by Michael Dequina
March 3, 2003
It certainly sounded like a recipe for something worthwhile: two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey, three-time Academy Award nominee Kate Winslet, and Academy Award nominee Laura Linney in a film about a hot button issue, the death penalty, by celebrated director Alan Parker. But the astonishing awfulness of THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE proves that if there's anything more frightening than a January dump release, it's a one-time prestige project that's pushed from awards season to an early date the following year.
Spacey is Gale, a Texas university professor and death penalty abolitionist who--irony alert!--finds himself on death row for the brutal rape and murder of a colleague (Linney). In the days leading to his execution, Gale decides to break his silence to a bleeding heart news magazine journalist (Winslet), who discovers that his side of the story is even more shocking than the crime itself. Or, I should say, at least she discovers his perspective to be shocking, for it won't necessarily be the case for the audience. After all, Parker and screenwriter Charles Randolph open by flashing back from a scene that will be revisited later in the film, featuring the Winslet character in a mad, desperate dash to get to the execution site. She can't exactly be rushing there to make sure Gale fries, no?
But as Al Pacino declares ad nauseum in THE RECRUIT, nothing is as it allegedly seems in DAVID GALE, which can hence be translated to mean that it is. While one can understand why someone would want to cast a gifted and accordingly decorated actor such as Spacey in a lead role, like any actor he carries a certain baggage from previous roles, and in this film his specific baggage works to his disadvantage. I don't want to give too much away, but his mere casting tilts expectations in a certain way that purported surprises become glaringly obvious far long before they are revealed. It doesn't help that Spacey's performance in general is generally uninspired and unimpressive. Linney and particularly Winslet do what they can (and it is nice to see the latter work in contemporary-set American film for a change), but there's only so much that can be done with a film that loudly transitions in and out of each and every flashback--and there are plenty of them--with a 360-degree rotation of the camera and flash cuts of "provocative" terms such as "rape," "pain," "self-sacrifice," etc; or uses a nonsensical contrivance such as a randomly malfunctioning rental car to build pseudo-suspense.
Bad movies are easy to make, but as this overheated and self-defeating propaganda piece (the film wears its liberal heart on its sleeve yet the characters spreading the message are far from the most sane, let alone admirable, people) shows, it takes a genuinely talented group of people to come up with the most jaw-dropping botch jobs.
The Real Thing
With only two features under his belt, writer-director David Gordon Green has emerged as one of the most distinctive and fascinating voices in cinema. After focusing on children in the deep south in his haunting debut GEORGE WASHINGTON, Green, while still working in his small Southern town milieu (again stunningly photographed by Tim Orr), turns his attention to young adults experiencing first love in ALL THE REAL GIRLS. The pleasure and the pain are shared by 18-year-old Noel (Zooey Deschanel) and the 22-year-old Paul (Paul Schneider)--particularly Paul, a notorious womanizer who surprises everyone and himself when he develops pure feelings for the girl, the younger sister of one of his best friends. While the characters and Green himself (he's only 27) are young, he tackles such a complicated issue with remarkable maturity and authenticity; actually, its his very youth that enables him to achieve that realism. From the first scene, Green vividly captures the scary/exciting feelings that come with a new relationship; the playful awkwardness is rather endearing--which then makes the inevitable souring all the more heartbreaking and real. Deschanel and Schneider completely inhabit these complex characters, fleshing out the good, bad and just plain human; their effortless chemistry lends their romance a rooting interest, but their just as believably drawn flaws make it plainly obvious that their love will never be the ideal either of them--especiallly Paul--hopes for. The film may not have quite the haunting spell of GEORGE, but GIRLS is a poetic, powerful work that makes one even more anxious to see what Green does next.
WAKE US When It's Over
A more appropriate title couldn't have been given Michael Petroni's romantic drama TILL HUMAN VOICES WAKE US--except, maybe, TILL ANY NOISE WAKES US. The formidable acting talents of Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham Carter are squandered in this sluggish story of a psychiatrist (Pearce) who returns to his childhood home to bury his dead father, only to face up to memories that also need to be laid to rest: namely, those of his first, lost love. Perhaps not so coincidentally, on the way to town he meets a mysterious young woman (Bonham Carter) whose murky past may very well be tied to his own. The woman's true identity won't be a surprise to anyone who watches the film; it's probably glaringly obvious to anyone reading this review. But Petroni takes his sweet time making the key revelations, in vain hopes that his cuts back and forth through time and Pearce and Bonham Carter's charisma and chemistry would maintain interest. But the nonlinear structure and glacial pace is less dream like and more like a droning trance, and accordingly Pearce and Bonham Carter sleepwalk through their roles. They don't seem terribly interested in the material, let alone each other, so the love story that is supposed to drive the film fails to ignite a single spark--and, hence, the film fails to generate a single iota of interest from the viewer.
At the Video Store
While a planned, supplement-heavy DVD of the more popular and more acclaimed original film has yet to surface, the also-entertaining sequel SPY KIDS 2: ISLAND OF LOST DREAMS (Dimension Home Video) debuts in the home market with a collector's series DVD. This packed platter for the return adventure of the Spy Kids (Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara) and their Spy Parents (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino) includes commentary by writer/director/film editor/just about everything else Robert Rodriguez, deleted scenes, still and production art galleries, various behind-the-scenes featurettes, DVD-ROM features, and a music video (really a recut scene from the actual film) for the Oscar-nod-robbed original tune "Isle of Dreams" (wonderfully performed by Vega). Best of all is Rodriguez's "Ten Minute Film School," in which the ever-inventive and -resourceful auteur reveals his secrets of making blockbuster movies on the cheap.
Given that THE RULES OF ATTRACTION (Lions Gate Home Entertainment) is based on a Bret Easton Ellis novel, it wasn't so surprising that the film version would be greeted with such a divisive response. What did come as a surprise, however, was how cinematically alive a film toplined by James Van Der Beek could be. In this tale of campus amorality--and, really, that's basically all there is on a basic narrative level--screenwriter-director Roger Avary shows the ear for sharp dialogue that earned him the shared screenplay Oscar for PULP FICTION, but he also employs a flamboyant, razzmatazz visual style that perfectly complements the extreme ways these bored university students jazz up (or should I say "jizz up") their empty existences with temporary, superficial thrills. The cast, which also includes Shannyn Sossamon, Ian Somerhalder and Kip Pardue, bravely hits most of the difficult marks. The DVD includes a number of commentaries by various cast and crew members as well as, in an interesting concept, a track by a celebrity completely unrelated to the film, recorded while viewing the film for the very first time. Unfortunately, the "celebrity" in this case is the ever-annoying Carrot Top. Those hoping to see the film's unedited international cut, however, will have to wait for a planned Signature Series edition of the film.
After successful pairings with Chris Tucker and Owen Wilson, I can understand Hollywood's impulse to team Jackie Chan with an American female star, but surely the makers of THE TUXEDO (DreamWorks Home Entertainment) could have snagged someone better than Jennifer Love Hewitt, right? To be fair, though, the bimbo starlet's miscasting as a brainy CIA agent is just one of the problems with this unexciting action comedy, which squanders an interesting premise--average joe chauffeur (Chan) is endowed magical martial arts abilities by wearing a secret agent's a high-tech tux--through uninspired action sequences and even more tired gags. At least the DVD format allows one easy access to film's one clever sequence, a late bit where Chan must fend off baddies while trying to keep an insect trapped against Hewitt's face (long story). The DVD also includes deleted and extended scenes, a routine HBO making-of featurette, production notes and more.
ROAD TO PERDITION (DreamWorks Home Entertainment) was positioned in every way possible as a heavyweight awards contender (a sterling cast led by two Oscar winners and another nominee; an Oscar-winning sophomore director; a classy ad campaign in the trade papers)--every way, that is, except in terms of release date, and its dead-of-summer opening undoubtedly played some part its virtual non-presence in all year-end awards, let alone the Academy Award nominations. Playing a larger part, I think, is the fact that Sam Mendes's adaptation of the Max Allan Collins/Richard Piers Rayner graphic novel plays better as a moody audiovisual evocation of Prohibition-era Chicago than as a fairly simple tale of revenge involving a mob hitman's (Tom Hanks) hunt for revenge with his eldest son (Tyler Hoechlin). Subsequent viewings on DVD reinforce this belief although though the late Conrad L. Hall's gorgeous Oscar-nominated cinematography suffers from the downsizing; the performances by Hanks, Paul Newman (Oscar nominated for his work as the mob boss/father figure) and Jude Law (as an assassin), however, are made more prominent by the smaller screen. The DVD includes (subtitled!) commentary by Mendes, an HBO making-of documentary, a photo gallery, production notes and--unlike the DVD of Mendes's AMERICAN BEAUTY--deleted scenes, including Anthony LaPaglia's cameo as Al Capone.
A cab driver (Timothy Spall) attempts to make life better for himself, his wife (Lesley Manville) and his children in ALL OR NOTHING (MGM Home Entertainment), Mike Leigh's gut-wrenching look at the miserable residents in a dreary lower-income housing project.
Robert DeNiro and James Franco's performances as, respectively, an NYPD detective and his drug addict/murder suspect son are the highlights of CITY BY THE SEA (Warner Home Video), Michael Caton-Jones's saccharine and shallow drama about loyalty and the legacy of violence.
The book upon which it is based may live up to latter part of the title, but Jay Russell's adaptation TUCK EVERLASTING (Walt Disney Home Entertainment) will likely have a shorter shelf life. While Alexis Bledel and Jonathan Jackson give likable performances individually as, respectively, a privileged girl and a lower class boy who happens to be immortal, together they are tepid to the taste buds. The same can be said for the entire film, which is handsome and screams "class" all around--down to the cast, which also includes Ben Kingsley and Sissy Spacek--but bears a certain flavorless, medicinal quality that one would associate with one of the film's producers, the Scholastic company. The DVD includes commentary by Russell, screenwriter James Hart and cast members; and a featurette focusing on the book's author, Natalie Babbitt.
Shekhar Kapur attempted--and miserably failed--to duplicate his ELIZABETH acclaim with THE FOUR FEATHERS (Paramount Home Entertainment), a distant if beautifully photographed would-be epic in which a disgraced former British soldier (Heath Ledger) attempts to prove his bravery in the war front in the Sudan. Ledger is as bland as ever, and co-stars Kate Hudson and Wes Bentley can't get over the hurdle that is an English accent. The DVD includes commentary by Kapur.
Looking Ahead...
Next time, my annual report from the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas. As usual, check out my home site, Mr. Brown's Movie Site, for my longer takes on older releases.
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