Sara Carreras Noises Off Response
Noises Off was an interesting movie to watch because it felt like I was watching a stage play the entire time rather than a movie about a stage play. It was as if the play-within-a-play never stopped, but rather continued into the reality of the cast and crew rehearsing the play. As in a comedic play, the dialogue was very quick and snappy, and the comedy relied heavily on physical comedy and funny blocking. It was fun watching the actions build into complete chaos and be in a world that is not at all similar to our reality but that is an art form all its own. One of my favorite performances from the play was John Ritter’s performance because I have seen him act quite a bit, but only in the context of Three’s Company. I enjoyed being able to see him in another comedic role, with the same sense of timing and comedic chops that I’ve seen before, but with a little less heart and much faster, in the style of farce. I also really enjoyed Michael Caine’s performance because I have never seen him in a comedy before, speaking so quickly and being such an outrageous character.
My absolute favorite element of the play was the flip in how they presented the show from onstage to backstage in the second act of the movie. I thought that it was a very creative way to tell all-new jokes and open up the mind of the viewer to stories that the viewer would not have imagined, thinking outside the box and showing a different perspective. I also thought that the way in which the script juggled jokes about the play with jokes about the interpersonal relationships of the cast and crew made for a dense story, easy to revisit over and over again in the future.
While I thought that the movie was creative and displayed the impressive talents of the cast and crew, it was a bit difficult to watch at times. It is hard to me to watch something in the same setting for long amounts of time, and I found my favorite moments to be transitions or whenever we would get a change of scenery. I think that perhaps the play would be better suited to the actual stage, which might make it easier to sit through, but that overall it is a fun movie that definitely stands out.