Owen Wilson

Current mood: pithy

Went to see Wedding Crashers the other day, and it occured to me that Owen Wilson is the "actor" equivalent to Sandra Bullock being an "actress." I'm just saying that these are strange titles given that both thespians have made careers out of playing the same characters -- themselves--in every movie*.

Once my sister and I went to a dinner show in Thailand. Before the musical play began, the hostess and one dancer explained the "emotions" in a Thai dance performance.

Hostess: This is happy.
Dancer turns her straight, painted face to the side and points her hands up.

Hostess: This is sad.
Dancer turn her straight, painted face to the side and points hands down.

There were a number of other emotions, completely dependent on hand gestures, but you get the gist, plus as an English major I'm starting to feel icky in a Catholic guilt sort of way for ending not one, but two sentences with a preposition -- and then using a run-on sentence to explain why I was stopping my examples.

Anyway, watching Owen Wilson last night, that hostess's voice came back to me.

Hostess: This is Owen Wilson happy.
Owen Wilson crinkles his eyes and smirks.

Hostess: This is Owen Wilson in love:
Owen Wilson crinkles his eyes and lets his smirking mouth fall open.

Hostess: This is Owen Wilson angry:
Owen Wilson crinkles his eyes, goes very still and smirks.

Hostess: This is Owen Wilson bemused:
Owen Wilson crinkles his eyes and looks around the room with a smirk.

Hostess: This is Owen Wilson surprised:
Owen Wilson uncrinkles his eyes and doesn't smirk.

I then imagined Owen Wilson dead in his coffin, eyes crinkled and mouth fixed into a permanent smirk, because he managed to make millions of dollars with a limited set of facial expressions, the same head-thrust-forward delivery of every line, and a broken nose, because all of this combined somehow translated limited acting ability into charming joi d'vre.

But hey, that doesn't mean you shouldn't see it. Vince Vaughn is great in this. Also, it was fun watching Christopher Walken look slightly to the side in most scenes, while he pulled his lines off of cue cards. Good times.

Today, I feel like one of those English movies, chock full of clever people with pithy observations to make.

Maybe I should move to London. I hear it's nice there this time of the year.

Currently reading:
Colors Insulting to Nature : A Novel
By Cintra Wilson
Release date: By 10 August, 2004