long. It’s a kind of “poof” and you miss it sort of joke pattern (cf. Into the Storm, which had those long, stupid segments of the youtuber wannabes). The other thing I noticed is that I’m fairly sure Armitage is wearing some kind of hair appliance in a number of scenes. It’s a good one and not obvious but there are one or two places where it looks like he has a double hairline. In any case, I still love those bedhead scenes. I still love the way he says “stoP” to Debbie. I love Claude Becker’s costumes and his ostentatious manners (i.e., manners so scrupulous that they’re actually rude).

I was thinking, when Tammy is observing the pre-luncheon or whatever and reports back, it’s not entirely clear if she says “the eagle has landed” or “the ego has landed,” but either would be appropriate. Armitage just projects this crazy self-awareness on everyone around him in these scenes. Hilarious, and you wonder where he got it from. I can imagine one observes a lot of very large egos (and their behaviors) in his position, and I think we’re benefiting.

I needed this tonight. More therapy tomorrow (OT, PT, ST) and another appointment to straighten out some paperwork and I wonder if he isn’t simply being overwhelmed. I sure am. I just texted my brother and I said, “we almost managed all the therapy practice we were supposed to do.” I’m not sure this much therapy would be appropriate for someone much younger, let alone an elderly person. On the other hand, from the four-week and ten-week goals it’s clear that they fully expect he will be able to walk without assistance again, and that would really be huge for us. So I’ll stick with the program. (Unless i fall down in exhaustion first.)

Anyway, it’s been held over another week so I can look forward to seeing it on the next cheap day, schedule permitting. I got quadruple rewards points for my ticket tonight.

~ by Servetus on July 5, 2018.

30 Responses to “Is #7 the charm, Richard Armitage?”

  1. Well, it seems completely appropriate to me to see Ocean’s 8 at least eight times! The most I’ve ever managed to see movies in the theatre is three times, and only two movies at that. Black Panther and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I applaud you for managing to see these movies so many times in the theatre!

    On another note, I wonder why they’d have him wear a hairpiece in the movie. It’s not as though he’s balding or anything…

    Liked by 2 people

    • I’m really set up for ease. There’s a theater about 5 mi away and there are lots of deals ($5 Tuesdays, additional rewards points for some movies, etc.). I actually prefer the one that’s 13 mi away but at the moment it’s a real blessing that this one is practically (for our standards) right next door.

      His hair is not especially thick.

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  2. I thought she said ego. Hair appliance, double hairline? Please elaborate so I can see if I see it, or not.

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    • I don’t know anything about hair appliances, so I’m speculating on what it would be, but if you look at the back of his head in the scene with James Corden in the common are of his loft, you can kind of see his own hairline, and then a different layer above it.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. I thought she said ego, too. I thought it was funnier than eagle landing. As for the hairpiece, didn’t notice it, but I’ve only seen movie once. Would like to see it a few more times before it leaves the theaters.

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    • “the Eagle has landed” is a quotation from the Apollo 11 mission. Armstrong said it after landing the lunar module. That’s what I assumed she was saying the first time and I thought that was really funny on its own.

      Something about his face on the big screen …

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  4. Glad the movie is providing you with a couple of hours of respite.
    RA’s hairline has long been a source of fascination to me; I think he fairly regularly wears hair pieces (particularly at some of the public event /conventions he’s attended to talk about his role eg. Hannibal, BS) so would not be surprised if he wore one in this film. 😆

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    • My understanding is that there are a lot of ways to enhance hair with makeup (spray thickeners, e.g.), but this is the first time I’ve thought he was wearing an additional physical supplement.

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      • I’ve always thought he wore hairpieces in Spooks as well as Lucas. I had always imagined it common practice in the movie business – not to just make someone look better or to enhance thinning hair or give them another hairstyle other than their own, but mostly for continuity and ease of keeping the characters hair ‘just so’ so the character looks the same when the movie depicts a single day or so, but was in actuality filmed over a period weeks or months. I was thinking that a hairpiece applied would be easier, less time consuming and more accuate than cutting and dressing someone’s hair to look exactly the same over a long time period. Just a thought.

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  5. Perfect film for a little bit of distraction. Now that I have seen it, too, I agree that it has good gags and is an easy-watcher. Not enough RA, indeed, but when he’s on screen, he kills it as the weasel. (I heard “ego”, btw – thought that it was a deliberate joke).
    Sounds like a lot of therapy work. Has it all been put on your plate? Are there no therapists looking after your dad? It seems like an awful lot of work – and responsibility – especially if the patient isn’t entirely honest with his feedback (re. your other post).

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    • We see the therapists on Tuesdays and Thursdays (3 hours in a row — physical, occupational, speech, each time) and then we come home to practice on our own on other days. We do legs, arms, fingers and walking every day, but on days when we he has a guest, I usually truncate the speech therapy. I’m not an expert but it seems pretty standard in terms of a prescription for the situation, at least in terms of the other people we see while doing it. It’s a lot of driving (40 mi roundtrip) and scheduling, but that doesn’t bother me so much as dad’s lack of cooperation, which is increasingly concerning.

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      • Ah, I understand – regular appointments with the professionals and then ‘homework’. Is the lack of cooperation only in relation to your efforts at home? That’s probably another argument in favour of a health system that pays for the professionals to see to the rehabilitation needs of patients, rather than the relatives. It’s a difficult task for you, especially when the patient isn’t cooperating. Mind you, the frequent trips are not ideal, either. I take it that the US doesn’t have a “Kur” system like they do in Germany?

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        • No, he’s also rude to the professionals. They’re just better able to take it. He could go to rehab, but (a) he badly doesn’t want to go and (b) outcomes are better for people at home, apparently because family members are more invested in nagging people to do the exercises than the professionals are. Or so the occupational therapist told me when I asked her if it wouldn’t be better for him to be in rehab. Medicare would pay for three months. And yeah, no “Kur” system in the U.S., although there are spas that one could go to, they are not medical outfits. Not that he would go to one anyway.

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          • That’s really unfortunate. And I am surprised to hear that outcomes are better for people at home. Ok, it makes sense that relatives are better at nagging. But no one is taking the sanity and health of the carers into account…

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            • I’m not — because I only have one patient, and I can tell when he’s evading. I’m sort of his personal trainer.

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  6. I am struck by the idea of the hair appliance, if he is wearing one in the movie. I know he has always had relatively thin hair, but I wonder now if he has started to be really balding/bald on top. I’ve noticed that the way he wears his hair is always pretty high on top, sometimes excessively so. Could it be a hairpiece? Could it withstand the wind on the beach for Their Lost Daughters? Is that why when walking about town or at stage doors he is generally wearing a baseball cap? And the big question… why am I thinking about this so much?

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    • I know, right? The fandom hasn’t had a good knock down drag out about this in several years now but it was a major topic of discussion a while back, lol.

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      • Oh, I didn’t know that. For some reason, the idea that he might be bald on top and is covering it up just gets me right in the gut. Kind of like when I started reading all the discussion about him having his nose altered. In both cases, it says something about lack of ease with his appearance, combined of course with how he needs to look to get parts. I wonder how he would look completely bald on top? I mean, I’ve known some attractive bald guys, but it definitely changes a person’s appearance.

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        • I think it’s fair to say it’s an issue of longer term, e.g., https://meandrichard.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/on-the-visibility-of-richard-armitages-scalp/ because his hair is not the thickest and he seems to have a weird rear cowlick situation.

          My impression is that the reason he wore the baseball cap in 2016 was that his haircut for Kenneth was weird and he left so quickly that he didn’t seem to be showering, i.e., his hair was still full of gunk from the play’s third scene. I also don’t think he was getting assistance in 2017 while filming BS 2 (after 08). I think the 08 people added it. But not in every scene, which is a little weird. It will be easier to assess once we have the DVD version. The bootlegs available at the moment are all poor resolution.

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          • Oh I see what you mean! Yeah I think his hair is just really thin.

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            • He was dying it very intensively in the years just before The Hobbit as well. He seems to have backed off from that slightly.

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              • Maybe… unless he’s actually got a ton of grey? Isn’t speculation fun?

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                • I think he’s got plenty of gray, but I think he hasn’t been dying as intensively since TH — no more allover jet-black Lucas North or Guy of Gisborne. There are gradations of hair dye that aren’t as punishing as that slick look was.

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                  • Although I have to say that I loved the dark hair, especially on Guy.

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                    • I liked it on Thornton, somewhat less so on Guy and Lucas. But I remember thinking at the time that I became a fan that it was odd that he hadn’t moved in that direction earlier — because it makes his eyes much more striking.

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