Saturday, November 15, 2008

Not the Leaves of Grass You're Thinking Of

When someone says "Leaves of Grass" does your body sing electric, lost in memories of glorious fragments from the pen of the great Walt Whitman? Mine does. So, when I first heard that Edward Norton was starring in Leaves of Grass (2009) I thought we had a queer civil war era biopic on our hands. We don't get many of those.

Ed Norton and Ed Norton in Leaves of Grass (2009)

But unless Walt Whitman actually had a pot-smoking identical twin brother, this is not the Leaves of Grass I'm thinking of. Presumably Hollywood didn't have poetry on its mind when it co-opted the famous title. Writer/Director/Actor Tim Blake Nelson directs Norton in this comedic crime thriller about twins: one a college professor, the other a criminal. Should Edward call Lindsay Lohan (Parent Trap) for tips? It's not like his new co-stars Richard Dreyfuss, Keri Russell and Susan Sarandon have ever played twins.
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