Rating of
4/4
A love Story
Moviejunkie - wrote on 09/04/11
The story of a man, a woman, and an ape doesn't need to be described. You know the story already. What this version does is tweak it a little, give some emotional depth and give us a heroine who deserves not only our sympathy (she REALLY has it bad in all three versions), but our respect. Ann Darrow in this film is a survivor of the Depression. Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) is a physical performer when we meet her. She's starving, but likeable. When the theatre she works for goes belly up, she's offered a job doing burlesque. By fate or chance, she refuses and finds herself in the clutches of Carl Durham (Jack Black) rouge filmmaker and scoundrel. She expiriences a slight romance that evolves with her and Carl's screenwriter Jack Driscoll (Adrian Brody).
When she is taken by Kong she quickly assesses the situation and begins to survive. Only when she realizes that Kong doesn't mean to harm her that she finds a kindred spirit in the ape, a fellow survivor who uses brute strength where she uses cunning and quick reflexes. I love the scene where she realizes this and uses her street acrobatic skills to show Kong she's not afraid of him. That bond is really what this film is all about.
