Natalie Portman on The Late Show; Dave raves Brothers

I can’t recall the last time David Letterman was so enthusiastic about a movie as he seemed to be about Brothers on Wednesday night’s show. I’ll have to watch this clip again to pull his exact quotes, but I think he says he enjoyed it as much as any other other film in the past 10 years. The kind of movie that studios have forgotten how to make, he says:

I’ve been restraining myself and I love chatting with you, but allI really want to talk about is this movie… This thing — and I don’t know anything about movies — and I got to see this movie last week. Oh my goodness, what a tremendous film, tremendous cast, tremendous performances, yourself at the top of the list…

Oh my God, what a movie. And I see every movie that comes out, and — you’re in the business and you know most of it is junk… [Natalie demurs, and says, “That means a lot from you, so thank you.”]

And so we sit down and we watch this thing, and this is a real movie… And it couldn’t be more timely. There’s just not a false note in the entire thing. You must be thrilled to be a part of this… I don’t remember when I saw a movie that I was this impressed with. This is what escapes modern filmmakers, this ability…

What can I say about it? Can I say that it will break your heart, and it’ll kill ya, and then it’ll break your heart again?

[addressing the audience] Don’t go because because of this clip — though I’m sure it’s fine — go because I’m telling you this is the finest film in the last 12, 20 years.

OK, a little hyperbole at the end there. But David Letterman doesn’t do this very often. He doesn’t praise movies to the moon every week, or recommend that 10 different movies are Must See, like Oprah does every year. Letterman is ordinarily fairly restrained and even skeptical with guests who come to plug their movies. So I take this Dave Rave seriously.

(Not to mention, the interesting possibility: Kobe Bryant nominated for Best Supporting Actor?)