Stilted, stylized and art-directed within an inch of its life, Shainberg's movie (which was written by his Secretary collaborator, Erin Cressida Wilson) manages to be both oppressively literal and fatefully fuzzy at the same time.
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
A love story.
2006 · 2h 2m · R
Drama, History
Directed by
Steven Shainberg
Overview
In 1958 New York Diane Arbus is a housewife and mother who works as an assistant to her husband, a photographer employed by her wealthy parents. Respectable though her life is, she cannot help but feel uncomfortable in her privileged world. One night, a new neighbor catches Diane's eye, and the enigmatic man inspires her to set forth on the path to discovering her own artistry.
Director and cast
- Steven Shainberg Director
- Nicole Kidman as Diane Arbus
- Robert Downey Jr. as Lionel Sweeney
- Ty Burrell as Allan Arbus
- Harris Yulin as David Nemerov
- Jane Alexander as Gertrude Nemerov
- Emmy Clarke as Grace Arbus
- Genevieve McCarthy as Sophie Arbus
- Boris McGiver as Jack Henry
- Marceline Hugot as Tippa Henry
- Mary Duffy as Althea
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
Don't be fooled for a second by that subtitle. Fur bills itself as An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, but this thing's got all the imagination of a career bureaucrat slumped in his cubicle awaiting a pension.
Shainberg neither sugarcoats [Diane Arbus's] distance from her girls nor judges it. The filmmakers understand Arbus's story within the context of her time and upbringing.
The world created by Shainberg never seems strange or real enough to convince us that we're getting the goods on anything. Put another way, this imaginary portrait might have done better had it stuck closer to reality.
[Arbus's] most famous images still have the power to shock, hanging as they do on the walls of the world's museums. Fur, the movie about her, reaches for that same jolt and settles instead for a raised eyebrow.
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