Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006)

Summary

Buttoned-up 1950s housewife is lured into New York's freak underworld by a hairy neighbor who teaches her to find beauty in unexpected places.

Director

Steven Shainberg

Downey Factor

Medium-High.

Character

Lionel Sweeney, the Wolfman—a fictional freak who draws the shy photographer into his world.

Looks

Completely obscured by hair or clothing for most of the film; normal but unspectacular once shaven.

Performance

Restrained but with a sense of humor.

Love & Sex

His tortured affair with Kidman includes sex scenes and a visit to a freak orgy.

Dies, Gay or Villain

Yes, no, no.

Cast

Nicole Kidman, Ty Burrell

Connection

Ty Burrell in The Incredible Hulk.

RDJ Says

I loved Nicole Kidman. It's a really weird movie. I still have hair in my throat ... I thought cool story, met the director, Mrs. Downey grilled him for about a half hour on what he was thinking, what did he mean by this. He was so passionate about it, and that's infectious. I just thought if you have to do this sort of SFX makeup job, it really shouldn't have to mean that it isn't a great story and you don't really get to utilize it and play with a lot. I can't do this thing and have it be precious. I have to comb [the hair] and play with it and have it up in buns ... We made this makeup room look like Lionel's apartment a little bit, and I would either be listening to chakra meditation tapes or Led Zeppelin as the day required. I told them I'd be going through some mood swings, but I'll come in a half hour early every day and meditate, so I'm really trying to make this a real exercise in patience and humility and gratitude ... I knew I would suffer a personality meltdown if I didn't have the first half-hour of every day. It can't be like, "Hi, you're here can we get the glue on your eyelids and the camera's ready, even though it's going take you 2 hours to get made up, we just want you to know, we'll shoot whatever we can without you, but the camera's ready." So [nobody talking to me during] the first half-hour [of the day], an hour lunch, and a set time when we were done, these were my requirements. Not because I'm a diva but because I predict that I will not be okay. Two days after we're done, I'll do something stupid and fuck up my entire summer while they're editing or lounging in Cape Cod or whatever. They've got something in the can, good for them, and I'm in the asylum ... At the end of the film, it behooved me to look emaciated and Mechanic-like cut, and it was not a problem because on the whole shoot, eating was an exercise in irritation.

Time & Place

1950s New York.

Gossip

In real life, Diane's husband Allan Arbus later became an actor and starred in Robert Downey Sr.'s Greaser's Palace (1972) with a 7 year-old Robert Downey Jr. as well as Too Much Sun (1991)

Availability

Released in theaters 10 November 2006. On DVD in regions 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Foreign Titles

Argentina: Retrato de una pasión (Portrait of a Passion)
Brazil: A Pele (The Skin)
France: Fur: Un portrait imaginaire de Diane Arbus
Greece: To portreto: I allokoti matia tis Diane Arbus
Germany: Fell: Ein imaginäres Portrait von Diane Arbus (Skin: An Imaginary Portrait...)
Hungary: A szépség és a szõr: Diane Arbus képzeletbeli portréja (The Beauty and Hair)
Italy: Fur: Un ritratto immaginario di Diane Arbus
Spain: Retrato de una obsesión (Portrait of an Obsession)
Sweden: Fur: ett fiktivt porträtt av Diane Arbus

Rotten Tomatoes

31% Fresh | 108 Reviews

Critical View

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Kidman and Downey seem at a loss to know whether to play the romance part straight. (The wonder is that they don't dissolve into laughter.) They spend a lot of time staring meaningfully into each other's eyes, the only visible feature on Lionel's face.

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: [Lionel] looks like a member of the Addams Family, and the film envisions their "grand romance" as a lachrymose, inert Phantom/Elephant Man/Beast cliché. Embodied by Downey with a sweetness that never makes him interesting.

Dana Stevens, Slate: There's no one more capable of projecting a tormented inner life than Robert Downey Jr, but what director in his right mind takes an actor this expressive and hides his face under a solid mask of foot-long hair? Not since Jim Carrey in The Grinch has an actor been so hampered by his own makeup.

Does It Hold Up

With the amount of truth-stretching biopics that have come out since 2006, this one is arguably ahead of its time, especially since this imaginary portrait admitted it was imaginary and did it for artistic reasons.

2 Reasons to See It

1. The film is artfully done and visually interesting.
2. If nothing else, there are freaks on display.

Overall

This is a solid middler—not the best, not the worst. It's just okay.

If You Like It

You might also like Good Night & Good Luck (2005), Eros (2005)

Photos

Video