Reviews

The Horatio Hornblower series of TV movies is not the usual A & E culture vulture stuff. It's actually fun! Based on the novel about a dashing and ambitious young sailor in the Royal Navy in the 18th century, it's not exactly subtle, but it's great action-adventure genre stuff. Handsome Iaon Gruffud (Kate Winslet's rescuer in Titanic) stars as the too-gallant-to-be-true hero, continually getting into sticky situations. The script is witty, the characters real, and the period is shown convincingly. I guess it's kind of corny, but it's so much fun to watch you really won't care. I'm not really a costume drama person, but this one changed my mind. Catch it on A & E.

First off, if you want to enjoy this one, be prepared to suspend disbelief. The plot hinges on a number of incredibly unlikely coincidences, in the manner of '30's screwball comedies. It doesn't always work, but parts of it are so hysterically funny I'd definitely recommend seeing it. The script is uneven, with the first 20 minutes slow and somewhat depressing. But with the introduction of Fraser and MacLaine it perks up a whole lot. The central problem of this movie is that Ricki Lake simply isn't a strong enough actress to carry a lead role. Her Connie comes across as merely dumb, rather than vulnerable, and she's just not all that funny. To see how Connie should have been played, watch Sandra Bullock in "While You Were Sleeping", playing a very similar role infinitely better. MacLaine is terrific as the iron-willed, acid-tongued Winterbourne matriarch, but Fraser steals the show! He has a deadpan delivery that enhances the good lines he's given, but even when he's silent, he's funny. He has terrifically versatile facial expressions that can push a scene from amusing to hilarious. Also, Miguel Sandoval is great as the bossy, flamboyant butler. There is some great side-business between MacLaine, Fraser and Sandoval as the two men conspire to try and keep her healthy, and she sneaks around smoking and drinking. It's fluffy stuff, but these 3 experienced comic performers milk it for everything it's worth. That could pretty much sum up the whole movie: light on plot, light on plausibility, but very very funny. With a different actress exploiting Connie's comic potential this one could have been a gem. As it is, it's flawed but definitely worth seeing. The "tango" scene alone is worth the price of the video.

First off, this is NOT a date movie. This is the movie you take your BF to when you're about to dump him, so he realizes there are more evil people than you in the world. I went to this movie with both high hopes and dread. I'd read some reviews that had slammed it, I'm a big fan of 1988's Dangerous Liaisons, plus I read and liked the book (for a Lit class, OK), but my friends had all raved about the movie. It wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but it was a hell of a lot better than I'd expected! The updating is carried off very well, and it's both genuinely funny and dramatic. The script is a bitchy riot, at least in the funny bits. The serious parts are less convincingly scripted. There are some awkward shifts between black humour and melodrama, as the consequences of the main characters toying with people's lives eventually catches up with them. It's not as good a movie as Dangerous Liaisons, and if you haven't seen DL yet, I'd recommend seeing CI first, or you might not get as much out of it. But it's a risk-taking movie that sees most of its brave choices pan out. Most, not all. While Manhattan high society is definitely the equivalent of ancien regime France, and teens can be very manipulative, CI doesn't have the dramatic weight of the original. The characters are so young it's hard to believe they're making life-or-death choices, and the social pressures aren't the same. Back in the 18th C women had to appear chaste or lose everything, while now Monica brags about oral sex on TV.

The switch especially hobbles SMG's role as Kathryn Merteuil. Glenn Close's Merteuil has a great speech about playing games while maintaining outward respectability, and comes across as a twisted early feminist. When Kathryn has a similar speech, it doesn't work, b/c her hard-earned good girl rep seems more like a choice than a social necessity. The double standard of men as studs and women as sluts still applies today, but Kathryn's justification is unconvincing, b/c we don't see what really drives her to conceal her true nature. SMG is great in the beginning as the ultimate insincere bitch goddess, but she loses momentum as the film goes on b/c the script doesn't let the character grow, so we never see what's underneath the controlled facade and vicious quips. Despite the 2D role, SMG is spirited and believable as a self-centred manipulator, but she falls flat in 2 key scenes w/Phillippe near the end, exuding the same old bitchy spite instead of the real menace needed to make the plot twists plausible. In contrast, both Phillippe & Witherspoon start out shaky & improve dramatically. At first Annette is smug, self-righteous "good girl" but she develops into a strong, independent-minded, intelligent young woman whose goodness comes not from her virginity but from her integrity and compassion. When Sebastian convinces her her scruples are wrong, she gives into him with a wholehearted honesty seen in no other character.My only complaint is that the mind games he plays on her to get her to this point end far too quickly, as if the writer is in a hurry to get on with the plot & is missing a golden opportunity. But still, the Annette/Sebastian romance is compelling, due also in part to Phillippe. RP has the toughest role in the film: he has to start out as a charming amoral psychopath & gradually evolve into a man destroyed by the conflict btwn love and his ego. He pulls it off. Never having thought of RP as more than eye candy (can you blame me after 54?) I was shocked. He starts out shaky, giving a mannered John Malkovich impression, but soon makes the part his own: building from cocky, malicious,love-to-hate-him stunts to a young man enraptured by love. Near the climax he is believably despairing & confused, unfortunately more so than the lines (RP & RW pull off the big brushoff scene on sheer intensity, b/c they're given little to work with by the script. The dialogue in this scene doesn't hold a candle to the original) He can't match Malkovich for dramatic power, but he does a hell of a lot better than any 23-yr-old teen heartthrob w/no serious movies under his belt has a right to do. The 4th star, Selma Blair, did little for me. The character was a cartoon, more clueless than innocent, & her slapstick bits didn't mesh well w/the more sophisticated humour of the other character. I found the very ending of the movie kind of unsatisfying, although I can't put my finger on why. It just didn't have the dramatic impact it needed.

A disappointing movie somewhat redeemed by a good soundtrack and Mike Myers' inspired turn as cynical, self-aggrandizing Rubell. But the rest of the characters were cardboard cutouts and the plot was nonexistent. I've seen the talented Ryan Phillippe spin straw into gold before, rescuing a flawed script with a strong performance, but he doesn't do it here, and since his is the main role, of course the movie's in trouble. Mind you, his character of Shane is virtually unplayable. I call it the Forrest Gump Principle of Movies: the main character must be intelligent and/or likable, preferably both, but one will do.

Shane isn't a very nice guy, and he's not too bright either, so we have nothing to root for. The other characters are equally vacuous and selfish and most of the cast seems to sleepwalk through the movie, relying on sex appeal to get them through. If the writer had put even a smidge of the thought that went into the characterization of Rubell into the other parts, this movie might have been much better. On the bright side, although I was in diapers at Studio 54's heyday, I'm told by informed sources that it's an accurate portrayal of the hedonistic, anything-goes disco culture. But it's not interesting enough to make me wish it was 1979 again. Intriguing idea scuttled by a script light on plot and sympathetic characters. Rent it for the eye candy factor.