I love the TV show “Without A Trace”. It’s had some less than stellar seasons but bounced back nicely. The latest cast addition was Roselyn Sanchez, and the woman is sex on wheels. However, I can’t understand a damn thing she says. She’s a mushmouth. She doesn’t enunciate and she strings all her words together. It’s annoying.
Last week I saw the Robin Williams movie “Man of the Year”. It was quite good and RW was understated which worked well. Don’t ask me to quote any of Christopher Walken’s lines, though, cause I couldn’t understand a damn thing he said. Say, Chris, you ever work with that Sanchez chick?
Okay, I just finished watching “Stranger Than Fiction” after swearing no Will Ferrell movie would ever get past my remote control button. I liked it, i really liked it. Dustin Hoffman, not so much. I couldn’t understand a damn thing he said. Hey Hoff, do you know this Walken guy?
I know there are more actors who piss me off when they mumble and slur, but these are the ones that bug me the most. Could they just try enunciating a wee bit? Please?
If someone could post a link to clips of natural (or portrayed-as-natural) speech which counts as “mushmouthed” and also that such speech that doesn’t count as “mushmouthed” I’d be much obliged.
I can’t do itFrylock because I am on dial up and am not able to view video but perhaps I can give you an oral, err written example.
Emma Thompson is a wonderful actress who has an amazing speaking voice. Whether she is playing a Shakespeare heroine or a drug addict her diction is clear and concise. I have never left a movie wondering “What the hell did Emma Thompson say?”.
Michael Richards as Kramer. I think everyone has seen at least one Seinfeld episode, and so has seen Cosmo Kramer. He is the epitome of the mush mouthed fast talking moron, but he is expected to be funny.
My gripe is with actors who are excellent at their craft but get mumbly because a) they’re bored or b) they get lazy and think we won’t notice because they are so good and we don’t care what they say.
He has sort of a ‘snuffly-face’, like a sniffing dog. In From The Earth To The Moon he just seemed to me to be ‘snuffling’ his lines. While he did enunciate some lines well in TSOTL, here’s a loop that has him sounding ‘snuffly’ and not enunciating particularly well.
Okay, this thread is for opinions on actors and I have no call to question them. I apologize. I may love XYZ and someone else may think XYZ is an illiterate moron. I will keep my personal stuff out of it.
Folks, post what you dislike about mushmouths and I will not criticize anything.
Don Francisco on Sábado Gigante. It’s terrible for people trying to learn Spanish to tune into this three-hour program and not be able to understand a damn word that man it saying.
Of course, that’s not *his * problem.
