Friday, January 30, 1998
Screenscene
FILM:
"Four Days in September"
Directed by Bruno Barreto
Starring Alan Arkin, Pedro Cardoso and Fernanda Torres
It's rare when an audience sympathizes with the kidnappers, the victim and the government's secret agent/torturer all in one film.
But director Bruno Barreto's Brazilian film, "Four Days in September," inspired by the 1969 kidnapping of American ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick, gives its characters enough depth to accomplish just this.
In a time of oppression, an eager and inexperienced Fernando (Pedro Cardoso) who is later renamed Paulo, joins a small resistance group called the MR-8. To publicly bring the Brazilian government to its knees, the band of zealots strategize to kidnap the American ambassador (Alan Arkin) unless their demands are met.
The MR-8 threaten to kill the American in four days unless 15 political prisoners are released and the group's manifesto is broadcasted. Holed up in a country villa, the young resisters dread the ticking of time when one of them may be forced to take an innocent man's life.
Barreto successfully recreates the heat and intensity of this four-day standoff. He takes what could potentially be fodder for a tired political thriller and transforms it into a character- and relationship-driven piece.
However, about two-thirds of the way into the translation, the film falls into the same trappings that most big studio films fall into, complete with an obligatory sex scene between Paulo and Maria (Fernanda Torres), the MR-8 group leader.
The solid cast and talented actors draw the audience into the revolutionaries' inward battles: their need to fight the military regime and remain humane. Arkin is equally impressive as the frightened yet strong and understanding ambassador who develops touching but not maudlin connections with his captors.
Despite its cliche stint toward the end of the film, "Four Days in September" takes a true event and turns it into an intriguing story with a dynamic characters.
Stephanie Sheh
Grade: B+
"Deep Rising"
Directed by Stephen Sommers
Starring Treat Williams and Famke Janssen
Oh no! A big, giant, supernatural monster is gonna eat us! Haven't we seen this before? Like just last week? It was called "Phantoms."
Anyway, this week's great scary monster is a sea dweller so hungry that he's decided to eat an entire ship full of people. But unlike "Phantoms," which had no character development, "Deep Rising" actually takes time to cultivate an intriguing situation for those stranded on the Argonautica.
Treat Williams is a scrappy mercenary who is taking a boatful of mysterious militia men into the middle of the South China Sea. But when they stumble upon a deserted luxury liner dripping with blood and filled with skeletons, they realize something is amiss. The few survivors on the cruise ship include a jewel thief (Famke Janssen) and the ship's suspicious owner (Anthony Heald) who looks remarkably like Nick Nolte.
What's interesting about this movie is that the disgusting sea creature is not the passengers' only enemy. Everyone has a secret agenda and distrusts one another. It's survival of the fittest.
"Deep Rising" tries hard to be as funny as possible, interspersing one-liners with horrible mangling death scenes every couple of minutes. But while the characters do say the darndest things, their personalities, as in most horror movies, are sadly underdeveloped. The filmmakers probably figured the audience shouldn't get too attached to characters who are just lunchmeat.
Williams, who is better known for supporting roles in "The Devil's Own" and HBO's "The Late Shift," handles the gruff leading hero part with zest. He's not exactly Harrison Ford, but in a movie of this quality, he'll do. But his contrived romance with leading lady Janssen is silly, completely forced and very unnecessary.
The movie's comic relief comes in Kevin J. O'Connor's character, Pantucci, whose initially witty one-liners may come off as amusing in the beginning. But by the end of the movie, his annoying Peter-Brady-adolescent voice will just grate everyone's ears.
While "Deep Rising" is far from a good movie or even a good sci-fi horror movie, it is taking a step in the right direction: giving the human characters something else to do and think about besides getting away from the scary beast.
Aimee Phan
Grade: C-
"Great Expectations"
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron
Starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Bancroft and Robert DeNiro
The Dickens classic, "Great Expectations" is a love story for the truly pathetic. An earnest and impoverished boy falls in love with a haughty, bitchy rich girl. He professes his love and devotion to her. She ridicules and spurns him. Then they grow up. And guess what? He still loves her and she's still pretending she hates him.
In the latest rock n' roll version of this famous 19th-century novel, it's Ethan Hawke as Finn (originally named Pip) and Gwyneth Paltrow as Estella dancing to the familiar tunes of unrequited love. Set in South Florida, Finn is a poor orphan who dreams of being an artist. He is introduced to the wealthy and demented Ms. Dinsmoor (originally named Ms. Havisham, and wonderfully overacted by a vampy Bancroft) and her beautiful, conceited niece, Estella. After years of being spurned by the prissy little princess, Finn gets the chance to become a famous artist in the new aristocracy, the Manhattan art scene. The arrival of fame and fortune also brings Estella back into his life, making Finn even hungrier to become worthy of the object of his affection.
While the movie is gorgeously shot in the primary shades of green and black, the modern soundtrack complements the emotions of the characters, and the actors do their best with their paltry lines, the movie can't hold up with its weak and pretentious script. The characters talk like they belong in some artsy-fartsy indie film. They pose and pout for the camera in all their well-tailored glory. Several of the novel's most important plot twists are also ignored, making such unforgettable characters, like DeNiro's mysterious prisoner, seem like skeletons of their original fabulous selves.
The novel's original lesson of social understanding and acceptance of one's character is lost in the movie version. But Hawke and Paltrow do have a remarkable chemistry and the love story between their characters was tweaked up a little so it's not as one-sided as it was in the novel. Hawke portrays the complexities of his character impressively, from the cockiness he uses when schmoozing with art dealers to the vulnerability that always comes out whenever he's with Estella. Paltrow beings a sensitive frailty to the otherwise manipulative Estella, helping the audience to understand why Hawke's character is so obsessed with her. But despite the stellar performances, the movie still can't live up to any decent moviegoer's standard expectations.
Aimee Phan
Grade: B-
"Desperate Measures"
Directed by Barbet Schroeder
Starring Michael Keaton and Andy Garcia
Studios tend to save their sure-fire hits for either the summer or fall box office seasons, leaving January a month to release the leftovers. "Desperate Measures," due out on Friday, is one of those winter releases, and it shows.
While "Desperate Measures" falls under the overdone action/suspense genre, Michael Keaton's performance drives the storyline, making it a film that his fans won't want to miss.
"Desperate Measures" features Keaton in the role of convicted homicidal sociopath Peter McCabe who holds the survival of police officer Frank Connor's (Andy Garcia) son, Matt (Joseph Cross) in his hands. Matt has a rare bone marrow disorder and needs a transplant from a perfect match, which happens to be that of McCabe's. McCabe, who is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison is thus given the ability to do a heroic act with no real-world benefit for himself.
From Keaton's first scene, his enthusiasm for playing the killer is apparent. The prison cell shot of a shirtless Keaton doing arm curls with water-filled bags is absolutely chilling. When he meets Garcia for the first time, his look and demeanor morphs to that of an evil Batman, but with a voice a little like that of Billy Bob Thornton in "Sling Blade." Playing the part beautifully, Keaton never deviates from the crazy-genius killer that his role demands of him.
After a little haggling Connor gets McCabe to agree to the operation. And guess what? McCabe manages a cunning escape and tries to elude capture, knowing full well that he is no good to Connor if he dies, which forces Connor to put his son above the law.
Andy Garcia is decent as the concerned father. But it seems as if he's just cruising through the role, just saying lines in his trademark style with a few tears here and a few tears there. The cat-and-mouse game gets old pretty quickly even though director Barbet Schroeder, through fast-paced sequences,does a fine job of creating harrowing scenes.
What the film lacks is originality. Keaton's homicidal maniac is reminiscent of Anthony Hopkins' role in "Silence of the Lambs" and the Nicolas Cage/John Travolta villain in "Face Off." "Desperate Measures" finds its mark when Keaton is in front of the camera, but seems to reach a bit when he's off.
Michael Nazarinia
Grade: B
"Gonin"
Directed by Takashi Ishii
Starring Koichi Sato, Naoto Takenaka and Takeshi "Beat" Kitano
The Japanese gangster film has long been one of the more interesting genres to come out of Japanese cinema. Though far from perfect, "Gonin," translated as "The Five," which begins its week-long engagement at the Nuart today, continues this successful legacy by serving as a hybrid of gangster themes intermingled with gay romanticism while being shot in a style that conjures up images of the surrealistic Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali film, "Un Chien Andalou."
Former erotic manga (Japanese comic book style) artist Takashi Ishii weaves together a plot involving a gang of five men, down on their luck, who decide to rob the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia. After the robbers succeed, the Yakuza vow revenge and enlist the hit-men to track down the intrepid quintet.
Though the premise comes off as awfully unoriginal, "Gonin" distinguishes itself from more customary gangster pictures with a lack of a noticeable hero or anti-hero. Instead, Ishii gives the audience an intriguing portrait of a wide assortment of characters. The five Yakuza robbers include a homosexual disco owner, an androgynous street hustler, a macho ex-cop, a blond pimp and a sociopathic corporate salary-man played by Takenaka (the hilarious Mr. Aoki in "Shall We Dance?").
Legendary Japanese actor "Beat" Kitano gives an amusing tongue-in-cheek performance as a sadistic, gay hit-man who constantly picks on his masochistic lover. Even though the quirks and oddities of these characters go over-the-top to the point of silly caricature, they come off as twistedly engaging.
"Gonin" is often disjointed and contains confusing bits of dialogue that might perplex some viewers. These things are compensated for however, with eye-popping visuals that make urban decay look romantic. Ishii's background as an artist helps create a bizarre comic book feel. "Gonin" is full of gaudy colors, flashbacks, split-screen images and beautifully choreographed action sequences that should no doubt please the Luc Besson/John Woo contingent.
Tristan Thai
Grade: B