"Knight Thoughts" -- exclusive web content
Arbus knock offs for the poster, Nicole Kidman and her would be fur covered lover Robert Downey Jr. hit the town, Kidman and
her on screen husband Ty Burrell
I'll Be Your Freakazoid:
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
11-17-06 "Knight Thoughts" web exclusive
By Richard Knight, Jr.
Author Patricia Bosworth should sue or at the very least have a stiff martini or two.  What else would one do after seeing the movie
that director Steven Shainberg and writer Erin Cressida Wilson have made from her magnificent biography of photographer Diane
Arbus?  Bosworth actually wrote in Vanity Fair about her trepidation in handing over her book to Shainberg and Wilson (who also
wrote the director's previous effort,
Secretary, which was much liked by apparently everyone but me).  Somehow these two assuaged
Bosworth's fears and the result is
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus.  “Imaginary” is the keyword here as the movie’
s main focus – an affair between nascent photographer Arbus (played by Nicole Kidman) and the fur covered mysterious upstairs
neighbor Lionel Sweeney (Robert Downey, Jr.) – never happened.  But taking liberties with an artist’s life is nothing new – scores of
films, both better and worse, have done that before – but this one purposely ignores the mother lode of material offered up on the
silver platter that is Bosworth’s book.  With a life like the one Diane Arbus led why in Heaven’s name would anyone need to resort to
making another one up for her?

Yet, though the movie does lay the groundwork for the budding photographic genius that Arbus became – the early stages of the put
upon Arbus’s life in New York in the late fifties are enacted complete with the overbearing, snobbish parents, the understanding but
insufferable husband, and the responsibility of children – instead of following through it veers off into the made up affair with the
hair covered Downey character.  And nothing that follows can hold a candle to just one of Arbus’ iconic images (the movie descends
into what might be called
The Chewbacca Affair) and each time Kidman climbed the stairs to learn more from her eccentric, avant
garde teacher, in true David Lynch form, I became more and more impatient.  She and Downey do great work with the filmmakers'
oddly uninspired vision (though it probably sounded good on paper) – as do the supporting cast (especially Jane Alexander as
Arbus’ hideous mother and Ty Burrell as her sweetly understanding husband) – but to no avail.

In the end, ironically, the moviemakers don’t even seem to care about their subject, let alone Arbus’ work, and seem to have no
interest in what truly motivated or inspired her.  In a final insult, after laying all this bogus groundwork for Arbus’ fascination and
attraction to the freakish and abnormal – especially in the personage of hairbear Sweeney – they allow Arbus to shave him before
the relationship is consummated, thus nullifying what makes the guy different and “special” to begin with.

What’s wrong with this picture?  This portrait is out of focus – for starters.