Friday, January 10, 1997
"The Portrait of a Lady"
Directed by Jane Campion
Starring Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey, Martin
Donovan and Sir John Gielgud
Die-hard Henry Jamesians be warned. The new adaptation of his
most lauded novel is not some timidly reverent Merchant Ivory
production. The novel has entered the hands of screenwriter Laura
Jones ("An Angel at My Table"), and director Jane Campion has fused
her own distinct sensibility to create something new, which some
might argue is the whole point of adaptation.
Nicole Kidman plays heroine Isabel Archer, a defiantly modern
young woman making her way through the less than female-friendly
1870s. Isabel is courted by many suitors, but gives herself to
none. Her consumptive cousin Ralph (played by Donovan), clearly a
surrogate for James himself, also loves her; yet Isabel is
determined to lead a life for herself, a shocking notion for her
time. Complicating matters is the small fortune she inherits when
Ralph’s dad shuffles off the mortal coil, making the Europe-touring
Isabel a prime target for cash-poor aristocrats like Gilbert Osmond
(a John Malkovich role if ever there was one) who woos Isabel into
a marriage of his own convenience.
The interplay between Osmond and Lady Serena (played with poise
by Barbara Hershey) reminds one of the scheming between Malkovich’s
Valmont and Glenn Close in "Dangerous Liaisons" without the bite or
electricity of the earlier match-up. The performances all around
show the cast members doing their best work in recent memory, and
their performances and everything else is captured beautifully by
director of photography Stuart Dryburgh ("The Piano") who shows
what the cinematographic euphemism of "painting with light"
means.
Campion takes a lot of stylistic risk and liberties, and if it
doesn’t satisfy fans of the novel, it will certainly reinforce her
position as one of world cinema’s leading visionaries, which is
probably more important to her in the long run any way.
Brandon Wilson Grade: A-
"Evita"
Directed by Alan Parker
Starring Madonna, Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce
All stops have been pulled to bring this Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim
Rice brainchild to the screen; Evita’s not just the biggest musical
Hollywood has taken a crack at, it’s a huge affair. By now,
pointing out how tailor made the part of
savior/superstar/superbitch Argentinean First Lady Eva Perón
is for Madonna is beyond redundant. Playing La Perón from age
15 to 33, Madonna rises to the challenge of the role, demonstrating
a vocal range heretofore unattained. As we chart Eva’s rise from
country girl to big city actress to wife of a dictator, Antonio
Banderas provides running commentary as Ché, a petulant
Brechtian everyman who never fails to point out the flip side to
many of Eva’s apparently selfless acts. Jonathan Pryce plays
soldier-turned-president Juan Perón with the grace and ease
his classical British training affords him.
The off-screen artisans in "Evita" always threaten to outstrip
the thespians; Darius Khondji’s peerless cinematography proves why
he’s risen so high in his field so quickly; Gerry Hambling’s
editing is seamless when it needs to be, yet also brings the film
into its own cinematically (making it more than a play on film);
the set and costume design are impeccable, and Alan Parker’s
directing keeps the intimate scenes and those with a thousand
extras under equally steady control.
Madonna, like Perón herself, will never be everyone’s cup
of tea. But the focus and work she put into the role is evident
whenever she’s on screen. And if this one doesn’t get her the film
career she’s always wanted, perhaps she should surrender to it
knowing she’d given it her best shot.
Brandon Wilson Grade: B+
"Turbulence"
Directed by Robert Butler
Starring Ray Liotta and Lauren Holly
We saw it in the 1970s with "Airport," again in 1980’s comedy
spoof "Airplane" and just last year in "Executive Decision." Recent
world-news events have made the subject ripe for exploitation, yet
the opening of this weekend’s stupendously awful "Turbulence"
assures the ultimate death of the plane-disaster movie in
Hollywood.
MGM/UA has not been a major Hollywood player since the 1960s,
and it’s no surprise when they allow such a poorly-written (and
expensive) thriller like this to make it to the screen.
The movie stars Ray Liotta, whose career has sagged since 1990’s
"Goodfellas" as a psychopathic serial killer who cunningly takes
over a 747 while being transported from New York to Los
Angeles.
But while Liotta exudes a disturbing, wild-eyed performance, the
remainder of the cast sleepwalks like cardboard figures through
this empty-headed mess. Lauren Holly, who appeared in 1994’s "Dumb
and Dumber" manages to scream and cry her way to the most annoying,
helpless female character in recent movie memory. The illogical
script, among other things, never explains why only nine passengers
would inhabit a huge commercial jet on Christmas Eve. In what
universe? The corny dialogue turns the film’s tense moments into
unintentional laugh-fests.
Admittedly, the film’s final half-hour is a reasonably
suspenseful conundrum of different crises. Holly must blindly steer
the 747 through a severe winter storm, while a ranting Liotta
ruthlessly plots to crash the plane into downtown L.A. The huge,
convincing interior set of the aircraft rumbles, drops and even
flips completely around with scary results. The film could inspire
a fantastic amusement park ride.
But mostly this is a lifeless collection of every known movie
cliche in the book  with boring characters to boot. The
obligatory "heroic air-traffic controllers" are a nameless,
anonymous bunch who elude no sympathy whatsoever. Nor do any of the
anonymous "scared plane passengers," who spend most of the film
conveniently tucked away in a restroom and forgotten about. Even
the character played by Liotta has no past history, and no
motivation for terrorizing the flight, other than the fact that he
is insane.
MGM/UA sunk a tremendous amount of money into "Turbulence,"
hoping to emulate last summer’s special-effects blockbusters. The
movie’s ad campaign even resembled "Twister’s" blitzkrieg showcase
of confusing quick-cuts and surprise endings. The film even
attempts to invent a new "classic" special-effects sequence,
involving a low-flying plane and a high-rise Los Angeles
skyscraper. We’ve seen it all before.
All of which could have been very exciting had it not already
been filmed countless times before. Even in 1980, filmmakers were
tired enough to begin spoofing the genre. A concept this dated and
uninnovative should be put to rest. Ultimately, this film is so
cliched, so boring and so tough to sit through, that its campaign
slogan  "Can you survive the ride?" becomes a genuinely
reasonable question.
Ash Steffy Grade: D-
"Hamlet"
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Starring Kenneth Branagh, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie and Derek
Jakobi
With his latest effort, Branagh tries to defend the turf that
made him famous against all the recent interlopers to the Bard with
this full-length four-hour version of that most famous tragedy in
Denmark. If the debacle that was "Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein"
didn’t shatter irrevocably his career, this root canal of
moviegoing should.
Demonstrating to an embarrassing degree that some actors simply
can’t nor should be allowed to self-direct, Branagh turns in a
scenery-chewing, forced and grating performance as the sullen
prince. It’s not like he’s playing Hamlet, it’s as if he’s playing
an actor playing Hamlet. When he’s not delivering monologues
through clenched teeth and loading every word with all the anguish
he can muster, he begins mugging and speaking in a cutesy sing-song
as if to leaven with humor a four-hour performance he knows to be
without one second of truth.
Winslet, Christie and the rest of his cast do their best, and
manage to create a nice moment or two. But Branagh the director
rams the film into the ground with his lacking facility for the
tools of cinema; Alex Thomson’s flat cinematography is a total
waste of the 70mm format, without texture, or one well-composed
shot. And if you’re not sure as a viewer what poor editing looks
like, there are several sequences here that give great
examples.
Two hours of this film makes you nostalgic for the Zefferelli
"Hamlet" from only a few years back. But by the end, when Branagh,
in Crucified Christ pose, is carried out with his blue eyes looking
straight into the camera, you’ll feel nothing and wish someone had
made this "Hamlet" not to be a long, long time ago.
Brandon Wilson Grade: F