|
ANGEL EYES -- While it's not necessarily a bad movie, Angel Eyes is certainly not the movie you think it is. The commercials and buzz make it seem like a creepy stepsister to The Sixth Sense. But be forewarned: This is just a regular old love story. Regular is the operative word. There is nothing particularly good or bad about it. Jennifer Lopez continues to show her screen sizzle with a solid performance as a tough cop with family issues. Jim Caviezel is a stranger who saves her life. His issues make her issues look boring. But it's his pure outlook on the world that will ultimately redeem J-Lo. You sit and wait for Angel Eyes to dive into the supernatural, thereby adding some spice to the dish. But it stays grounded in realism. Thick realism, too. Spousal abuse, extraordinary grief and serial loneliness are explored throughout the film.
This is fine material to mine. And on a second viewing, it might be a nice dramatic film. But it's only after you're in on the secret (or non-secret, perhaps) that you can sit back and enjoy the film. -- Rodger Pille (Rated R.) CityBeat grade: B.
THE CENTER OF THE WORLD -- The provocative moments are fleeting in director Wayne Wang's wannabe-steamy tale about sex, power and Las Vegas getaways. More importantly, its straight-forward drama is not any more compelling. In The Center of the World, a dot.com millionaire (Peter Sarsgaard) lives his life immersed in a digital world. Unaccustomed to normal social interaction, the nerdy millionaire persuades a pretty stripper (Molly Parker) to spend three days with him in Las Vegas. His hope is that before their three days are over, they will build a real relationship.
Wang does manage to create a true adult story that accompanies images of a gyrating ass and heaving breasts with human drama. Sarsgaard is believable as the nerdy computer geek desperate enough to pay a woman to spend a weekend with him in Las Vegas. But Parker looks too much like the girl-next-door to play a credible stripper. I know that Parker's innocent appearance delivers the film's message that anyone can be a stripper. But Parker's inability to heighten the film's few erotic moments turns out to be a dramatic disability.
For a film that aches to be a 21st-century update on Last Tango in Paris, Wang's The Center of the World is a disappointing letdown. -- Steve Ramos (Unrated.)CityBeat grade: C.
THE GOLDEN BOWL -- This lush adaptation of the Henry James novel has all the period details one comes to expect from a Merchant Ivory production. The period costumes and European locales are stunning. Every member of its ensemble cast (Uma Thurman, Nick Nolte, Kate Beckinsale) deliver their dialogue with appropriately stuffy accents. Everything is so Renaissance. But The Golden Bowl's drama about an American expatriate (Thurman) and her Italian lover (Jeremy Northam) who marry other people for money never rises above the level of a luxurious soap opera. Without an engaging lead performance from Thurman or the type of bitter class commentary that heightened Terrence Davies' Edith Wharton adaptation The House of Mirth, this Merchant Ivory production remains a lulling exercise in costume-drama aesthetics. -- SR (Rated R.)CityBeat grade: D.
THE LUZHIN DEFENCE -- John Turturro delivers a dazzling performance as an eccentric chess Grand Master who falls in love with a rebellious aristocrat (Emily Watson) in director Marleen Gorris' engaging adaptation of the Vladimir Nabokov story.Set in the late 1920s at an Italian Lakes resort, The Luzhin Defence follows the unlikely romance between society beauty Natalia (Watson) and the shy and clumsy Luzhin (Turturro). Everything looks destined for happiness when Natalia immediately falls in love with Luzhin, much to the chagrin of her socialite mother. But Luzhin's life begins to crumble under the challenge to beat a long-time challenger in the resort's chess tournament.
Gorris brings Nabokov's story to life with plenty of period opulence. Watson is appropriately subtle as a woman hoping to save her troubled lover. But The Luzhin Defence ultimately belongs to Turturro. In his hands, the clichéd character of the idiot savant becomes something complex, emotionally damaged and thoroughly compelling. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)CityBeat grade: B.
PEARL HARBOR -- Director Michael Bay pushes the special-effects envelope with this ultra-budget look at the day that continues to live in infamy. Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnett are the young faces who add a romantic triangle to the explosive histrionics. Pearl Harbor is not the first Hollywood film to tackle the 1941 Japanese attack that catapulted America into World War II. In Harm's Way and Tora! Tora! Tora! come quickly to mind. But Bay's extravagant homage to the "greatest generation" appears to be the one film willing to re-create the Pearl Harbor attack in lifelike fashion. -- SR (Rated PG-13.) No screening.
personals | classifieds |
cover |
news |
music |
movies |
arts |
listings |
columns |
dining |
classifieds |
mediakit | home
 |
