Bale is not my only gripe with the film, but yeah he stood out too much. I'm not saying that it was the only exaggerated personality in the film, but Bale's was definitely a far more eccentric performance than the rest of the cast. I did say "one or more characters"... and he doesn't have to be the only exaggerated personality for the film to qualify as melodrama anyway.
Oxford Dictionary said:
a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions.
I'd prefer for films like this to skip the "heart-string" bullshit and just tell the story. Melodrama isn't necessary in the world of biopics. If the story isn't interesting enough in the first place, then don't make it into a film - injecting extra drama just makes it worse IMO. If they thought the story was going to be compelling enough for audiences, they wouldn't have had to exaggerate/ exploit Bale's character so much. But that's the problem with Hollywood produced biopics. They almost always fuck up the story for the sake of the box office. Whether or not things are accurately portrayed is not the priority. People love wildly exaggerated characters and over the top performances. There is very little patience for subtlety in commercial film. Marlon Brando's Godfather is regarded by a lot of people as one of the greatest performances of all time. But really, it's just very eccentric. It stands out (in a good way to some, in a bad way to others) because everything about the character is utterly bizarre.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtYjdEwa8GA
Everybody else at the table sounds like an Italian American gangster. Brando looks and sounds like an alien in a human body. His face doesn't move properly when he speaks, he shrugs repeatedly, moves his hands strangely, raises his eyebrows a lot... and he appears to have both laryngitis and a handful of speech impediments.
In A Streetcar Named Desire, there is supposed to be a huge contrast between Stanley and Blanche. Tennessee Williams is melodrama, so Brando's over-acting makes sense. In the Godfather, it just come across as weird. The performance doesn't "do" anything for the story aside from artificially highlighting his character. And, unlike in Streetcar, in the Godfather there is no point in juxtaposing his character against the rest of the cast.
Similarly, there is no point in overplaying Bale and underplaying Wahlberg - especially since Wahlberg is the protagonist. A couple of people said they thought the ending was underwhelming because they didn't feel invested in Wahlberg's character which to me is a pretty big failing. Don't you think?
