Welcome to the Shrine to Actors

While we’re waiting for Orlando Bloom to do something , I thought we’d enjoy his loveliness in the small independent film Haven. Back in 2004, Orlando worked on this Frank E. Flowers debut, and the film had a limited release in the US in 2006. An ambitious and creative work, Haven works with multiple storylines going on simultaneously, with characters that overlap, and with some time shifts. The problem is the pacing, in that one storyline will carry on so long you forget what was going on in the other, and then at the end, it’s as if a bunch of frames were just dumped into the film without ordering them properly. The sudden confusion is supposed to make the ending ambiguous, I suppose, but mostly it’s just frustrating.

There are some excellent performances, and the movie is intriguing and a valiant first effort for Flowers. It’s also a good outing for Orlando Bloom, away from costume dramas and epics. He’s casual and relaxed and slips well into the character of Shy, a sort of Peter Pan beach boy who’s in love with a wealthy island girl. So he’s one part Peter Pan, one part Romeo. The romance in the movie suffers from too much telling and not enough showing, unfortunately. At one point Shy’s friend Patrick (Lee Ingleby) says he doesn’t know what Shy sees in Andrea (Zoe Saldana). The problem is, we don’t know what it is, either. Part of it is the way the character is written, but it’s also that Saldana’s sweet and innocent comes off more as icy and distant.

One definite thing to say about the film is that it is beautiful visually. As I screencapped, I saw how each frame was a gorgeous portrait in and of itself. And the director, or the lighting director, or everyone involved seemed to be working on making Orlando look as sexy and edible as humanly possible. Indulge with me, please, and remember: all pics are clickable for larger versions.

Orlando Bloom is fairly slender, yes, but with a nice set of shoulders. He’s got that perfect taper down to the narrow waist.

He has a wonderful lithe grace that has served him well in his action/adventure films, beautifully adept with sword or arrow or oar.

The scenes on the water are gorgeous. I love the magnification under the water.

The brightness of the sun creates a beautiful sparkling image.

Here we get to see Orlando primping in front of the mirror. And we also get to relish his handsome features and smooth, tan skin. He goofs off a bit in this scene, but those moments were more difficult to capture so I stuck with the simpler shots.

This storyline definitely follows Shy and his transformation, but it still is unusual to see a love scene where the man is consistently the one bathed in attractive glowing light, at the forefront of the frame…not that I’m complaining, mind.

I’ll try not to gibber on too much about Orlando’s pecs and abs. Just click the pics and you’ll see…

Adorably proud of himself…

…until he has to run and evade Andrea’s family…

We’ll end this on a beautiful Orlando Bloom smile.

Hope you enjoyed the pretty man. Be assured there will be more Orlando goodies in the future.

Orlando Bloom Haven screencaps, c2004 El Camino Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

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