Friday, November 21, 1997
Screenscene
FILM:
"Anastasia"
Directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman
Starring Meg Ryan and John Cusack
It’s got fight scenes, explosions and a psychotic villain bent
on revenge. No, it’s not "Die Hard 4." It is the inaugural effort
by Fox Studios to make feature-length cartoons.
In their attempt to make animation bigger, better and more
exciting than what audiences get from Disney’s tales, Fox has done
a fairly good job of turning the rumors of Russian Princess
Anastasia’s disappearance into a musical cartoon. But while
impressive in terms of animation and music, "Anastasia" does not
have any more charm or intrigue than the successful Disney-animated
features like last week’s re-released "The Little Mermaid."
As the voice of the sardonic 18-year-old Anastasia, Meg Ryan
tries to give the orphan a bold, witty attitude. But many of her
one liners are too contrived to come off as funny. The dialogue
tries much too hard to be clever. Where Disney’s movies excel in
evoking laugher, Fox tries to yank it from its viewers with far too
much effort.
John Cusack does a better job of giving his swindling character
a realistic persona, as the voice of Dimitri, a con artist looking
for a girl who will pass as the missing princess. Cusack gives
Dimitri a tough attitude but still allowing emotion to come through
his voice. And the audience can hear just how much Dimitri likes
Anastasia in spite of his cold treatment toward her.
As for the film’s look, its animation is as cutting edge as
Disney’s latest efforts. City skylines, castle stairways and opera
house stages in Russia and France provide the perfect outlet for
sharp, bright computer-generated animation. But this highly
polished look is something Disney has already perfected. So
"Anastasia’s" crisply drawn look, while helpful in drawing
audiences into the story, does not achieve anything that Disney
hasn’t already done.
The only truly original aspect of "Anastasia" is the extent of
the film’s violence. Never before have American cartoons simulated
movie-like action scenes quite so vividly. When Anastasia and
Dimitri board a train bound for France, daredevil stunts, narrow
escapes and fiery explosions ensue. The whole chain of events seems
like a cross between the bus and train crash in "The Fugitive" and
several scenes in "Speed." While children may not be receptive to
the level of violence, it is undoubtedly a unique aspect of the
cartoon.
Overall, the film is a good first try for Fox at emulating the
modern-style animation films Disney has perfected in recent years.
In fact, with the exception of the action-like sequences, the film
is pretty much a clone of the basic Disney film. And judging from
past successes of copy cats in Hollywood, the makers of "Anastasia"
will make tons off this carefully crafted copy of Disney’s animated
films.
Emily Forster
Grade: B
"The Sweet Hereafter"
Directed by Atom Egoyan
Starring Ian Holm, Sarah Polley and Bruce Greenwood
I bring suit. You bring suit. We all bring suit for lots of
loot. In Atom Egoyan’s "The Sweet Hereafter," a small town copes
with a tragedy and the lawyer who comes to offer a solution.
Based on Russell Banks’ novel of the same name, the film relates
the tragic story of a bus that plunges into an icy lake in Sam
Dent, British Columbia, and kills 14 children. Mitchell Stephens
(Ian Holm), a shrewd big-city lawyer, promises the grieving parents
justice a whole lot of money.
Such a catastrophe seems to promise over-the-top melodrama, but
the parents’ sobbing stints are thankfully controlled, infused with
just the right amount of emotion. Holm achieves the ideal balance
as a man who gains the trust of a community while trying to deal
with the loss of his own estranged, drug-addicted daughter.
Stephens’ case depends on the testimony of Nicole Burnell (Sarah
Polley), a young musician who survives the accident, but the lawyer
himself is not really clear on who he plans to sue.
So he spends a great deal of time just interrogating people. But
the film establishes a rather flimsy link between the lawyer’s
prodding and the exposure of the town’s dark side. A couple of
affairs won’t exactly destroy an entire town, and the film
mistakenly expects these few isolated secrets to come across as
representative of the entire populace.
Another glaring problem is the film’s slow pace. Dominated by
dialogue, it could sure use a little more action.
Still, "The Sweet Hereafter" offers more than just an
anti-lawyer tirade. Accompanied by a richly evocative score from
Mychael Danna, the film delicately switches between flashbacks of
the town’s hardships and Stephens’ personal crisis. The enormity of
the moral dilemmas that face the characters provides moments of
tension and spine-tingling profundity.
Banks’ novel was actually inspired by a real-life school bus
accident in South Texas during the ’80s. The film also flirts with
the dividing line between reality and fantasy, art and life, by
interspersing it with readings from Robert Browning’s "The Pied
Piper of Hamelin." Without moralizing about God or fate, "The Sweet
Hereafter" confronts essentially humanistic issues of blame and
reconciliation of loss.
William Li
Grade: B+
"Heart of a Child"
Directed by Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
Featuring Amy LaBarbiera
It’s easy to forget that there is a very real and turbulent
world outside of the cushy college bubble – a place where problems
go beyond that of paper deadlines and roommate problems. It’s also
easy to watch college-type films associated with cult, action or
noir.
"Heart of a Child," a documentary about the struggle of a family
to save the life of Amy, their 4-year-old daughter, does not dwell
in a safe bubble.
In "Heart of a Child" which plays at the Monica 4-plex this
weekend, filmmakers Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon tracked the lives
of Amy LaBarbiera and her family for a year filled with struggles
of finding heart and lung donors for Amy’s worsening health
condition.
Amy tries to have a normal life filled with birthday parties and
play, but the risk of catching germs from other children limits her
playmates to just her mother. Dancing along with the children on TV
shows is her way of interacting with other children. She carries
vial tubes conspicuously in her little yellow backpack which drip a
constant stream of medication intravenously into her bloodstream.
These vial tubes of medication are as much a part of her life as
her storybooks and her stuffed green dinosaur. In fact, we see Amy
catch her mother’s mistakes in administering her medication.
It is something to see a 4-year-old mentioning needle sizes and
medication dosages as competently as she can giggle and play
Yahtzee. Her strength is put to the test during the wait for an
organ donor, and we see how her hospital tantrums reflect her
fighting spirit. Amy’s excitement for life can be seen in her
penchant for lists of wedding plans and potential hobbies.
Not only is the film grounding, but it is actually amazing to
see how someone so young is forced to realize how tenuous and
valuable life is. Emmy award winning Goodman and Simon allow us to
witness the life of the first child to ever undergo a second double
lung transplant following a heart and double lung transplant.
Goodman and Simon give us a thorough view of Amy’s struggle,
allowing her parents and doctors to shed light on this epic. The
camera is there at every crucial moment from the arrival of the
helicopter containing her new organs to the monumental
operation.
Although this film is touching, the subject matter and style of
the documentary is not particularly groundbreaking or novel.
Nevertheless, Amy’s story is a moving reminder that we should
look beyond our own microcosmic life.
Michelle Nguyen
Grade: B+