Tiptoes
| Tiptoes | |
|---|---|
.jpg) DVD cover for Tiptoes | |
| Directed by | Matthew Bright |
| Written by | Bill Weiner |
| Produced by | Elie Cohn Chris Hanley Fernando Sulichin Douglas Urbanski Brad Wyman |
| Starring | Matthew McConaughey Kate Beckinsale Patricia Arquette Gary Oldman |
| Cinematography | Sonja Rom |
| Edited by | Paul Heiman |
| Music by | Curt Sobel |
| Distributed by | Reality Check Productions |
Release date | September 8, 2003 |
Running time | 90 minutes 91 minutes (France) |
| Countries | United States France |
| Language | English |
Tiptoes (also known as Tiny Tiptoes) is a 2003 film starring Matthew McConaughey, Kate Beckinsale, Patricia Arquette, and Gary Oldman. The film was screened at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.[1] Tiptoes was never released theatrically in the United States, and it instead went straight to DVD.
Plot
Carol (Beckinsale)—a talented painter and independent woman—falls in love with Steven (McConaughey) without knowing much about him other than he's the perfect man. But when Carol finds herself pregnant it forces Steven to expose his darkest secret—his family. Steven happens to be the only average-sized person in a family of dwarfs, including his twin brother Rolfe (Oldman). Carol and Steven are then forced to come to terms with the fact that the fetus she carries may be born a dwarf. This terrifies Steven, who does not want his child to suffer the same way Rolfe did as a child. As Carol decides to carry the child, she and Steven grow further apart, and she begins to rely on Rolfe to teach her about life as a dwarf.
Cast
- Matthew McConaughey as Steven Bedalia
- Kate Beckinsale as Carol
- Gary Oldman as Rolfe
- Patricia Arquette as Lucy
- Peter Dinklage as Maurice
- Debbie Lee Carrington as Kitty Katz
- Ed Gale as Bobby Barry
- David Alan Grier as Jerry Robin Jr.
- Marcia de Rousse as Kathleen
- Kacie Borrowman as Margaret
- Michael J. Anderson as Bruno
- Cherub Freed as Tiffany (as Cherub Fried)
- Alexa Nikolas as Susan Barry
- Brittney Guzman as Janice
- Bridget Powers as Sally
- Santiago Segura as Motel Manager
Reception
Critical reaction to Tiptoes was negative. Based on 7 reviews, the film carries a "rotten" rating of 29% at aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.[2] Bill Gibron of PopMatters called the film "insensitive", adding: "Clearly crafted as a wake-up call to all the nasty 'normals' out there, it substitutes schmaltz for sincerity to create a heated hate crime all its own."[3] Variety reviewer Lisa Nesselson described the film as "an honorable failure" that "comes up short in many departments", despite its "bracingly peculiar premise and astonishingly fine [performance] from Gary Oldman".[4] Oldman's turn was included in BBC critic Mark Kermode's "Great Acting in Bad Films" in 2012.[5]
The film, considered myth to be real by some, was featured on Tosh.0 during his "SPOILER ALERT" section. This segment on the show always employs rapid cuts of his full commentary on the movie. Tosh covers some of the most insane and obscure moments of the film. The segment caused a huge surge of desire to see the film and helped propel it into cult status...at least among Tosh.0 viewers.
Production
According to Peter Dinklage, the original cut of the film was "gorgeous", but the director was fired shortly after turning it in, and the people who fired him recut the film into a "rom-com with dwarves".[6]
References
- ^ Rabin, Nathan. "It's Only The Size Of Your Heart That Counts Case File #154: Tiptoes". A.V. Club. Retrieved 09-10-2010.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "Tiptoes". Rotten Tomatoes.
- ^ PopMatters review
- ^ Nesselson, Lisa (24 September 2003). Tiptoes review. Variety. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
- ^ Kermode, Mark. Great Acting in Bad Films. BBC. 27 January 2012. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
- ^ Kois, Dan (March 29, 2012). "Peter Dinklage Was Smart to Say No". The New York Times.
