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 Bed of Roses. If you liked Untamed Heart and Sleepless
in Seattle, then Bed of Roses is just your kind of
budding romance. Mary Stuart Masterson (last seen as an emotionally-distraught
love object in Benny and Joon) plays the tough-because-I-have-to-be
career gal who's whole life is turned upside down by an anonymous
flower delivery. Christian Slater (last seen as the mysterious,
romantic rescuer in the aforementioned Untamed Heart) plays
the impetuous introvert who holds the key to the mystery. Bed
of Roses is more a collection of scenes than a story, following
the standard premise that two sad lives somehow add up to one
happy one. Character development is dismally lacking in this universal
fairy tale that true love will find us--and save us--in spite
of ourselves. Suspend your cynicism and Bed of Roses may
offer a respite from the real world, in which the characters really
would turn out to be psychos.
Dead Man Walking. Sean Penn gives an amazing performance
as a death-row inmate in this Tim Robbins film. The movie is based
on the true story of Sister Helen Prejean, a nun who befriended
a convicted killer bound for a lethal injection. The nun slogs
through a moral minefield as she visits the prison, the victim's
families, and the family of the condemned man, trying to figure
out what she's doing hanging around with a low-life. Susan Sarandon
does a fine job as Sister Helen, but it's Penn who really steals
the show with his restrained, charismatic portrayal of the convict--it's
almost weird how good he is as the hate-filled, anti-social Poncelet.
The rest of the story sometimes drifts into sentimentality or
preachiness, but whenever Penn is on-screen, everything clicks.
From Dusk Till Dawn. If you still can't get enough of vampires,
this movie should help you reach your quota. George Clooney and
Quentin Tarantino play bad-boy brothers who hijack a nice, upstanding
minister (Harvey Keitel) and his family and force them to drive
their big, American RV to Mexico. There, they go to a sleazy bar
where, suddenly, everyone turns into vampires! Not quite camp,
not quite a straight adventure movie, From Dusk Till Dawn
inhabits a twilight region between the two where you don't know
if the next twist of the plot is going to be funny or frightening.
For those of us raised in front of TV sets, the buckets of blood
and media references seem like a silly joke. Those less bewitched
by the tube will probably be sickened.
Leaving Las Vegas. A moving, melancholy portrait of a desperate
alcoholic making one last grab for love and redemption in the
city of neon. Nicolas Cage plays Ben, a total loser who has lost
his family, job and self-respect. He goes to Las Vegas in an effort
to escape everything, basically, and there he meets Sera (Elisabeth
Shue), a heart-of-gold hooker who takes him in and accepts him
just the way he is (sort of). There's no moralizing about the
evils of drink here, or romanticizing either--it's just relentless
scenes of Nicolas Cage quaffing liquor like water and spreading
some kind of bottomless sadness all over the screen. Though
Leaving Las Vegas is very sad, it never panders and it never
manipulates the audience. Instead, it treats its grim subject
matter with intelligence and restraint.
Restoration. Men in wigs and ladies in low-cut bodices
frolic and fret to no end in this Robert Downey Jr. vehicle. Downey
plays a young physician who fortuitously ends up in the service
of the King. The fun-loving physician takes to the frivolities
of the court like a fish to water, but it all ends when the King
decides to marry him off to His Majesty's mistress in order to
fool another, jealous mistress. Then the physician does the one
thing forbidden by the King and falls in love with his own wife.
What a perfect, romance novel of a plot! Yet the romance never
really pans out. Instead, the physician leaves the court and goes
out into the world to become a man. There's a classic Oedipal
drama buried in here, for those of you keeping up on your Freud.
(The King is the father figure, his mistress is the forbidden
mother, and Robert Downey Jr., with his big, liquid eyes, is the
son.) This film is well-made but there's nothing especially enticing
here unless you love lavish costumes. I did think Sam Neill gave
a good performance as King Charles II, proving there's no accounting
for taste, even one's own.
Sense and Sensibility. Is this ever a costume drama! Emma
Thompson, Hugh Grant and practically every other British actor
you can think of romp thorough the country in funny clothes in
this clever adaptation of Jane Austen's novel about impoverished
girls hunting for husbands. Of the recent crop of movies about
Britons in by-gone eras falling in love out-of-doors, this is
by far the best. The script (by Emma Thompson) is witty and well-paced;
the crisp, brisk direction by Ang Lee (who made, most recently,
Eat Drink Man Woman) keeps the slow-paced lives of the
19th century from ever becoming boring. This movie deals with
Love and Romance like they made it in the old days--big, sweeping
and stormy.
Tie-Died. This documentary about Grateful Dead fans is
recommended only for the converted. It's clearly made by a Grateful
Dead fan for other fans. Filmmaker Andrew Behar has recorded not
the band itself (there's no Dead music in the movie) but only
the "movement" "going down" outside in the
parking lot. It's about love, brotherhood, expanded consciousness,
etc. Anything dark or critical that could be said about this scene
is either left out or glossed over. Still, it's interesting to
look at this once-vital subculture, especially since the death
of Jerry Garcia probably means it will come to an end. It's also
interesting to note the variety of motivations Dead Heads have
for going "on tour" with the band. Nevertheless, these
insights could have been delivered in a half-hour film instead
of a full-length documentary.
Two if by Sea. Possibly the most painful romantic comedy
of the year, for those who don't find falling down, outlandish
wardrobe changes, clichéd lines and faux east-coast accents
the least bit charming or amusing. We hereby dub Sandra Bullock
the Goldie Hawn of the '90s: just a smidgen smarter, tougher and
more sophisticated than her predecessor, but apparently destined
to make "Sandra Bullock movies." This time around, she
tries to play the honest-but-scheming girlfriend of a sometimes-repentant
petty thief (Denis Leary). The plot involves a band of bumbling
thieves, a black FBI agent named O'Malley (yes, this is supposed
to be funny), a grand art heist and a bunch of people pretending
to be something they're not (stay tuned for the Big Lesson at
the end). Along the way, we get to see Bullock looking cute during
a high speed chase, Bullock looking cute in baggy clothes, Bullock
looking cute while arguing with her boyfriend, Bullock looking
cute while being swept off her feet by someone tall, dark a
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