Reviews

There's an interesting movie to be made about a woman who chooses to work in the adult film industry, not because she's emotionally damaged, but because she likes the money and community she finds there. But this isn't that movie. The lead actress lacks the charisma and talent needed to carry a movie that focuses almost entirely on her. As a result, the movie seems to drag more and more the longer it lasts. The secondary story involving her father never meshes with the main story, and the brief scenes with the lead character's friends sharing conversation at a table don't reveal anything, other than an off-putting smugness in the dialogue. (These moments involving her father and her friends do raise the question of how this movie managed to get James Woods and Rosario Dawson to sign on.) The scenes where the lead character works as a professional entrapper, for lack of a better term, do nothing other than make her look like a fool. (Nobody other than a silent movie clown could possibly possess the sexual naiveté necessary to be surprised at the bad consequences created by this job. Actually, come to think of it, this sub-plot could have been the basis for a pretty funny Harold Lloyd silent, had the Production Code of the 1920s allowed it.) The biggest failure for a movie that clearly prides itself on being hip and sophisticated is the ending in which the lead character is chastised just as harshly as any 1950s heroine who dared consider sexual independence would have been. It's not necessary to endorse her choice of professions, but it's possible to examine the downside of that choice without adopting the moralistic tone used by the filmmakers.

Sadly, an interesting subject doesn't guarantee an interesting movie, as is shown by this dull and dull-witted drudgery.

The latest in the infinite TV movie re-workings of "A Christmas Carol," this movie - shown on the ABC Family Channel under the title "Chasing Christmas" - has some sense of fun and an occasional witty touch. But the main reason to see it is Andrea Roth's performance as "Present," a.k.a. the Ghost of Christmas Present. Without having all that much to work with in the script, she creates an attractive character who balances her sense of responsibility to her ghostly duties against a dawning appreciation of the daily pleasures of normal life. She even manages to make believable those moments when she needs to convey a romantic interest in Tom Arnold's Scrooge stand-in. At any given moment in Hollywood history, there always seem to be some good actresses who lack only a breakthrough role to reach the level of success they deserve. This movie doesn't give Roth that role, but - notwithstanding whatever weak points it has - it does let us enjoy her skill, intelligence, and charm. There's worse ways to pass two hours on a December evening.