Opening Films

REVIEW BY STEVE RAMOS

6 DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS
CityBeat grade: C.
It's been the hot topic around Hollywood water coolers. Will Anne Heche's open relationship with Ellen DeGeneres torpedo her romantic-comedy 6 Days, Seven Nights? The fact that Heche is the best thing about 6 Days, Seven Nights doesn't surprise Heche's fans. She is one of the rising talents of "Young Hollywood." She also has the most incredible dramatic range, shifting from the drama of Donnie Brasco, playing Johnny Depp's wife, to the sharp satire of Wag the Dog's beltway politics. Heche is always great. She looks great. She's funny. And paired with the stiffest leading man around, Harrison Ford, Heche even manages to make the "walking sneer" look slightly human. Hopefully, the spotlight will work in Heche's favor, because I can't imagine anyone leaving the cinema questioning her ability to act "straight." Unfortunately, Heche can't save director Ivan Reitman's mediocre attempt at remaking The African Queen and Romancing the Stone. It's not that the film's star casting is too "queer." It's just that 6 Days, 7 Nights doesn't give its famous leads anything funny to say or do.

When a gruff and grumpy Tahiti-based cargo pilot (Ford) is stranded on a desert island with a sharp-tongued magazine editor (Heche), romance is bound to happen. After all, opposites always attract in Hollywood romantic-comedies. But dull subplots about killer pirates and Friends' David Schwimmer, rehashing his TV character Ross, yet again, as Heche's fiance, only add more fizzle to Reitman's film.

Everyone was ready to blame Heche for the film's failure. Maybe she'll get the credit for being 6 Days. 7 Nights' only saving grace. (Rated PG-13.)

CityBeat, Vol. 4, Issue 29; June 11-17, 1998