I was skeptical of the concept of Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus taking the real 20th-century photographer and trying to tell the story of her soul through fiction, in sort of an ultra-serious use of the same technique as Curb Your Enthusiasm and Larry David.

I mainly went to Fur because LACMA presented a rich Diane Arbus exhibition that fairly enthralled me toward the end of my first year working there, and to check out Nicole Kidman to see if she might give an Oscar-worthy performance. Kidman might get some notice, but I don't think the movie will be big enough to get her in the final five; in any case, it's Robert Downey, Jr. who steals the film. Fur starts out rather fidgety for the first 20-30 minutes, but the more Downey's character became involved, the more he involved Arbus, the more involved I came.

In the end, I think what Fur is saying is every bit as important as what a movie like Flags of Our Fathers is saying - beauty and heroism are equally complex and misunderstood concepts.

Trivia worth knowing: Arbus' husband, Allan, later played Dr. Sidney Freedman on M*A*S*H. Now 88, Arbus attended the opening for the LACMA exhibition a few years back.