Age Difference . . Again - La migliore offerta (2014) Discussion

[–] at7000 11 years ago

If you read the news, or get out much, this thing happens all the time in real life. Same with older woman/younger guys, but not as much.

Anyway, for the scam to work, off course they wanted some hot young thing to lure him. Would not be a good "honey trap" with some old bag playing the role, now would it? It was perfect, since Virgil was always a 'flop with chicks' since his younger days, this gave him the chance to make up for lost time, regain what was lost in his life, etc..

Not only that, *this was a scam to entice* some ugly, rich old geezer, with some 'fresh young meat.' Quite a wise move IMO. Always works.

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[–] at7000 11 years ago

"Romantic leads?" More like the chick who was hired to set him up, was some hot young thang. Because that is what old rich guys typically fall for. Makes perfect sense, at least in this movie.

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[–] Jerry-137 10 years ago

It seems that you and some of the other posters in this thread are implying that some of us including the OP don't like or that the age difference made the movie less believable.

It isn't "just" age difference, it is that this particular actress looked much much younger that the script (and maybe, book) called for. She was supposedly 27 years old but to me and many others she looked like a teenager or not far past the teens. Her lines didn't help. It seemed to me they were too sophisticated for her looks. IOW she was supposed to be approaching 30 but looked like an under 21 year old actress reading lines that were far past the level of her looks.

Granted many old geezers romance young gals but rarely are they under 21 but more like 22-30 with experiences gained from dating multiple partners and who are in most cases more impressed with the money the geezer may have than of the person they are.

In any case I agree the script called for a young female to romance the guy and get him to fall in love with her so the scam could succeed and the plot accomplished that well. But...IMO it would have been even better if the actress playing the young woman would have looked her age as the script called for. As I explained in another post on this subject I'm an old geezer myself so it may be that to "me" she looked to young for the part but for someone much younger it didn't make any difference.

But I respect other's opinion and just wanted to clarify we weren't talking about a 40+ year old actress, just someone that looked older than an 18-21 year old actress.

My favorite: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

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[–] Karma-For-You 10 years ago

Exactly. I don't know why this actress was chosen because she looked much younger than twenty seven and her lines were forced. I cringed whenever I heard her speak through that door. She just sounded horrible. She ruined an otherwise wonderful movie.

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[–] Jerry-137 10 years ago

Well, as you can see a lot of the folks think otherwise. Maybe it's the age of the viewers that makes the difference on acceptance or not.

As far as the female actress "sounding horrible" to you, part of the problem is that English is not her primary language and she hasn't really had many English parts. To sound more believable as an actor I would think that one would need to live in an English speaking country for a while in order to pick up the nuances of the spoken language.

I had a German national army friend who had only been in the U.S for a short period of time before joining our army and while he spoke perfect American English with no German accent it had little or no emotion so it was hard to tell if he was serious or joking some times.

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My favorite: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

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[–] Leopardman4 9 years ago

Do we really want to assume that her voice was not dubbed when we hear her but don't see her? Just as body doubles are cheaper than lead performers, so a voice double would make shooting cheaper and easier.

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[–] przgzr 10 years ago

She was supposed to be fragile, she was supposed to be a person that hasn't seen the sun for more than a decade, she was supposed to be rich enough not to have to work any job harder than writing a novel... A kind of a fairy tale princess.

It was not (only) the (good) choice of the movie director/producer, but (more) the successful choice of Billy and Robert to find a woman looking adequate for convincing Virgil to believe her/their story.

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[–] Jerry-137 11 years ago

I thought the same thing. For one, from the story and her looks she seems to me to be around 18-20 years old. Maybe I was mislead about her age since I'm an old dude and everyone seems to look younger than they are. In any case, even an intelligent old dude with little female interaction should have figured something was up since she was so young (and he so rich).

Would the story work as well if Claire was 30-35? I think it would have been more believable. Nothing against the actress who played the part of Claire, she was very good, beautiful, and had a nice bod, but as I said she looked more like an older teenager to me.

Then again, Virgil was a lonely old man, unhappy, maybe even a sociopath, who was realizing his life was 90% over, bored with his job, and had all the material things a man would want, except companionship. I can see how this would make him susceptible to such a scam.

I've seen a lot of cases where wealthy old men marry very young women but very few, if any, of a middle-class or lower gent marrying a very young gal. IMO money makes a big difference in such a romance and marriage. Isn't that where the term, "Trophy Wife" comes from?

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[–] Karma-For-You 10 years ago

I enjoyed this movie very much with Donald Sutherland being my favorite character. The age difference didn't bother me as much as the actress who played Claire. IMO, she was miscast and looked too young for twenty seven (I think that's how old the caretaker said she was). Also, her voice drove me crazy especially when she was speaking from behind a door or on the telephone with Virgil. It was forced and phony. It ruined an otherwise brilliant movie.

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[–] easyrhino 9 years ago

It's the way nature intended. Men should mate with women as young as possible, preferably hot and slim as well. It's in the Bible I believe, somewhere in the back.

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[–] ToHelenBackAgain 9 years ago

There is a significant age difference between the romantic leads.

Oh my God, thank you for the huge news flash! I would NEVER have realized that independently!

Do you... do you suppose the woman might have been chosen... to resemble the portraits Virgil loved so much?

NAAAHHH... that's far too improbable, isn't it. And obviously another thing I could never possibly think of on my own.

"Oh, dear. Mr. Dictionary seems to have deserted us again."

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[–] shruti-bittu 9 years ago

Yeah the age difference thing put me off as well initially...but I think at least in this movie it was kinda crucial to the plot - a lonely old man meets a beautiful lady and falls for her... though on second thoughts, they could have written the leading lady in her 40s or of the same age group as Virgil... or probably shown Virgil in his 40s and not so old to reduce the age difference...

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[–] tanncord 9 years ago

BUT... you lose the suspense of disbelief if Simon Baker, Hugh Jackman, a Hemsworth brother or another younger, more comely Aussie (or any other English speaking) guy played Virgil. When she seemingly falls for Virgil, it's that much more fascinating, due to the age gap and the fact that he's not so handsome.

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[–] cookiela2001 9 years ago

SPOILER

When she falls for Virgil, it's that much more fascinating FOR MEN, due to the age gap and the fact that he's not so handsome.

Fixed that for you.

.

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[–] tempmail1974 9 years ago

It's part of the con.

Remember, Claire isn't actually interested in Virgil ... she is part of the plot to steal his ill-gotten gains.

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[–] hawktwo 9 years ago

Why can't they ever be honest about how few elderly men would actually feel good to a women aged 27.

“One never quite allows for the moron in our midst.” Agatha Christie, The Mirror Crack'd

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