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Welcome to Toni Collette Online, your premiere web resource on the Australian actress and singer. Best known for her iconic performances in "Muriel's Wedding", "The Sixth Sense" and "Hereditary", Toni Collette has emerged as one of her generation's greatest talents. This unofficial fansite provides you with all latest news, in-depth information on all of her projects as well as extensive archives with articles, photos & videos. Enjoy your stay.
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The Pallbearer
May 03, 1996
· Miramax
· 98 minutes
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“The Pallbearer” served as a star vehicle for two newcomers at the same time – David Schwimmer, who had enjoyed success on television with Friends”, and Gwyneth Paltrow, equally successful with a breakthrough performance in “Seven”. In “The Pallbearer”, they are falling in love under circumstances only Hollywood could come up with. Paltrow agreed to star in “The Pallbearer” as a deal to also play the female lead in Miramax’ upcoming adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma”. The supporting roles are cast with exceptional young actors, who don’t get anything to do. This includes Michael Rappaport as Tom’s best buddy, as well as Michael Vartan and Toni Collette (who showed up on “Emma” as well) as a befriended couple and the voices of wisdom.
Reviews were mixed upon the film’s release. Roger Ebert gave it three stars, writing, “The Pallbearer is a goofier, gloomier trek across some of the same ground covered in The Graduate, with Schwimmer in the Dustin Hoffman role. The filmmakers must have subjected the 1967 classic to minute scrutiny. And yet the movie is not simply a retread; it has its own originality and tone and a quirkier sense of humor, and the central role is ideal for Schwimmer’s hangdog charm. Entertainment Weekly wrote a favorable review, stating that “by the end of The Pallbearer, we’re finally seeing David Schwimmer without his gawky-boy mannerisms, and, for the first time, he looks like a real actor.”
Aside from its blatant appropriation of themes, situations and even shots from The Graduate, The Pallbearer is a passably entertaining seriocomedy about the dawning of adulthood for some, uh, graduates who don’t quite know what to do with their lives. Appealing performances by David Schwimmer and Gwyneth Paltrow go a long way toward putting over this very slightly offbeat tale of twentysomethings trying to find their way.
Tom’s friends, played by actors including Toni Collette of “Muriel’s Wedding” and Michael Vartan, add little color, although Michael Rapaport again shows how funny he can be in a second-banana role. And the mothers don’t help. Ms. Kane strains to be adorable, while Ms. Hershey’s femme fatale seems to have wandered melodramatically into the wrong film. “The Pallbearer” is further hurt by a nagging sense that no one behind the camera much cares about these characters.
For Miramax this year, the film stands artistically somewhere between the blandness of “Beautiful Girls” and the genuine eccentricity of “Flirting With Disaster.” The weird central premise of the script by debutingdirector Matt Reeves and Jason Katims establishes an initial mysteriousness that makes the film seem edgier than it is. A TV-like sensibility asserts itself early on in the handling of the humor and characterizations that pushes the material straight down the middle of the road.
