Sunset Boulevard

"Sunset Blvd." is a classy film noir that threw me for a loop at first. It features excellent performances and is paced well, building up the tension as we see the madness of the strange Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) unfold. Swanson's performance at first seems very silly and over the top, until you realize that due to her silent film career, her speech patterns have become as broad as the expressions she used to convey emotions in her films. She’s become this kind of otherworldly figure that doesn’t fit in with normal people at all. I guess you could argue that she’s the villain of the film and appropriately steals the show, but I also really like the more... sympathetic characters. William Holden and Nancy Olson have great chemistry and it's refreshing to see them on the screen together while the rest of the movie keeps showing off this weird relationship that develops between Holden and Swanson. If you don't know what the film is about, at first you may find it a little slow. As the story develops you will get sucked in and you won’t even mind the fact that the story is told in flashback because you will either forget all about it or really want to know how the story you’re seeing ends up the way it does. (Theatrical version on the big screen, September 19, 2012)