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6 Thursday, February 29,1996 Painfidly Slow 4 Mary Reilly’ Leaves Audience Gasping for Breath In the tradition of movies such as “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula, ” director Stephen Frears attempts to revive a classic tale of suspense and horror on the big screen —with das tardly results. “Mary Reilly, ’’based on the book of the same name, tells the familiar story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as seen through the eyes of the doctor’s maidservant, Mary Reilly. But what at first appears to promise an interesting, fresh perspec tive falters un der the weight of what should be the crux of MELISSA MILIOS Movie Review ‘Mary Reilly' D the film. Instead of focusing on the devel opment of the characters of the doctor and his alter ego and the effect these idiosyn crasies have on Mary Reilly, the director relies on mood-making devices to carry the movie, succeeding only in making “Mary Reilly” a thoroughly unenjoyable viewing experience. Roberts stars in die title role as Dr. Jekyll’s loyal maid, who becomes ro mantically captivated by the doctor as she becomes increasingly entangled in his shady dealings. She is the representative of innocence in the film, inexplicably drawn to both the tenacity of Dr. Jekyll and the utter evil of Mr. Hyde. John Malkovich’s dual role as tortured doctor and lusty assistant is tailor-made for Chan Invades America With ‘Rumble in the Bronx’ In the early eighties, JackieChanagreed to be exploited by Hollywood in an at tempt to become a worldwide star, but sadly he received none of the benefits of the “partnership.” After “The Fearless Hy ena” and some other crazy ani mal-named films, he re- | TODD GILCHRIST | Movie Review 'Rumble In The Bronx' B+ treated to China. Now, using one of his own foreign films as a domestic vehicle, Chan is attempting to revive American interest with “Rumble In The Bronx.” Chan stars as the nephew of a Chinese storekeeper in you guessed it the Genuine Thrills Save ‘Unforgettable’ From Mediocrity I will admit that I have a certain biased admiration for the modem film noir direc tor John Dahl. His “Red Rock West” was a heady little film that had its share of hits and misses, while “The Last Seduction” pretty much kicked ass ev ery which way but loose. So I was hoping that his first BRENT SIMON Movie Review 'Unforgettable' B- crack at non-noir would sustain the appeal of his previous efforts. The straight-up thriller “Unforgettable” combines in its story elements of both “The Fugitive” (an innocent man consumed by attempts to find his wife’s killer) and “Strange Days” Everything 40 - 70 off CAROLINA PRIDE 151 E. Franklin St. - 919-942-0127 Carolina Blue for the Pride in You. the actor, whose very presence adds a sense of foreboding and imminent peril to any film. At once convincingly depraved and repressed, Malkovich portrays the doctor as a driven alchemist looking first hope fully for a potion to release his inhibitions and later frantically for a counteractive to control the ever-strengthening Mr. Hyde before both doctor and “assistant” are de stroyed. As Reilly, Roberts is a mute ob server of these horrors, relying on wide eyed looks of fear and stupefaction to build her character. In the two-hour long film, she has precious few lines of dialogue, making it hard to understand what is going on behind those hollow eyes and leaving motivating factors for her actions unclear. Despite her haunted past, Ms. Reilly obvi ously has no sense of self-preservation, as she, much to the dismay of the audience, wanders blindly into one horrific situation after another. When Reilly does finally open her mouth, what comes out is an unfortunately contrived Scottish accent, which is not complemented by Roberts’ habit of swallowing her words. Malkovich does not attempt an accent, but as the doctor, his measured sentences and care fully pronounced dialogue create about him a maddening aura of urgency and intrigue. Again, the scarcity of dialogue overall leaves many of the characters’ ac tions unbelievable and even ridiculous. Appearing in a bit part as whorehouse Bronx (never mind that mountain range in the background). His uncle is going away on his honeymoon, and Chan is left to take care of the shop while he’s away. When some badly-dubbed hoodlums try to steal from the store, he is forced into action and ends up getting involved with a major New York gang (and they are tough when Chan calls them “gaibage,” they collec tively hang their heads in shame). Then more stuff happens involving a hovercraft, a Lamborghini and more of Chan's breath taking acrobatics. One has to give up on the story alto gether to make it through “Rumble In the Bronx,” but this in no way diminishes the film’s entertainment value. Although the (virtual sensory experience). But “Unfor gettable” is anything but. Ray Liotta stars as Dr. David Krane, a Seattle medical examiner who turns up a clue and begins his own personal search for hiswife’sreal killer. LindaFiorentinoplays Dr. Martha Briggs, a university researcher who, using lab rats, unlocks the secrets of neuroelectrical impulse transfer. Our most noteworthy memories are stored in cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and can be shared not unlike a middle school lunch when injected into the blood stream, jumpstarted with an outside stimulus and counterbalanced with the right combina tion of drugs. Conveniently enough, CSF is routinely extracted and saved during all DIVERSIONS Movies madam, Glenn Close is effectively repul sive, her sneer and painted red lips making the audience queasy .But against the dreaiy backdrop of the film, the color red jumps out in even more unexpected and offensive points in the movie. Bloody scenes abound, and the excessive gore is distasteful and sickening, including tight shots of the skin ning and hacking of a writhing eel and close-ups of carcasses at a slaughterhouse. Blood-saturated handkerchiefs with the initials “HJ” also appear sporadically throughout the movie. The pace of the film is painfully slow, and although some gravity is understand able in such a tale, only so many scenes of Mary Reilly wandering through the hol low rooms of the estate are necessary to establish a mood of gothic loneliness. Im pressive cinematography—muted colors, oppressive fogs, subtle lighting com pounds this mood, but the overall result is more uncomfortably claustrophobic than effectively unnerving. Relentlessmusictries too hard to make every scene weighty, consequently downplaying the intensity of the more intentionally dramatic scenes. If Frears’ goal was for viewers to leave the theater feeling suffocated and gasping for breath, his mission has been accom plished in “Mary Reilly”; however, view ers deserve a reward for their endurance of this oppression, and this reward is pain fully absent in “Mary Reilly.” film lacks in substance, Qian delivers one of the most kinetic performances ever shown on screen. I doubt that any American director of the past twenty years could create such a rapid-fire succession of motions as Qian choreographs himself. Cljan does all of his own choreography and stunts, as described in the previews, and once you watch the film you’ll understand why no one will insure him. Hedoesn’tjust get into fistfights; he will kick your ass with a refrigerator, a shopping cart, a pinball machine, metal fencing or any other piece of his environ ment within reach. Still, he takes a lickin’ just as well as he gives one, and it shows in the closing credits; he gets hurt in several medical autopsies. So Dr. Krane “bor rows” a little of his dead wife’s fluid in an attempt to experience her last few minutes alive and track down her murderer, thus proving his innocence. Complex story line aside, the film’s stars deliver fine performances. True, Liotta does mainly blink instead of art, but that is due mostly to the film’s structure he’s re quired to behave in that manner in which men in movies always seem to grieve. Fiorentino, in a departure from previous roles, plays plain and simple Dr. Briggs with such natural charm that the viewer can’t help but be more interested in her character than in Liotta’s. Christopher McDonald and Peter Coyote also turn up -y- r'rfl . 8h A past scarred by violence and pain has given Mary Reilly (Julia Roberts) a core of strength and endurance. scenes (as shown by outtakes), and, in fart, broke his foot before the film was com pleted and had to wear a tennis-shoe shaped sock over a cast to finish. Whether Chan becomes a true interna tional star remains to be seen; the most pressing concern, however, is if people will subject themselves to such mediocre dubbing. Even the characters who speak English don’t seem to be matched up with their words (this is partially attributed to the fact that the sound for most Chinese pictures is recorded in post-production). Still, “Rumble In the Bronx” is as damn near enjoyable as movies get these days, and well worth whatever price you pay to see it. in supporting roles as police detectives. Dahl does a good job with what he’s given, but Bill Geddie’s script is mostly a convoluted rehash and patchworkjob with a couple of neat gimmicks found in the science fiction trappings. Instead of inter esting character background, what we seem to end up with are a lot of shots of Liotta grimacing and injecting himself with vari ous concoctions. Also, Dahl uses jolting flashbacks—often the same series of shots —to the point of numbness. If I had to offer up a thumbnail analogy, this film’s flash backs: John Woo’s “The Killer” bullets. Ultimately, “Unforgettable,” while catchy, fails to completely live up to its name. Regurgitation of Traditional Cliches Plague ‘Night is Falling’ In Patricia Rozema’s movie “When Night is Falling,” characters whip out the sort of inane poetic idioms that in real life would plummet so quickly you would think they were made of lead, not stardust. The characters say things like “I’d love to see youinthemoonlightwithyourheadthrown back and your body on fire,” or “I love everything about you ... I love you.” In real life as well as reel life, this is more often the not the cue either to burst out in laughter or to put that “fight or-flight” in stinct to use. In Rozema’s film, however, the situation is AZIZHUQ Movie Review 'When Night is Falling" B slightly different. In these quotes, a man is not speaking to a woman —a woman is speaking to a woman. Rozema takes the standard cliches of melodrama and tells anew stoiy with them: a love story between two women. The appropriation of time-worn heterosexual conventions to reaffirm the reality and strength of homosexual bonds is not anew strategy. By expressing homosexuality in the same idiom as heterosexuality, Rozema celebrates the triumphant finding of les bian freedom, although she is not setting out in any way a cultural “space” for “les bian art.” Like Tony Kushner’s epic play “Angels in America,” “Falling” could be called a “gay fantasia.” Rozema and her cinema tographer find, in the honeyed light of Canadian afternoons and the whittled shapes of gnarled and dashed oaks in gath ering dusk, a visual style that is captivating and appropriate .Everyshotresonateswith vitality and beauty. Indeed, if one were to remove the plot and keep only the play of light and shadow, strung together by the Nyman-esque score, one would have a worthy short film. As it goes, the plot is rather thin, thread bare from centuries ofboots trampling upon it. Camille (Pascale Bussieres), the teacher and prospective dean of a Calvinist Chris tian college, is the good girl tight lipped and fragile, with eyes so limpid you could dive right in them. She is traumatized at the beginning of the film by the unexpected death of her dog and the realization that she no longer loves anything more in the world, includingherfiance. Onecan hardly blame her. Henry Czemy, as Martin—the “intended” oozes a thick, radioactive menace. The sentiment of violence drips from his bulldog jowls and congeals under his dirty brown raincoat. Petra (Rachael Crawford) is the girl from the wrong side of the tracks —a r^MELtTNGTori A Fondue Restaurant $8 OFF FONDUE FEAST for TWO Regular Price $43.95 | At participating restaurants only. Not valid with any other offer. One offer ter coupon. A 15% gratuity will be added to the original bill. Reservations suggested, expires 3/15/96. Good Sun. - Thurs. & Fri. - sat Before 6pm ip_ h 878-0477 toNc! 3100 Road at Beltline, Raleigh A Fondue Rcstauran^j JDRpOpY’6 $5 cover gels you all the beer & (IpV house drinks you want hr sl.®! PTrT Musl be 21 w / va,ic * lo Members & guests only. Jf il For membership info, call 929-588’. Rosemg ry Street Wje Satlg Hwl cicus performer, to be precise. She com fots the weeping Camille in the blank steffity of the Laundromat, falling imme diacy in love (lust?) and doing a “switcher oo” \n their laundry, forcing Camille to cornea the circus to find her—and to find her ovti self. In the best fairy tale tradition, the “Sicus of Sorts” is a phantasmagoria of the veird and wonderful, freaks and femmes which serve to catapult Camille out of hr placid and staid lifestyle. The circus is tie perfect place for a transforma tion, sinct Camille, as a teacher of my thologies -a rather unlikely subject to be teaching ata Christian college is obvi ously in netd of a “transformation.” Ech oes of Angea Carter, rather than Bamum, ripple through the circus scenes. The film moves in clockwork certainty from the point of their meeting, Camille flurtuating between Petra’s love and the freedom of the circus and the conformity of the choolroom. Rozema, if for nothing else, mist be congratulated on the sheer numbjof cliches she’s managed (as writer and dlector - an open invitation to self indulgdce) to cram into the film: The triangleof the reputable lady caught be tween tvo lifestyles. The “crazy” lover who pronises and delivers the unexpected and the sotic. The reserved and solid husband-tebe dependable but boring. Some miments strike such a discordant note, howevr, that one cannot help but laugh. Camil;, in one scene is being inter viewed for theirestigious post of chaplain. In the course if this interview, she unex pectedly busts cut with a round of doubts about the homojhobia of the church. Rozema, one resumes, wants to reas sure us that Camile is no hypocrite—but this makes her outto be just plain dumb. The theme of homosexuality within the church was handleofar more successfully by Antonia Bird’s “Piest.” In “Falling” it gets short thrift. Rozena, in a scene where Camille finds herself liable to pray, sug gesting that Christianiv and homosexual ity are irreconcilable -4 a position many would find dubious. A film’s worthiness a a social project does not necessarily guaintee its success as an artistic venture. Oten, social con cerns can obscure ratheithan uplift the content of a film. Such i the case with “Falling”; the wholesale rgurgitation of harlequin cliches eventual sticks in the throat. That films with a lesdan theme can transcend heterosexual elides has already been shown by the wonderU “Go Fish.” “When Night is Falling” s irmly isn’t in the same league. However, foia good old fashioned tear-jerker that’ll gt your hand kerchiefs nice and wet, it cart be beat.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 29, 1996, edition 1
6
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