Outtakes

NEW THIS WEEK:
WATERMARKS In 1909, after the Austrian government passed a law that forbade sports clubs from accepting Jewish members, a group of Jewish athletes formed the Hakoah Vienna organization. The group's members went on to become champions in a number of sports, but none more so than the members of the women's swimming team. Director yaron Zilberman reunites eight members of Hakoah Vienna's female swim team to discuss the tragedies and triumphs of their past. Opens Friday, March 4, at Burn's Court Cinemas in Sarasota and Sunrise Cinemas in Tampa. (Not Reviewed)

RECENT RELEASES:
ALONE IN THE DARK (R) All that's missing is Shaggy and Scooby, in this based-on-a-video-game spookfest about a "detective of the paranormal" (Christian Slater) and his cute girlfriend (Tara Reid) investigating zombie shenanigans at – wait for it now – Shadow Island. Also stars Stephen Dorff. (Not Reviewed)

THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON (R) Forget Jamie Foxx in Ray. The best actor in a film from last year was Sean Penn in this quietly intense portrait of a disillusioned man being pushed farther and farther to the fringes of society. Penn stars as Sam Bicke, a Travis Bickle-like loser unlucky in love and increasingly agitated by the injustices he sees all around him. The film's Taxi Driver connections are unavoidable as The Assassination of Richard Nixon goes about depicting the breakdown and ultimate, tragic transformation of Penn's character, but there's no denying the power of this particular vision. We've seen this subject before, but rarely with the chilling meticulousness or raw emotional edge provided by Penn's astonishing performance. Also stars Naomi Watts and Don Cheadle.
1/2

THE AVIATOR (PG-13) Martin Scorsese's biopic about Howard Hughes (played here by Leonardo DiCaprio) begins in the 1920s with Hughes' flirtation with Hollywood, segueing into his affairs with the likes of Katherine Hepburn (an uncanny impersonation by Cate Blanchette) and Ava Gardner (a lightweight Kate Beckinsale), his outrageous financial triumphs and his steady surrender to his delusions. The Aviator covers a lot of other ground, too, and the question becomes how could one film do justice to this life. The answer, of course, is that it can't. But Scorsese has given us a big, muscular epic that, while not ranking with his very best work, is at least two films in one, both good enough to ensure that one of those nice, shiny statues will soon be residing on the director's mantelpiece.
1/2

BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE (PG) Family fare based on the perennial best seller, featuring an adorable little girl bonding with a cute dog, and a cast that includes Hollywood icons Cicely Tyson and Eva Marie Saint and musician Dave Matthews. You could probably do worse. Also stars Jeff Daniels and AnnaSophia Robb. (Not Reviewed)

BAD EDUCATION (NR) Pedro Almodovar's intricately convoluted noir fantasy is dark, dense, maybe even dangerous stuff, but the film candy-coats its Big Ideas in the outrageous kink of the director's earliest movies as well as the eloquent symmetries of his more recent melodramas, presenting its story-within-a-story as a sort of greatest-hits package from this remarkable Spanish filmmaker. The movie spirals in multiple directions as we watch an autobiographical account of schooldays filled with forbidden passion mutate into a many-headed hydra as it passes through the memories of the film's various narrators. The tale that's spun becomes a sordid but surprisingly poignant web of intrigue, abuse and revenge, of sex, drugs, love and betrayal, and each time the story unfolds, another angle is presented, revealing new information that calls into question everything that's come before. Several of the characters might not even be who they claim to be (or, for that matter, what we imagine them to be), but that's almost to be expected. Almodovar has always been interested in illusions, in people pretending to be something they're not (most magnificently, the men pretending to be women in All About My Mother), and Bad Education looks a lot like the filmmaker's final word on the subject. Stars Gael Garcia Bernal, Fele Martinez, and Daniel Gimenez-Cacho.

BEING JULIA (NR) "Luminous" is a word that film critics tend to overuse when describing beautiful actresses lighting up the screen, beautifully, but hardly any other word will do for Annette Bening's career-topping performance here. The film itself is lushly mounted but otherwise pretty standard stuff – Bening plays an aging diva in 1930s London, engaged in a clandestine affair with a younger man – but Bening herself is on screen nearly every moment, and it's impossible to take our eyes off her. Director Istvan Szabo (Mephisto, Sunshine) invests the material with an appealingly light touch, lovely visual flourishes and as much wit as we might expect in what is essentially a pretty dull story. Currently playing at Burn's Court Cinemas in Sarasota, Beach Theatre in St. Petersburg and Sunrise Cinemas in Tampa.
1/2

BRIDE AND PREJUDICE (PG-13) Jane Austin with songs and dances? Hey, youbetcha. The new film from Anglo-Indian filmmaker Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) is a deliriously colorful ode to the rich fantasies of Bollywood as well as a fast and loose adaptation of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice – and it might just be this Brit-born-and-bred director's craftiest fusion of East-West yet. As in traditional Bollywood films, Bride and Prejudice advances its story through song, and it's easy to smile at dozens of colorfully garbed hunks and babes strutting their way through the film, crooning morsels of exposition like some pelvic-thrusting Greek chorus. The movie's musical numbers introduce most of its key conflicts, as well as the male and female leads who will spend the first half of the movie squabbling and the second half trying to find a way into one another's arms. A charisma oozing Aishwarya Rai is delightful in her first English-speaking role, as the feisty, free-spirited heroine who appreciates what's good in the western world, but who values her own heritage above all. The movie doesn't fare so well with Rai's Caucasian counterpart – a less-than-dynamic Martin Henderson as the culturally chauvinistic but ultimately redeemable Darcy – but there's so much else going on here that we hardly notice. Bride and Prejudice spices itself up with all manner of engaging and/or oddball characters, making even the more tedious complications of Austin's narrative go down smoothly. Chadha's take on Austin may seem frivolous or even a tad irreverent to purists, but this breezy romantic comedy cuts right to the chase of the author's sense, if not her sensibility – and what a treat to see all that tasteful English restraint of Ms. Austin's exploding in a flurry of heat, color and crazy musical vibes. Also stars Naveen Andrews, Nadira Babar, Daniel Gillies and Nitin Ganatra.
1/2

COACH CARTER (PG-13) Samuel L. Jackson stars in a drama based on the true story of a high school basketball coach who valued grades as much as the ability to win games. Also stars Rob Brown and Vincent Laresca. (Not Reviewed)

CURSED (PG-13) Wes Craven's latest creepfest reportedly finds the director in a more conventional, less post-modern mode than Scream, with Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg starring as teens suddenly endowed with mysterious powers that could destroy everyone they touch. Also stars Joshua Jackson and Shannon Elizabeth. (Not Reviewed)

DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN (PG-13) Tyler Perry's curious blend of ham-fisted melodrama, low-brow humor, rousing gospel music and fervent messages of religious devotion features Perry himself as a pistol-packing grandma who, despite her aggressive and sometimes raunchy ways, can ultimately be counted on for good advice about the merits of strictly adhering to God's Plan. Diary of a Mad Black Woman is inconsequential stuff at best, and stunningly idiotic at worst (or maybe it's the other way around), the by-the-numbers tale of a sweet little mouse of a housewife named Helen (Kimberly Elise) who is summarily dumped by her rich, callous hubby, but eventually finds happiness with a new, impossibly perfect boyfriend. In between the recycled How Helen Got Her Groove Back While Waiting to Exhale shtick, we get arbitrary interludes of vaguely mean-spirited slapstick, awkward cutaways to Perry making a fool of himself in drag, and, sandwiched between the fart jokes, more messages about God's Glory. Kimberly Elise is an uncommonly good actress (she was flat-out tremendous in Woman, Thou Art Loosed), but you wouldn't know it from her work here – and she's by far the best thing in this movie. The acting style of preference in Diary of a Mad Black Woman is of the bulging eyeballs, flaring nostrils variety that would have seemed dated back at the dawn of the sound era (we half-expect a sneering, top-hatted villain to materialize, twirling the pointy ends of a waxed moustache), and everybody wears whatever emotions they have right on their sleeves. There's barely a sliver of subtlety or nuance to any of these characters (nor to the story), but the whole uncomplicated, two-dimensional nature of the project probably just adds to the single-minded power of its faith-driven message. Also stars Steve Harris, Shemar Moore, Tamara Taylor and Cecily Tyson.

FINDING NEVERLAND (PG) Finding Neverland depicts the friendship between Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie (an unusually subdued Johnny Depp) and the five young sons of a beautiful young widow (Kate Winslet), giving us a romance, a coming-of-age tale, and an elaborate parlor game in which we're teased with the bits from Barrie's life that served as inspiration for his classic-to-be about a boy who refused to grow up. It's best to put history out of your mind here, since the movie whitewashes several key facts of Barrie's life, but then again Finding Neverland is a movie designed to lift spirits, not dash them. Marc Forster, a talented director previously responsible for the much grittier Monsters Ball, coaches solid performances from the cast and layers Neverland with pleasing symmetries, wit and moments that make good on a clear intention to appear "magical." What we get is pleasant enough but a bit too pre-digested to take completely seriously. Also stars Radha Mitchell, Julie Christie and Dustin Hoffman.
1/2

HIDE AND SEEK (R) Robert De Niro stars as a distraught father realizing his little girl's imaginary friend might actually be some sort of terrible, unknown entity – and not nearly so imaginary after all. Also stars Dakota Fanning and Famke Janssen. (Not Reviewed)

HOTEL RWANDA (R) The first film about the Rwanda genocide of 1994 – when nearly 1 million Tutsi were slaughtered by Hutu tribesmen in barely 100 days – is earnest, informative and well-meaning, but ultimately just a bit toothless. Don Cheadle gives a nicely understated performance as the manager of an upscale Rwandan hotel secretly transformed into a refuge for those facing extinction, including his own family. The film takes a Schindler's List-lite approach to its tragic topic, focusing on relief efforts and survivors, with little overt violence or gore on display and just a sprinkling of scenes hinting at the real extent of the horror that's occurring. We know the situation is terrible mainly because various characters keep telling us that it is in a series of melodramatic and/or preachy monologues that turn the film into a message movie that's more tearjerker than jaw-dropper. Also stars Nick Nolte and Sophie Okonedo.

LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS (PG) Morbidly witty, imaginatively stylized and with surprisingly little pandering to tiny or otherwise tiny-minded viewers, there's much to enjoy in this dark-but-not-too-dark fantasy about the trials and tribulations of a trio of ingenious orphans. Jim Carrey dons a series of elaborate disguises as the young pups' nemesis, an evil actor who keeps putting the kiddies in a succession of increasingly harrowing predicaments from which they must use all their considerable, McGyver-like resources to escape. The film is a production designer's dream, with wonderfully odd little Edward Gorey-esque flourishes and filigrees loitering about the edges of nearly every frame. Also stars Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly, Meryl Streep and Jude Law.
1/2

MAN OF THE HOUSE (PG-13) Judging from the trailer and the, uh, concept alone, this looks like the very bad pilot for a the worst sit-com you never saw. Just to press the point, I first laid eyes on this movie's trailer one night during a commercial break on Mad TV, and my wife and I were both convinced that it was part of the show – just one more absurd spoof of a movie so bad nobody would ever make it. Tommy Lee Jones stars as a cranky Texas Ranger living in a house filled with perky cheerleaders. Also stars Anne Archer, Brian Van Holt, Christina Milian and Paula Garces. (Not Reviewed)

MILLION DOLLAR BABY (PG-13) Clint Eastwood is about as old-school a filmmaker as you'll find, and his unfussy expertise and love of genre filmmaking flow sure and true through Million Dollar Baby, a fight movie that's less about fighting and more about the fighters themselves. Eastwood places himself at the very center of the movie in the plum role of the grizzled and guilt-ridden owner of a run-down gym who grudgingly becomes the manager of an aspiring female boxer (Hilary Swank). The movie takes its time, positioning its characters (and us) in that uniquely male world of boxing and boxers – getting the textures, rhythms, language and movement of that world just right, even as its intrinsic maleness is quietly called into account by making the film's principal pugilist a woman. Million Dollar Baby becomes more action-oriented (and a more traditional crowd-pleaser) as it follows the upward-bound, Rocky-esque arc of the young fighter's career, but the film's essence remains reflective and character-driven as it goes about revealing the process by which Eastwood's and Swank's characters become a surrogate family to each other. The story here is a simple one, but it's told with understated honesty and unaffected emotions, with tough, nimble dialogue that quietly speculates on the idea of boxing as something both profound and profoundly unnatural. Like all of Eastwood's best movies, Million Dollar Baby embraces clichés, turns them inside out by thoroughly understanding the power that made them clichés in the first place and, ultimately, transcends them. Also stars Morgan Freeman in one of his finest performances.

THE PACIFIER (PG) Vin Diesel does Ahnold doing his Kindergarten Cop thing, as a tough ex-Navy S.E.A.L. charged with protecting a pack of adorable kiddies. Also stars Lauren Graham, Faith Ford and Brittany Snow. Opens March 4 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)

POOH'S HEFFALUMP MOVIE (G) Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and company are back with some more important life lessons about the value of friendship, sharing and buying as many tickets as possible to Disney movies. Featuring the voices of Brenda Blethyn, Jim Cummings, Ken Sansom and David Ogden Stiers. (Not Reviewed)

RAY (PG-13) While not quite the modern American classic we were hoping for, Ray is still solid entertainment and a particular joy for Ray Charles fans. The movie presents Charles as a fusion of musical genius, tortured soul and Daredevil/Zatoichi (with an impressively developed hearing sense compensating for his blindness), and then dutifully walks us through the high and low points of his life. The music is glorious, of course (with a heavy concentration on Ray's brilliant mid- to late-'50s period), and Jamie Foxx's performance/impersonation ranks with Jim Carrey's impeccable Andy Kaufman, but Ray is not immune to many of the problems that inevitably plague biopics. As is common with this form, the movie tends to play like a greatest hits (and flops) of Charles' life, with equal weight given to nearly everything, too much crammed in, and too little transitional material. Also stars Kerry Washington and Regina King.
1/2

THE SEA INSIDE (PG-13 A much-acclaimed performance by Javier Bardem is the centerpiece of this film by Chilean-born Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar (The Others). He plays a man paralyzed in a diving accident as a teenager who, after 26 years confined to his bed, insists on his right to die. (Not reviewed)

SON OF THE MASK (PG) This sequel to the popular Jim Carrey special effects extravaganza doesn't seem to have been able to make up its mind about where to put its central narrative focus, so it wound up putting it everywhere. The movie zips around like an ADD kid, with a maximum of noise and a minimum of effectiveness, generating an uncomfortable fusion of kid-friendly fare (cute dogs, snot and pee-pee jokes) and more adult material ("hip" cameos by the likes of Stephen Wright and Ben Stiller, a story stuffed with raging oedipal complexes, and, despite the PG rating, a darker, meaner feel than the original). The movie is most successful in its middle sections, when it's aping Chuck Jones and Tex Avery with some outrageously cartoonish dog vs. baby battles, but the rest is mostly just sound and fury lite. And I'm sorry, but the movie's main special effect – a digitized dancing baby apparently scavanged from old Ally McBeal reruns – is just plain creepy. Also stars Alan Cumming and Traylor Howard.

UNCLE NINO (PG) Sub-moronic corn about a wise old Italian peasant (Pierrino Mascarino) who comes to visit his suburban American relatives and turns everyone's unhappy lives into pure sweetness and light. Joe Mantegna stars as the workaholic dad who doesn't have time for his wife and kids until kindly Uncle Nino teaches him the value of smiling, listening, puppy dogs and making pizza from scratch. The movie's attempts to charm us are transparently by-the-numbers and clumsy throughout, and the whole thing is as poorly written and acted as it is conceived. Also stars Anne Archer and Gina Mantegna. Currently playing at Burn's Court Cinemas in Sarasota and Sunrise Cinemas in Tampa.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (NR) Shakespeare's most controversial play gets a bit of a face lift from director Michael Radford, who plays a little fast and loose with Big Will's story but remains true to the breadth of his humanist spirit. Radford's The Merchant of Venice contemporizes Shakespeare's text with small but crucial touches, punching up the homoerotism in the air between best buddies Antonio (Jeremy Irons) and Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes), and, most importantly, providing a historical framework for the demonization of the Jews that the play takes for granted. This goes some way towards offering a partial explanation for the personal monstrousness of Shylock – the titular Jewish merchant who has, not without reason, earned the play a reputation for anti-Semitism – but Merchant is still a problematic play and a problematic movie. Al Pacino is interesting as a shriveled but semi-sympathetic Shylock, bleating and bellowing lines in a weird half-Yiddish, half-Bronx accent, and gratuitously extending syllables like Dylan did on stage for most of the last few decades. Pacino's performance isn't quite as broad as some of his recent work, but neither is it much by way of subtlety, often throwing nuance out with the bathwater until all that's left is sheer movie star charisma. Then again, sometimes that's enough. And the movie is nothing if not a handsome production, shot on location in Venice, and authentic right down to the bared-breasted 16th century harlots hanging out on the Bridge of Sighs. Also stars Lynne Collins. Currently playing at Tampa Theatre.

THE WOODSMAN (NR) There are no easy answers, no suggestions of some miraculous cure waiting in the wings for the guilt-ridden pedophile at the heart of The Woodsman – a brave artistic decision that's bound to frustrate even the most sophisticated viewers and possibly enrage others. In its mostly quiet, deliberately paced way, the movie simply observes its recently paroled subject, Walter (a slow-burning and almost painfully intense Kevin Bacon), struggling to overcome his nature as he begins the process of picking up the pieces of what might loosely be called his life. The Woodsman admirably refrains from passing judgment, but it's not beyond stretching metaphors to encourage us to see Walter as a kind of Holy/Unholy Trinity all wrapped up in one tightly wound bundle of nerves – he's rescuer, wolf and Red Riding Hood, a conflicted hero who has to slay his own big, bad self in order to free the innocent lamb waiting inside. Also stars Kyra Sedgwick, Benjamin Bratt and Eve.
1/2

Reviewed entries by Lance Goldenberg unless otherwise noted.

This article appears in Mar 2-8, 2005.