Review: Tiptoes

Matthew McConaughey and Gary Oldman are twins. Gary Oldman is also a little person. How are you going to resist reading this review fully now?

Director: Matthew Bright

Run Time: 90 Minutes

Released: 2003

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Gary Oldman, Kate Beckinsale, Patricia Arquette, Peter Dinklage

I came across this movie quite randomly while perusing entertainment blogs and I found it simply too bizarre to fathom. I told everyone I knew about it, I shared the trailer, I read articles and synopses in a hopeless attempt to understand. When I saw it at a used DVD store weeks later, I was powerless to resist buying it.

Here is exactly what drew me in:

• Matthew McConaughey and Gary Oldman are twin brothers
• Gary Oldman plays a little person
• Matthew McConaughey is the only member of his family to not be a little person
• Peter Dinklage plays Gary Oldman’s best friend

Give that a moment or two to sink in.

Oh Tiptoes – a small, unknown movie that raises endless questions.

1. With a profusion of talented little person actors (many of whom are in the movie) they hired Gary Oldman to hobble around on his knees while wearing prosthetics.

2. Matthew McConaughey and Gary Oldman in no way, shape, or form look like they could be twin brothers. It doesn’t help that Gary Oldman is about a decade older.

3. Why couldn’t they just hire Peter Dinklage to play Gary Oldman’s character? He’s a fine actor and is very fun in this movie – surely they could have saved themselves a bit of money (and saved Gary Oldman some knee bruises) by hiring him?

I wonder what sort of outrage this film raised in the little person community? It is, in my eyes, quite similar to putting a white actor in blackface when there are so many capable black actors around the world who would do the part just as much (or more) justice.

The real kicker is that this film is simply overflowing with great little person actors – any one of whom could have played the role perfectly well – and without looking like Gary Oldman in prosthetics.

I’m not sure who exactly greenlit this project and thought that it would be a good idea or a sure-fire hit. It really isn’t either, but it does have its moments and it can be a great watch – if only for its mind-bogglingly bizarre set-up.

Steven (McConaughey) is engaged to free-spirited artist Carol (Kate Beckinsale). Steven comes from a family of little people, but has neglected to tell Carol this – and goes out of his way to hide it from her. When he finds out that Carol is pregnant, Steven becomes distraught at the possibility that the baby could be a little person.

When Rolfe (Oldman), Steven’s twin brother appears at her door one day, Carol learns Steven’s secret and sets out to educate herself about little people. Steven doesn’t want Carol to keep the baby because he is worried about the possible health problems that might plague a baby with dwarfism. Carol is dubious at first, but as Rolfe exposes her more and more to the society of little people, she begins to rethink all of her preconceptions.

It is part PSA about dwarfism, part bizarre family dramedy that also includes performances by Patricia Arquette as a slutty hitchhiker, and Peter Dinklage as a French anarchist junkie.

Now, the movie is touching at points and it does raise some very interesting questions and challenge some perceptions – but why, oh why, does it have to be so overwhelmingly strange? The message is all but lost as the viewer asks himself the same question over and over again – Why on Earth is Gary Oldman playing a little person?