Does anyone else actually *like* the hairbrush scene?

I loved this scene. It shows that Anakin and Padme really love each other. And, regardless of what other people say, Natalie Portman was beautiful in the scene.

 

I must confess that I cringed just a little bit when I saw the scene at the midnight showing I went to, but that may have a little something to do with the fact that I was in a huge crowd. In that sort of situation, there is an unconscious element of peer pressure involved. In fact, I would venture to say that a lot of things that we think are "cool" or "lame" in popular culture have to do with the fact that it's generally considered "cooler" or "hip" to be a cynic than a romantic.
Actually, I gradually got used to the dialogue in that scene the next couple of times I saw it, to the point where it no longer bugged me. But I might be in the minority when I say that I thought the dialogue in AOTC's "fireplace" scene worked a lot better for me, probably because it came across as more "authentically" awkward (if that makes any sense!).

 

Oh my! beautiful! She looked much better in her funeral scene. Sorry...IMO. And no I'm not a necrophiliac.

 

I think the hairbrush scene was when she was looking her worst, personally.

 

She looked a little emaciated in the scene...especially for a woman "great with child." I thought this scene was especially appropriate considering the "so love has blinded you" line. Love had blinded him from the objective truth: the Sith could never provide the power he was looking for. It blinded him to the caring friendship from Obi-Wan, blinded him from the counsel of Master Yoda, blinded him from the lies of the Sith.

"So love has blinded you?"

You're damn straight sister.

 

That's flaming and baiting.

 

I kinda liked it.

Kaiya

 

I liked the scene because it did show that they were in love and knowing what was to happen towards the end of the film kinda gave it a bit more meaning.

 

I feel like this scene was added later. I don't know. I think this scene is important though. After that Anakin has his dream and it all starts turning tragic, so i think it's important to re-establish how much they love each other.

 

Good grief people!...it's an inside joke. Natalie's had her hair styled and her face lit and made up to resemble THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. Look at her hair! Have you ever seen the sequel to James Whale's Frankenstein?

Everyone's commented on the Frankenstein homage at the end of the movie when Vader rises and then clumsily takes his first steps.

It's a subtle wink from George and a reference to the transformation of Anakin to a monster at the end of the film.

HELLO!!!!!

 

important shot of a married couple reconnecting after much time spent apart plus it leads right into the first nightmare. this is actually a critical inclusion to the storyline - hayden was terrific in this scene which provided confirmation of anakin's genuine, real love for his wife. padme, after speaking her piece about the safe haven that naboo represents, is actually flirting with her husband here. and must we keep reminding people, yes, natalie does look different here - no question about that - but it's only a weight loss, nothing else. natalie was shooting V is for Vendetta, where she plays a political prisoner that is tortured. she's thinner - that is all folks.

 

it was cheesy, but like every other cheesy scene, it does have some valor.

"so love has blinded you?" (playfully asking)
"well, no, thats not what i meant"
"but its probably true"

its actually pretty poignant. cridnge worthy dialouge, but pretty meaningfull.

 

i liked it, i think you could sort of see some nipple in that scene, through the nightie.

 

I wished I was Natalie in that scene
Only kidding...
It was a very very cute scene though.

 

The hairbrush scene can be looked at in a couple of ways. I like to break it down into these two thoughts, and will give what I finally think of it all after.

First, the acting portion with the dialogue. I don't think it comes close to representing the actual love between them, or how they secretly interact with each other. Take Han and Leia on the Falcon for example in TESB. Notice the difference in how they communicated? Also, who's directing the two movies? (rhetorical...I know, but to prove a point on directing love scenes). I still think that all the acting was much improved, but I think the scene felt awkward, almost just cut and pasted into place. Which leads me to the second thought.

The scene had to be there, because if you really step back and think about why Anakin became DV, it was because of love. The whole concept of Vader is basically a love story. Without this scene, you'd miss out on the backbone of why he becomes the Sith Lord.

So, do I like the scene...ultimately yes, but I feel that the last line could of been replaced with something a little more in depth with his feelings for her. Repeating Padme really doesn't do much there. It was to grade schoolish, and not a mature, open comment.

Well, my two cents worth, which doesn't add up to a lot.

 

I thought it was really nice, Padme looked really unaware of anything, really looking to the future with her husband, and Anakin was more..mature about things, like the way he was stood, the way he looked, rather than that kid in EPII, and sure, they are in love and fear nothing, so it was nice to see and dealt with in a nice way for two lovers!

 

That's it then! I just figured it out. The dialogue combined with why she looked like that. I guess then the "so love has blinded you" line means that love has not only blinded him to all the things mentioned above, it has also blinded him to the fact that the woman he loves and is calling beautiful happens to be, uh, not beautiful in that particular scene.
It all makes sense now!

 

And I think the intention of the scene was a good one. Anakin and Padme are blinded by love, and it's nice to hear about plans for the baby. But I do think it could have been executed a bit better, both in action and dialog. It would have been nice to see them more romantic, actually touching each other, because it seemed somewhat detached. And let's be honest, the first thing they would do is jump into bed, if only to just be there together.

I agree. The scene is fine overall, but what struck me was the distance between them that Lucas chose to maintain for the entire scene. I mean, it just seemed odd that he wouldn't use that scene to show them embrace/kiss/hug/touch/etc. I think that can be chalked up to Lucas simply not being a good director of human beings, or at least of human beings interacting in a small, intimate moment. I think Lucas approaches such scenes with a "lets get this over with" attitude, whereas most other directors would have sought to get more out of the scene, to convey more emotion with it. This is just my opinion, but I think most of the love scenes in AOTC and ROTS suffer from this same thing -- a lack of care from the director.

I agree with RS on the jumping into bed thing. I believe Anakin should have had on the pajamas like she had on the nightgown, the glove looked out of place.

This is similar to the preceding point, in that it puts in a bit of distance between them when you'd expect them to be in a state where they can barely keep their hands off of each other. Now this is Star Wars afterall, and as Kershner said a kiss scene is equiavlent to a sex scene, but Lucas didn't have to show them ripping each other's clothes off, but rather could have simply shown a bit more intimacy and tenderness. His still being in his jedi garb is a stark contrast to her being in a more revealing nightgown.

this was filmed during reshoots

Is this so? Then that would mean Lucas originally planned for there to be just one happy moment between them, and that he was going to go from the pregnancy revelation to his nightmares. Lucas really should have gotten some real help writing the love story.

"Showing how much Anakin and Padme care for each other is one of my weak points. Expressing that is hard to do. It's really hard in the end to express the idea, I'm so in love with you that I would do anything to save you; I'd give up everything -friends, my whole life- for you, and make that real-make that stick-and say it in two minutes. When I created it I knew I wanted two hard right turns-it's designed to be that way-and I knew I was taking a real chance that it wasn't going to work. But you have to see if you can make it work. If it doesn't work, well then I'm going to get skewered for it. But if I can make it work, it'll be neat. It'll be good"

--George Lucas, The Making Of Revenge Of The Sith.

This only begs the question; Why then did he not seek some help crafting, writing, and if need be, directing the love story? If he knows it is tenuous, and that it straddles a precarious line between working and not working, then why not seek help? Why not seek help for that which he admits is a weak point for him as a filmmaker?

Artistc vision is a commendable thing, but Lucas' stubborn insistence on taking on things (almost entirely by himself) he knew to be problematic for his talents will stand as one of the biggest mysteries of the Prequel experience. It makes no sense.

 

"I am a robot. My name is Nat-a-Lee 5000, a Senator droid from Naboo."

Though I generally disagree with most of the stiff/wooden acting complaints, I can nonetheless see where it is coming from. But I can't see how one would think the acting by either was wooden in that scene.

Lame and clumsy? I completely disagree. I bet you a lot of people would have something to say about it if George Lucas had showed absolutely no scene with Anakin and Padme together, just talking about nothing.

Such a 'happy together' scene was needed. The last thing the series needed was to cut the love story. As it proved to be the key factor in creating Darth Vader, and setting up the Originals, then what it really needed was more attention.

Upon my first viewing of ROTS, the audience broke into extreme laughter at this scene. It's shameful that a serious scene can be taken such a way in a StarWars movie. I sware that it is Natalie Portman. She nearly ruined every one of her scenes in this film. I'm not saying she isn't a good actress, but she just never hit the mark with this role.


I saw both AOTC and ROTS a couple of times each with packed audiences, and I never heard more than an isolated snicker or groan from the audience. Anecdotal evidence is of course mostly worthless, but I must say I'm a bit surprised that I never heard the large amounts of laughter that so many others did.

As to Portman; she is fine in Star Wars, but like the others -- Christensen, McGregor, Jackson -- her performance is of a generally lower caliber than what they have shown in pretty much anything else they've been in. Maybe part of it is an inability to take SW as seriously as other parts, but I think the Lucas-effect is the better explanation. The man is a great and legendary filmmaker, but he has never been known for getting great performances out of actors. He has a dampening influence on acting talent. While I don't know what V for Vendetta is, I've heard its a genre movie based on a comic book, so it'll be interesting to see if the same wooden/stiff criticisms follow her to what is probably an equally fantastical story.


The scene would have been alright had there been ANY chemistry between Portman and Christiansen. This is really the problem with the entire "love story" in the PT and one of the biggest problems in the PT itself. People talk about acting vs. writing, etc., and these are valid debates. But chemistry is an important factor as well. It has rightly been brought up that Harrison Ford and Carrie Fischer were given similar cheesy lines in the CT, but they had on screen chemistry and could pull it off. I think Ford and Fischer are better actors than Portman and Christiansen, but Portman and Christiansen aren't bad in other films or even in other scenes in the PT. You could take the best actor in the world and put him or her in a romantic scene with someone with whom they have no chemistry and they would fall flat. They just don't physically relate to each other like people in love, they look like marianetts together. That is the problem (for me) with this and the other love scenes between them. True, bad writing doesn't help, but it can be overcome.


I think Christensen and Portman have a good screen chemistry, and I think it shows a little in most scenes, and at times even threatens to shine before it is dampened by the duel effects of Lucas' writing and direction. And the Empire Strikes Back comparison isn't a good one in my opinion, for a few reasons; (1) It was directed by a more actor-friendly director in Kershner. (2) The cheese factor in terms of dialogue in Empire doesn't even begin to compare to that in AOTC, where the audience formed thier first impressions of the prequel love story. (3) Han-Leia was not as important to the story as Anakin-Padme, and as such it was more fitting for it to have the sort of light-hearted, flirty, on-the-run tone. Anakin-Padme set in motion the events that led to the plot of the Originals by providing the chief motivation for the series protag

 

Unfortunately, I thought that all of the scenes with Anakin and Padme were a little forced and the two seemed a bit awkward. This scene is the only one that actually makes them look marginally comfortable with one another. Maybe Hayden Christinasen thinks Natalie Portman is hott...

 

It was like most of the other SW love scenes; nice but somehow strange.

 

Are we even sure that that was even Natilie Portman in the hairbrush scene? After three viewings I'm still not sure. It is a disturbing image/likeness of her at any event. At this point I am willing to say that it was one of padme's handmaidens standing in for her and leave it at that, less unsettleing.

 

I truly like this scene. I dont think its the best in the film, the PT or by any means the worst, but to each his own.

People that complain about the dialogue in this scene kinda perterb me. Its seems like they are using the 'bag dialogue' as a crutch for the scene making them uncomfortable. They are like kids while watching a movie that has two characters either kissing or being romantic, they cover their eyes and go 'eewww!', because it just makes them uncomfortable to watch such blantant love and affection...even though, they might actually like it. Yes, its cheesy its sappy its cliche and its juvenille. Did you people even WATCH AOTC? Rolling around in the grass and riding the backs of giant hippos? The hairbrush scene is pure shakespeare compared to that (and BTW, I still like that scene from AOTC). If they have a problem with cheesy or contrived dialogue, I hope they had problems with the above mentioned 'scoundrel' conversation between Leia and Han, or Leia kissing Luke to piss off Han (which was extremely mature), or Leia's own '..hold me' in ROTJ. Alot of dialogue between Obi-Wan and Anakin would suddenly be 'stupid, contrived and boring' if it was Padme in Obi-Wan's place. 'I didnt say anything' 'he's trying' "i didnt say anything!'...now, if that was Padme, people would be making threads about that scene.

Padme and Anakin have not seen each other in MONTHS, and the reason WHY is because her husband has been at war for that whole time. She has heard constant rumors about his death...not only that, she is now having his child. Thats builds up to ALOT, on top of the fact they are in love and just miss each other. If I were one of them, I would have thrown formality to the wind here and just be non stop 'I love you...hold me...I love you...dont leave' for probably a few days. I wouldnt care if I sounded like an idiot, and neither do they. Nor do they even sound like idiots for that matter. This scene makes perfect sense for the two of them. If I was Anakin, I would just be staring at my wife also. And If I was Padme, I would be doing exactly what she was doing.

Not only all of that, the scene has above mentioned story foreshadowing with the whole blindless of love plot point. And the scene is just very cute in general.

for those who say Portman looks like a heroin addict in this scene, I agree, she does look emaciated. I wouldnt say a friggin crack whore or anything, but more like an elderly lady. And its not the 'scene' she looks bad in, its that one shot where she turns around while saying '...I could fix up the babys room', while twirling her hair. But if your gonna play that card, Hayden has a bad shot as well, which is glaringly more 'whaaa?' than Portmans. Its that shot of him after he pledges allegiance to Palpatine and is kneeling on the ground, he does a slow-motion kinda of action where he brings his head up to look at palpatine standing above him. He looks very very feminine and not even like himself. More like a guy that sorta looks like hayden christensen. Its strange.

personally, those scenes make me wish we all could just talk to our significant others like that. Just say 'hold me' or 'I love you' or 'your beautiful' out of the blue or when we needed them, because we wanted to or we felt like it, instead of worrying about how vulnerable we look even though we are thinking it. Even after years of marriage some people cant open up like that to each other. The scene is good!...that was just my long way of saying it.

 

I loved the hairbrush scene. It was so cute.

I think people hate it because they want to hate Anakin and Padme and the scene made them both completely human, a young (In Anakin's case very young) couple in love and happy to be with each other. Some playful banter of two people that rarely get to act their age and let their hair down, so to speak.
They were sweet in that scene, and the people that want to say Anakin is a "stalker" (such utter **, anyway) and Padme is "wooden" and emotionless, have to eat their words. And Padme SHOULD look older, she is 5 years older, 27, and pregnant, and very tired and worried. She has been carrying the burden of her secret alone, with the real responsibility of hiding her babies. She must be in despair over how things are going and not eating right or resting. War sucks, and just a week earlier she and Bail and Mon Mothma crashed in his speeder. She's had a very rough week, and it's showing.
I do think Natalie gained some weight for this role, her face and arms look quite chubby, as is appropriate for a pregnant lady, but the pick ups always look different.

Nothing can be as bad as Ewan's glued on beard.

Anyway, I loved the scene. They did love each other and were well matched. They should have been together forever.


What I *didn't* like was Padme's makeup and hair. Why she has that elaborate hairstyle, complete with tiara? barette? whatever that metal thing on the top of her head is...and then *wears it to sleep* !? That has driven me nuts forever.

Then there is all the glittery eye makeup and lip gloss...again, that she wears to sleep.

I don't mind makeup, I understand actors have to wear makeup, but this was obvious, going-out-for-the-evening glittery blue eyeshadow.

How do we know she didn't? Anakin and her meet at night. He was still in his work clothes. Maybe she just got home from some boring function and took off her heavy clothes and is combing the tease out of her hair.
I know when I dress up, I take off my shoes first. If people are still over, I'll wear a dress a bit longer, then remember make up, usually when I am in bed already. Oh yeah, don't sleep in make up. Get up, wash.