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Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus is like Beauty and the Beast meets Through the Looking-Glass, as envisioned by David Lynch.
Like its subject, the well-known photographer drawn to outcasts and freaks, the film directed by Steven Shainberg (Secretary) adeptly captures the grotesque.
This is no biopic, though it does include biographical aspects of Arbus' life. She grew up privileged and married fashion photographer Allan Arbus (Ty Burrell).When they separated, her career took off. Nicole Kidman plays Arbus.
But the movie's strength is its stunning visuals, not the performances. The production design and use of vivid color create a hypnotic dreamy quality, and the cinematography is a highlight. The low-key score by Carter Burwell is lovely and evocative. But if you are seeking illumination about Arbus' artistry or her psyche, it's not here.
The fantastical story imagines a friendship that blossoms into romance between Arbus and a reclusive neighbor named Lionel (Robert Downey Jr.) who has a rare disorder that causes him to be hyper-hirsute. The thick fur that covers his body brings to mind Star Wars' Chewbacca. Through her association with Lionel, Arbus sheds (in weeks) her 1950s-era repression. But we don't get a sense of what propelled her to strike out on her own as a photographer.
Though sometimes boldly captivating, the movie is also occasionally pretentious and lurid simply for shock value. Though her photos focused on the strange and shocking, they also revealed the weirdness of ordinary life. This bizarre fairy tale seems far too heavy-handed to hint at that. The story and its anti-climactic ending leave us curiously unmoved.
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