Film Review - NT Live: Straight Line Crazy

Images courtesy of Sharmill Films, credit Manuel Harlan.

Turns out theatre is pretty popular in Melbourne, huh? Showing up to watch a pre-recorded theatre production I was not exactly sure what to expect, but a cinema at 80 percent capacity quelled my fears. Which was exactly what I needed most when I heard the ticket-guy say “yes, this feature is 180 minutes long.” 

You see, to a theatre buff, the type who’s seen Harry Potter and the Cursed Child or Frozen, they might have expected a run-time nearing the duration of Apollo’s trip to the moon, but uneducated as I may be I took a deep breath in and accepted that I’d submitted myself to Straight Line Crazy for the almost half a week runtime and a whole audience (two whole audiences if you count the pre-recorded one) can’t be wrong. 

Luckily, they weren’t, and I had a grand old time getting to know Robert Moses as he took the road networks of New York State by the jewels and made the most out of his situation. In a prelude interview between director Nicholas Hytner, screenwriter David Hare, and lead actor Ralph Fiennes, Hytner marvelled at Hare’s ability to adapt a novel to the stage and when they slipped in the tidbit that Straight Line Crazy takes its inspiration from a 1,000-page biography, I was again reminded of the runtime.

Surprisingly, that’s all I have to say about the runtime. It actually flew past and I was amazed when the intermission began and 90 minutes had already perished; and no I couldn’t believe the gall of these filmmakers to leave the entire, unimpeded intermission in the recording of what is already the longest feature I’ve ever watched – and I tried to watch The Irishman. I would hazard a guess that with masters of the craft at work, three hours might not be enough time to cover the juiciest bits of the longest book since that one by Tolkien. 

While there weren’t many parts of the play I felt were lacking, I perhaps did take interest in the surprising lack of both racial and socio-economic prejudices based on the fact that road-buildin’ Rob had a storied history of allegations of discriminating against both, but I digress. Let’s chalk it up to Fiennes’ great performance because Straight Line Crazy was rotten in a thoroughly enjoyable way.

NT Live: Straight Line Crazy is screening in cinemas from Saturday, September 17th. For tickets and more info, click here.