Lost executive producer Jeff Pinkner has been tapped to run Fringe, Fox's high-profile sci-fi drama from J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.
Meanwhile, Emmy winner Thomas Schlamme has come on board to direct and executive produce Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas, Tom Wheeler's drama pilot for ABC.
On the Warner Bros.-produced Fringe, Pinkner will serve as exec producer/showrunner. The project centers on FBI agent (Anna Torv), who teams with a guy (Joshua Jackson) and his scientist Father John Noble), to confront the spread of unexplained phenomena.
Endeavor-repped Pinkner's relationship with Abrams extends beyond serving as exec producer/writer on Lost, Abrams' ABC series. He also served in the same capacity on Abrams' Alias, also for ABC.
Atlas, from WBTV, centers on a young girl who finds a magical atlas that reveals a secret world. Schlamme will exec produce the pilot with Wheeler. Endeavor-repped Schlamme most recently directed Life on Mars, David E. Kelley's pilot for ABC.
Meanwhile, Emmy winner Thomas Schlamme has come on board to direct and executive produce Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas, Tom Wheeler's drama pilot for ABC.
On the Warner Bros.-produced Fringe, Pinkner will serve as exec producer/showrunner. The project centers on FBI agent (Anna Torv), who teams with a guy (Joshua Jackson) and his scientist Father John Noble), to confront the spread of unexplained phenomena.
Endeavor-repped Pinkner's relationship with Abrams extends beyond serving as exec producer/writer on Lost, Abrams' ABC series. He also served in the same capacity on Abrams' Alias, also for ABC.
Atlas, from WBTV, centers on a young girl who finds a magical atlas that reveals a secret world. Schlamme will exec produce the pilot with Wheeler. Endeavor-repped Schlamme most recently directed Life on Mars, David E. Kelley's pilot for ABC.
This review was written for the theatrical release of "Love in the Time of Cholera".SAN FRANCISCO -- "Love in the Time of Cholera", Mike Newell's handsomely appointed but disappointing adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's complicated, sprawling novel retains the essential flavor of the book. Audiences are likely to split into two camps: Fans will mourn what's left out; and those unfamiliar with the book might find the film mannered and slowgoing.
The filmmakers, Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood ("The Pianist") and Newell aim for a lush romantic fantasy about enduring love spanning 50 years in late-19th century Colombia. Instead, they create an overheated melodrama with abundant complications and hammy acting.
Taken on its own terms, the film would have been well served if the veteran team behind it had been ruthless in jettisoning material. The film's prestigious literary pedigree, international cast and Oprah's Book Club imprimatur will help make it a solid draw for the Art House crowd.
When teenager Florentino (Unax Ugalde), a clerk with ghostly pallor and a knack for writing ardent love letters, spies Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), it's love at first sight. That passion will remain unrequited until the two are in the final chapter of their lives. Fermina's Father John Leguizamo in a broad performance) disapproves and whisks her away to the countryside. He plans to marry his daughter up. He succeeds when she catches the eye of Juvenal (Benjamin Bratt), a worldly doctor whom Fermina marries after rejecting Florentino's overtures.
Playing a pretentious lout, Leguizamo, chomping on a cigar, utters the film's worst, anachronistic dialogue. Bratt, whose accent is more Pepe Le Pew than cultivated aristocrat, has the second-worst batch of lines in a scene where he promises his sexually inexperienced wife "a lesson in love."
Meanwhile, Florentino (played as an adult by Javier Bardem) rises to the top of his uncle's shipping company. He carries the torch for Fermina over the next half-century and consoles himself with hundreds of sexual conquests, dutifully recorded a la Casanova. Years later, Juvenal dies, and Florentino declares his love to the grieving Fermina on the day of the funeral. The film starts with Juvenal's death, flashes back and then forward again -- shifts adeptly handled by Harwood and editor Mick Audsley.
In a touching section toward the end, Fermina relents, and the pair finally consummate their love. "Cholera" is at its most sage and romantic in its portrayal of mature marriage, older love and sexuality.
Shot on location in vibrant Cartagena, the film's strong suit is aesthetic. Cinematographer Alfonso Beato, designer Wolf Kroeger and costume designer Marit Allen evoke aged exotic locales, rugged rural settings and dimly lit period interiors. A closing, aerial image has a breathtaking, spiritual beauty.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
New Line
Stone Village Pictures
Credits:
Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Scott Steindorff
Executive producers: Danny Greenspun, Robin Greenspun, Andrew Molaski, Chris Law, Michael Nozik, Dylan Russell, Scott LaStaiti
Director of photography: Alfonso Beato
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: Antonio Pinto, Shakira
Co-producer: Brantley M. Dunaway
Costume designer: Marit Allen
Editor: Mick Audsley
Cast:
Florentino: Javier Bardem
Teenage Florentino: Unax Ugalde
Fermina: Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Juvenal: Benjamin Bratt
Hildebranda: Catalina Sandino Moreno
Uncle Leo: Hector Elizondo
Lotario: Liev Schreiber: Transito: Fernanda Montenegro
Sara: Laura Harring
Lorenzo: John Leguizamo
Running time -- 139 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
The filmmakers, Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood ("The Pianist") and Newell aim for a lush romantic fantasy about enduring love spanning 50 years in late-19th century Colombia. Instead, they create an overheated melodrama with abundant complications and hammy acting.
Taken on its own terms, the film would have been well served if the veteran team behind it had been ruthless in jettisoning material. The film's prestigious literary pedigree, international cast and Oprah's Book Club imprimatur will help make it a solid draw for the Art House crowd.
When teenager Florentino (Unax Ugalde), a clerk with ghostly pallor and a knack for writing ardent love letters, spies Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), it's love at first sight. That passion will remain unrequited until the two are in the final chapter of their lives. Fermina's Father John Leguizamo in a broad performance) disapproves and whisks her away to the countryside. He plans to marry his daughter up. He succeeds when she catches the eye of Juvenal (Benjamin Bratt), a worldly doctor whom Fermina marries after rejecting Florentino's overtures.
Playing a pretentious lout, Leguizamo, chomping on a cigar, utters the film's worst, anachronistic dialogue. Bratt, whose accent is more Pepe Le Pew than cultivated aristocrat, has the second-worst batch of lines in a scene where he promises his sexually inexperienced wife "a lesson in love."
Meanwhile, Florentino (played as an adult by Javier Bardem) rises to the top of his uncle's shipping company. He carries the torch for Fermina over the next half-century and consoles himself with hundreds of sexual conquests, dutifully recorded a la Casanova. Years later, Juvenal dies, and Florentino declares his love to the grieving Fermina on the day of the funeral. The film starts with Juvenal's death, flashes back and then forward again -- shifts adeptly handled by Harwood and editor Mick Audsley.
In a touching section toward the end, Fermina relents, and the pair finally consummate their love. "Cholera" is at its most sage and romantic in its portrayal of mature marriage, older love and sexuality.
Shot on location in vibrant Cartagena, the film's strong suit is aesthetic. Cinematographer Alfonso Beato, designer Wolf Kroeger and costume designer Marit Allen evoke aged exotic locales, rugged rural settings and dimly lit period interiors. A closing, aerial image has a breathtaking, spiritual beauty.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
New Line
Stone Village Pictures
Credits:
Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Scott Steindorff
Executive producers: Danny Greenspun, Robin Greenspun, Andrew Molaski, Chris Law, Michael Nozik, Dylan Russell, Scott LaStaiti
Director of photography: Alfonso Beato
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: Antonio Pinto, Shakira
Co-producer: Brantley M. Dunaway
Costume designer: Marit Allen
Editor: Mick Audsley
Cast:
Florentino: Javier Bardem
Teenage Florentino: Unax Ugalde
Fermina: Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Juvenal: Benjamin Bratt
Hildebranda: Catalina Sandino Moreno
Uncle Leo: Hector Elizondo
Lotario: Liev Schreiber: Transito: Fernanda Montenegro
Sara: Laura Harring
Lorenzo: John Leguizamo
Running time -- 139 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 11/12/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
SAN FRANCISCO -- Love in the Time of Cholera, Mike Newell's handsomely appointed but disappointing adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's complicated, sprawling novel retains the essential flavor of the book. Audiences are likely to split into two camps: Fans will mourn what's left out; and those unfamiliar with the book might find the film mannered and slowgoing.
The filmmakers, Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist) and Newell aim for a lush romantic fantasy about enduring love spanning 50 years in late-19th century Colombia. Instead, they create an overheated melodrama with abundant complications and hammy acting.
Taken on its own terms, the film would have been well served if the veteran team behind it had been ruthless in jettisoning material. The film's prestigious literary pedigree, international cast and Oprah's Book Club imprimatur will help make it a solid draw for the Art House crowd.
When teenager Florentino (Unax Ugalde), a clerk with ghostly pallor and a knack for writing ardent love letters, spies Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), it's love at first sight. That passion will remain unrequited until the two are in the final chapter of their lives. Fermina's Father John Leguizamo in a broad performance) disapproves and whisks her away to the countryside. He plans to marry his daughter up. He succeeds when she catches the eye of Juvenal (Benjamin Bratt), a worldly doctor whom Fermina marries after rejecting Florentino's overtures.
Playing a pretentious lout, Leguizamo, chomping on a cigar, utters the film's worst, anachronistic dialogue. Bratt, whose accent is more Pepe Le Pew than cultivated aristocrat, has the second-worst batch of lines in a scene where he promises his sexually inexperienced wife "a lesson in love."
Meanwhile, Florentino (played as an adult by Javier Bardem) rises to the top of his uncle's shipping company. He carries the torch for Fermina over the next half-century and consoles himself with hundreds of sexual conquests, dutifully recorded a la Casanova. Years later, Juvenal dies, and Florentino declares his love to the grieving Fermina on the day of the funeral. The film starts with Juvenal's death, flashes back and then forward again -- shifts adeptly handled by Harwood and editor Mick Audsley.
In a touching section toward the end, Fermina relents, and the pair finally consummate their love. Cholera is at its most sage and romantic in its portrayal of mature marriage, older love and sexuality.
Shot on location in vibrant Cartagena, the film's strong suit is aesthetic. Cinematographer Alfonso Beato, designer Wolf Kroeger and costume designer Marit Allen evoke aged exotic locales, rugged rural settings and dimly lit period interiors. A closing, aerial image has a breathtaking, spiritual beauty.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
New Line
Stone Village Pictures
Credits:
Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Scott Steindorff
Executive producers: Danny Greenspun, Robin Greenspun, Andrew Molaski, Chris Law, Michael Nozik, Dylan Russell, Scott LaStaiti
Director of photography: Alfonso Beato
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: Antonio Pinto, Shakira
Co-producer: Brantley M. Dunaway
Costume designer: Marit Allen
Editor: Mick Audsley
Cast:
Florentino: Javier Bardem
Teenage Florentino: Unax Ugalde
Fermina: Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Juvenal: Benjamin Bratt
Hildebranda: Catalina Sandino Moreno
Uncle Leo: Hector Elizondo
Lotario: Liev Schreiber: Transito: Fernanda Montenegro
Sara: Laura Harring
Lorenzo: John Leguizamo
Running time -- 139 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
The filmmakers, Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist) and Newell aim for a lush romantic fantasy about enduring love spanning 50 years in late-19th century Colombia. Instead, they create an overheated melodrama with abundant complications and hammy acting.
Taken on its own terms, the film would have been well served if the veteran team behind it had been ruthless in jettisoning material. The film's prestigious literary pedigree, international cast and Oprah's Book Club imprimatur will help make it a solid draw for the Art House crowd.
When teenager Florentino (Unax Ugalde), a clerk with ghostly pallor and a knack for writing ardent love letters, spies Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), it's love at first sight. That passion will remain unrequited until the two are in the final chapter of their lives. Fermina's Father John Leguizamo in a broad performance) disapproves and whisks her away to the countryside. He plans to marry his daughter up. He succeeds when she catches the eye of Juvenal (Benjamin Bratt), a worldly doctor whom Fermina marries after rejecting Florentino's overtures.
Playing a pretentious lout, Leguizamo, chomping on a cigar, utters the film's worst, anachronistic dialogue. Bratt, whose accent is more Pepe Le Pew than cultivated aristocrat, has the second-worst batch of lines in a scene where he promises his sexually inexperienced wife "a lesson in love."
Meanwhile, Florentino (played as an adult by Javier Bardem) rises to the top of his uncle's shipping company. He carries the torch for Fermina over the next half-century and consoles himself with hundreds of sexual conquests, dutifully recorded a la Casanova. Years later, Juvenal dies, and Florentino declares his love to the grieving Fermina on the day of the funeral. The film starts with Juvenal's death, flashes back and then forward again -- shifts adeptly handled by Harwood and editor Mick Audsley.
In a touching section toward the end, Fermina relents, and the pair finally consummate their love. Cholera is at its most sage and romantic in its portrayal of mature marriage, older love and sexuality.
Shot on location in vibrant Cartagena, the film's strong suit is aesthetic. Cinematographer Alfonso Beato, designer Wolf Kroeger and costume designer Marit Allen evoke aged exotic locales, rugged rural settings and dimly lit period interiors. A closing, aerial image has a breathtaking, spiritual beauty.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
New Line
Stone Village Pictures
Credits:
Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Scott Steindorff
Executive producers: Danny Greenspun, Robin Greenspun, Andrew Molaski, Chris Law, Michael Nozik, Dylan Russell, Scott LaStaiti
Director of photography: Alfonso Beato
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: Antonio Pinto, Shakira
Co-producer: Brantley M. Dunaway
Costume designer: Marit Allen
Editor: Mick Audsley
Cast:
Florentino: Javier Bardem
Teenage Florentino: Unax Ugalde
Fermina: Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Juvenal: Benjamin Bratt
Hildebranda: Catalina Sandino Moreno
Uncle Leo: Hector Elizondo
Lotario: Liev Schreiber: Transito: Fernanda Montenegro
Sara: Laura Harring
Lorenzo: John Leguizamo
Running time -- 139 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 11/12/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Snow White goes to college, emboldens a nerdy group of seven outcasts and vanquishes the evil witch in the plodding Sydney White. Like many Hollywood interpretations of fairy tales, this Amanda Bynes starrer draws its inspiration not from the Oedipal, bloody folk legend recorded by the Brothers Grimm but from the pop-culture Disney version. Cute and cartoonish rule the day, and teens and tweens will be the film's chief audience when it opens wide against R-rated genre pics and the fall's tonier fare.
Chad Gomez Creasey's occasionally clever script is a clunky mix of cartoonish caricature and feel-good message-mongering. Director Joe Nussbaum (George Lucas in Love) brings an affection for outsiders to the material, but the film takes far too long to build momentum.
Despite her real-girl appeal as the title character, Bynes, who was terrific in Hairspray, can't overcome the heavy-handedness of the dialogue. Raised by her widowed plumber Father John Schneider), Sydney is a tomboy who knows her way around a construction site but has no experience on the social scene. She arrives at Florida's Southern Atlantic U. with a scholarship and a suitcase full of comic books and quickly catches the eye of dreamy, clean-cut Tyler Prince (Matt Long). That puts her in the sights of his ex, uber-meanie Rachel Witchburn (Sara Paxton), who rules the sisterhood of bleached blondes known as Kappa Phi Nu. The film's dramatic high points usually involve someone calling Rachel a bitch.
Kappa happens to be the sorority of Sydney's beloved mother, but even with her sparkly eye shadow and borrowed dresses, she has no chance against the conniving Rachel, who soon banishes the frosh pledge. Sydney finds refuge at the Vortex, the dilapidated house of seven socially challenged dorks of the Sneezy/Bashful/Sleepy variety.
This is no Ball of Fire, Bynes no Stanwyck, but her Sydney is a spark of life in the sheltered world of her ridiculous roomies, among them a sweet hypochondriac (Jack Carpenter), a gangly science geek (Jeremy Howard) and a permanently jet-lagged Nigerian transfer student (Donte Bonner). Nussbaum orchestrates some nice comic moments with this bunch -- like their collective awe, to the strains of Strauss, at the sight of Sydney's sports bra drying in the bathroom.
She pushes them to get involved in student politics, challenging the Witchburn oligarchy and turning the film into a tepid lesson in campaign democracy. The Freedom to the Seventh Power ticket reaches out to ROTC and LGBT alike, not to mention Hasidic Jews and the marching band. The need to belong, the value of diversity and the right to stand up to injustice are all folded into the cliched cry of emancipation for everyone's inner dork.
Amid its easy shots at conformism and the creepier aspects of Greek life, Gomez Creasey's script transposes some fairy-tale elements to the digital age in clever, if obvious, ways: The witch's magic mirror becomes Rachel's laptop screen, on which she daily checks her standing as No. 1 in the campus' Hot or Not rankings on MySpace. The poisoned apple, alas, is a virus-infected Mac.
Technical and design contributions are polished, with Orlando locations creating a fittingly idyllic campus setting.
SYDNEY WHITE
Universal Pictures
James G. Robinson presents a Morgan Creek production
Credits:
Director: Joe Nussbaum
Screenwriter: Chad Gomez Creasey
Producers: James G. Robinson, Clifford Werber, David Robinson
Executive producers: Guy McElwaine, Wayne Morris
Director of photography: Mark Irwin
Production designer: Mark Garner
Music: Deborah Lurie
Co-producer: Dara Resnik Creasey
Costumer designer: Beverly Safier
Editor: Danny Saphire
Cast:
Sydney White: Amanda Bynes
Rachel: Sara Paxton
Tyler: Matt Long
Lenny: Jack Carpenter
Terrence: Jeremy Howard
Dinky: Crystal Hunt
Jeremy: Adam Hendershott
Gurkin: Danny Strong
Spanky: Samm Levine
Christy: Libby Mintz
Paul White: John Schneider
George: Arnie Pantoja
Embele: Donte Bonner
Professor Carleton: Brian Patrick Clarke
Katy: Lauren Leech
Running time -- 107 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Chad Gomez Creasey's occasionally clever script is a clunky mix of cartoonish caricature and feel-good message-mongering. Director Joe Nussbaum (George Lucas in Love) brings an affection for outsiders to the material, but the film takes far too long to build momentum.
Despite her real-girl appeal as the title character, Bynes, who was terrific in Hairspray, can't overcome the heavy-handedness of the dialogue. Raised by her widowed plumber Father John Schneider), Sydney is a tomboy who knows her way around a construction site but has no experience on the social scene. She arrives at Florida's Southern Atlantic U. with a scholarship and a suitcase full of comic books and quickly catches the eye of dreamy, clean-cut Tyler Prince (Matt Long). That puts her in the sights of his ex, uber-meanie Rachel Witchburn (Sara Paxton), who rules the sisterhood of bleached blondes known as Kappa Phi Nu. The film's dramatic high points usually involve someone calling Rachel a bitch.
Kappa happens to be the sorority of Sydney's beloved mother, but even with her sparkly eye shadow and borrowed dresses, she has no chance against the conniving Rachel, who soon banishes the frosh pledge. Sydney finds refuge at the Vortex, the dilapidated house of seven socially challenged dorks of the Sneezy/Bashful/Sleepy variety.
This is no Ball of Fire, Bynes no Stanwyck, but her Sydney is a spark of life in the sheltered world of her ridiculous roomies, among them a sweet hypochondriac (Jack Carpenter), a gangly science geek (Jeremy Howard) and a permanently jet-lagged Nigerian transfer student (Donte Bonner). Nussbaum orchestrates some nice comic moments with this bunch -- like their collective awe, to the strains of Strauss, at the sight of Sydney's sports bra drying in the bathroom.
She pushes them to get involved in student politics, challenging the Witchburn oligarchy and turning the film into a tepid lesson in campaign democracy. The Freedom to the Seventh Power ticket reaches out to ROTC and LGBT alike, not to mention Hasidic Jews and the marching band. The need to belong, the value of diversity and the right to stand up to injustice are all folded into the cliched cry of emancipation for everyone's inner dork.
Amid its easy shots at conformism and the creepier aspects of Greek life, Gomez Creasey's script transposes some fairy-tale elements to the digital age in clever, if obvious, ways: The witch's magic mirror becomes Rachel's laptop screen, on which she daily checks her standing as No. 1 in the campus' Hot or Not rankings on MySpace. The poisoned apple, alas, is a virus-infected Mac.
Technical and design contributions are polished, with Orlando locations creating a fittingly idyllic campus setting.
SYDNEY WHITE
Universal Pictures
James G. Robinson presents a Morgan Creek production
Credits:
Director: Joe Nussbaum
Screenwriter: Chad Gomez Creasey
Producers: James G. Robinson, Clifford Werber, David Robinson
Executive producers: Guy McElwaine, Wayne Morris
Director of photography: Mark Irwin
Production designer: Mark Garner
Music: Deborah Lurie
Co-producer: Dara Resnik Creasey
Costumer designer: Beverly Safier
Editor: Danny Saphire
Cast:
Sydney White: Amanda Bynes
Rachel: Sara Paxton
Tyler: Matt Long
Lenny: Jack Carpenter
Terrence: Jeremy Howard
Dinky: Crystal Hunt
Jeremy: Adam Hendershott
Gurkin: Danny Strong
Spanky: Samm Levine
Christy: Libby Mintz
Paul White: John Schneider
George: Arnie Pantoja
Embele: Donte Bonner
Professor Carleton: Brian Patrick Clarke
Katy: Lauren Leech
Running time -- 107 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 9/21/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ideally suited as the opener of the eighth Method Fest, the annual Calabasas, Calif.-based film festival where the focus is on the acting, Dreamland is an atmospheric ensemble piece boasting several richly portrayed characters.
The film, which played at Sundance and is director Jason Matzner's first feature, surveys the lives and aspirations of a group of young people living in a remote trailer park in the New Mexico desert as seen through the eyes of 18-year-old Audrey (Agnes Bruckner).
Although a college education is definitely in the cards for her, Audrey has been preoccupied playing the role of nurturer to both her agoraphobic Father John Corbett), who has whiled away his trailer-bound days in a beer-soaked haze ever since her mother died, and her best friend Calista (Kelli Garner), who, despite being in the early throes of a progressively crippling illness, thinks she has a shot at becoming a future Miss America.
But things are about to take an unexpected turn with the arrival of Mookie (Justin Long), a soft-spoken jock whom Audrey tries to hook up with Calista, even as she herself begins to feel undeniable pangs of attraction.
While Tom Willett's script is a bit wispy on plot development, those unexpectedly complex characters and thoughtful, gently understated performances (especially from Bruckner and Garner) contribute some earthy substance, while Matzner and cinematographer Jonathan Sela take full advantage that ethereal New Mexico light in all its mood-altering guises.
The film, which played at Sundance and is director Jason Matzner's first feature, surveys the lives and aspirations of a group of young people living in a remote trailer park in the New Mexico desert as seen through the eyes of 18-year-old Audrey (Agnes Bruckner).
Although a college education is definitely in the cards for her, Audrey has been preoccupied playing the role of nurturer to both her agoraphobic Father John Corbett), who has whiled away his trailer-bound days in a beer-soaked haze ever since her mother died, and her best friend Calista (Kelli Garner), who, despite being in the early throes of a progressively crippling illness, thinks she has a shot at becoming a future Miss America.
But things are about to take an unexpected turn with the arrival of Mookie (Justin Long), a soft-spoken jock whom Audrey tries to hook up with Calista, even as she herself begins to feel undeniable pangs of attraction.
While Tom Willett's script is a bit wispy on plot development, those unexpectedly complex characters and thoughtful, gently understated performances (especially from Bruckner and Garner) contribute some earthy substance, while Matzner and cinematographer Jonathan Sela take full advantage that ethereal New Mexico light in all its mood-altering guises.
- 4/13/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Opens
Friday, April 2
This might not be your father's Buford Pusser, but the remake of "Walking Tall" remains the tale of a vigilante with a badge -- and a very big stick. As a man of few words who takes on the forces of pure evil in his rural hometown, WWE star-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a self-possessed, charismatic screen presence. Drawing on his fans and tapping into hero hunger, the film should find solid footing at the boxoffice.
Like the 1973 Joe Don Baker starrer -- a hit that spawned two sequels, a telefilm and a short-lived series -- this version is inspired by the true story of Tennessee sheriff Pusser. But here the central character, unmarried and ultra-buff, is not an unlikely savior. To the well-chosen strains of Gregg Allman's "Midnight Rider", we first see Chris Vaughn as a solitary figure on a ferry to Washington state, returning home after eight years in the Army Special Forces.
It's a relief that "Walking" strips Mort Briskin's original screenplay of its cloying family-man angle and tragic elements. That helps to lessen the self-righteousness of an uneasy, if popular, combination of moralizing and head-slamming. But that combustible mix is still the heart of the story.
Paying tribute to the central character's weapon of choice -- a hunk of wood -- the story has been moved to lumber country (Vancouver subs for Kipsat County, Wash.). Expecting to work in the town's mill, like his Father John Beasley), Chris finds it's been shuttered by Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough, whose ice-blue eyes spell "villain"). After inheriting the plant, the town's lifeblood, Jay has turned his entrepreneurial efforts to a lucrative casino, the front for an even more lucrative drug operation. Emblematic of the Wild Cherry's grip on the town, Chris High' school girlfriend, Deni (Ashley Scott), dances in a peep show at the sensory-overload venue.
For Chris, the casino is an assault on small-town integrity. Ever-vigilant to corruption and wrongdoing, he crosses the powers that be and winds up sliced and left for dead by Jay's goons. Denied legal recourse by the sheriff (Michael Bowen), who considers the casino a "no-fly zone," Chris puts a huge stick of cedar to use in the name of justice and ends up in jail. After baring his impressive torso and its gruesome scars for a jury, he's elected sheriff.
He deputizes his pal Ray (Johnny Knoxville of "Jackass"), a recovering addict, to help him crack Jay's speed-manufacturing business. Adding drugs to the corrosive stew of gambling and prostitution, the adaptation ups the ante on moral certainty with broad strokes: Chris' young teen nephew (Khleo Thomas) has an unspecified medical emergency relating to the ingestion of crystal meth, and Chris and Ray are wholesomely abusive cops as they set out to rid their town of vice.
This lean retelling mercifully compresses the physical attacks on the hero and his family, albeit into unbelievably brazen simultaneous ambushes on the precinct and the Vaughn home. As the senior Vaughn, Beasley makes an impression as a former soldier who must overcome his aversion to guns to protect his wife (Barbara Tarbuck) and single-mom daughter (Kristen Wilson).
Director Kevin Bray keeps the action tight and brutal, from the first casino brawl to the final face-off between Jay and Chris (hatchet vs. tree branch). The cast acquits itself well, with the Rock evincing a quiet balance between humor and brawn. Unlike Baker's Pusser, Chris is not a conflicted man, and the pared-down action loses some of its dramatic tension because there's no doubt that the Rock will prevail -- driving home the point is a low-angle shot of the jeans-clad sheriff, wooden club in hand.
Production designer Brent Thomas and costume designer Gersha Phillips achieve a lived-in look that never calls attention to itself. Glen MacPherson's camerawork captures the setting's natural riches and economic straits, while well-chosen '70s rock tunes help propel the proceedings.
WALKING TALL
MGM Pictures
A Hyde Park Entertainment/Mandeville Films production in association with Burke/Samples/Foster Prods. and WWE Films
Credits:
Director: Kevin Bray
Screenwriters: David Klass, Channing Gibson, David Levien, Brian Koppelman
Based on a screenplay by: Mort Briskin
Producers: Jim Burke, Lucas Foster, Paul Schiff, Ashok Amritraj, David Hoberman
Executive producers: Keith Samples, Vince McMahon
Director of photography: Glen MacPherson
Production designer: Brent Thomas
Music: Graeme Revell
Co-producer: Bill Bannerman
Costume designer: Gersha Phillips
Editors: George Bowers, Robert Ivison
Cast:
Chris Vaughn: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Ray Templeton: Johnny Knoxville
Jay Hamilton: Neal McDonough
Michelle Vaughn: Kristen Wilson
Deni: Ashley Scott
Pete Vaughn: Khleo Thomas
Chris Vaughn Sr.: John Beasley
Connie Vaughn: Barbara Tarbuck
Sheriff Stan Watkins: Michael Bowen
Booth: Kevin Durand
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Friday, April 2
This might not be your father's Buford Pusser, but the remake of "Walking Tall" remains the tale of a vigilante with a badge -- and a very big stick. As a man of few words who takes on the forces of pure evil in his rural hometown, WWE star-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a self-possessed, charismatic screen presence. Drawing on his fans and tapping into hero hunger, the film should find solid footing at the boxoffice.
Like the 1973 Joe Don Baker starrer -- a hit that spawned two sequels, a telefilm and a short-lived series -- this version is inspired by the true story of Tennessee sheriff Pusser. But here the central character, unmarried and ultra-buff, is not an unlikely savior. To the well-chosen strains of Gregg Allman's "Midnight Rider", we first see Chris Vaughn as a solitary figure on a ferry to Washington state, returning home after eight years in the Army Special Forces.
It's a relief that "Walking" strips Mort Briskin's original screenplay of its cloying family-man angle and tragic elements. That helps to lessen the self-righteousness of an uneasy, if popular, combination of moralizing and head-slamming. But that combustible mix is still the heart of the story.
Paying tribute to the central character's weapon of choice -- a hunk of wood -- the story has been moved to lumber country (Vancouver subs for Kipsat County, Wash.). Expecting to work in the town's mill, like his Father John Beasley), Chris finds it's been shuttered by Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough, whose ice-blue eyes spell "villain"). After inheriting the plant, the town's lifeblood, Jay has turned his entrepreneurial efforts to a lucrative casino, the front for an even more lucrative drug operation. Emblematic of the Wild Cherry's grip on the town, Chris High' school girlfriend, Deni (Ashley Scott), dances in a peep show at the sensory-overload venue.
For Chris, the casino is an assault on small-town integrity. Ever-vigilant to corruption and wrongdoing, he crosses the powers that be and winds up sliced and left for dead by Jay's goons. Denied legal recourse by the sheriff (Michael Bowen), who considers the casino a "no-fly zone," Chris puts a huge stick of cedar to use in the name of justice and ends up in jail. After baring his impressive torso and its gruesome scars for a jury, he's elected sheriff.
He deputizes his pal Ray (Johnny Knoxville of "Jackass"), a recovering addict, to help him crack Jay's speed-manufacturing business. Adding drugs to the corrosive stew of gambling and prostitution, the adaptation ups the ante on moral certainty with broad strokes: Chris' young teen nephew (Khleo Thomas) has an unspecified medical emergency relating to the ingestion of crystal meth, and Chris and Ray are wholesomely abusive cops as they set out to rid their town of vice.
This lean retelling mercifully compresses the physical attacks on the hero and his family, albeit into unbelievably brazen simultaneous ambushes on the precinct and the Vaughn home. As the senior Vaughn, Beasley makes an impression as a former soldier who must overcome his aversion to guns to protect his wife (Barbara Tarbuck) and single-mom daughter (Kristen Wilson).
Director Kevin Bray keeps the action tight and brutal, from the first casino brawl to the final face-off between Jay and Chris (hatchet vs. tree branch). The cast acquits itself well, with the Rock evincing a quiet balance between humor and brawn. Unlike Baker's Pusser, Chris is not a conflicted man, and the pared-down action loses some of its dramatic tension because there's no doubt that the Rock will prevail -- driving home the point is a low-angle shot of the jeans-clad sheriff, wooden club in hand.
Production designer Brent Thomas and costume designer Gersha Phillips achieve a lived-in look that never calls attention to itself. Glen MacPherson's camerawork captures the setting's natural riches and economic straits, while well-chosen '70s rock tunes help propel the proceedings.
WALKING TALL
MGM Pictures
A Hyde Park Entertainment/Mandeville Films production in association with Burke/Samples/Foster Prods. and WWE Films
Credits:
Director: Kevin Bray
Screenwriters: David Klass, Channing Gibson, David Levien, Brian Koppelman
Based on a screenplay by: Mort Briskin
Producers: Jim Burke, Lucas Foster, Paul Schiff, Ashok Amritraj, David Hoberman
Executive producers: Keith Samples, Vince McMahon
Director of photography: Glen MacPherson
Production designer: Brent Thomas
Music: Graeme Revell
Co-producer: Bill Bannerman
Costume designer: Gersha Phillips
Editors: George Bowers, Robert Ivison
Cast:
Chris Vaughn: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Ray Templeton: Johnny Knoxville
Jay Hamilton: Neal McDonough
Michelle Vaughn: Kristen Wilson
Deni: Ashley Scott
Pete Vaughn: Khleo Thomas
Chris Vaughn Sr.: John Beasley
Connie Vaughn: Barbara Tarbuck
Sheriff Stan Watkins: Michael Bowen
Booth: Kevin Durand
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Opens
Friday, April 2
This might not be your father's Buford Pusser, but the remake of "Walking Tall" remains the tale of a vigilante with a badge -- and a very big stick. As a man of few words who takes on the forces of pure evil in his rural hometown, WWE star-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a self-possessed, charismatic screen presence. Drawing on his fans and tapping into hero hunger, the film should find solid footing at the boxoffice.
Like the 1973 Joe Don Baker starrer -- a hit that spawned two sequels, a telefilm and a short-lived series -- this version is inspired by the true story of Tennessee sheriff Pusser. But here the central character, unmarried and ultra-buff, is not an unlikely savior. To the well-chosen strains of Gregg Allman's "Midnight Rider", we first see Chris Vaughn as a solitary figure on a ferry to Washington state, returning home after eight years in the Army Special Forces.
It's a relief that "Walking" strips Mort Briskin's original screenplay of its cloying family-man angle and tragic elements. That helps to lessen the self-righteousness of an uneasy, if popular, combination of moralizing and head-slamming. But that combustible mix is still the heart of the story.
Paying tribute to the central character's weapon of choice -- a hunk of wood -- the story has been moved to lumber country (Vancouver subs for Kipsat County, Wash.). Expecting to work in the town's mill, like his Father John Beasley), Chris finds it's been shuttered by Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough, whose ice-blue eyes spell "villain"). After inheriting the plant, the town's lifeblood, Jay has turned his entrepreneurial efforts to a lucrative casino, the front for an even more lucrative drug operation. Emblematic of the Wild Cherry's grip on the town, Chris High' school girlfriend, Deni (Ashley Scott), dances in a peep show at the sensory-overload venue.
For Chris, the casino is an assault on small-town integrity. Ever-vigilant to corruption and wrongdoing, he crosses the powers that be and winds up sliced and left for dead by Jay's goons. Denied legal recourse by the sheriff (Michael Bowen), who considers the casino a "no-fly zone," Chris puts a huge stick of cedar to use in the name of justice and ends up in jail. After baring his impressive torso and its gruesome scars for a jury, he's elected sheriff.
He deputizes his pal Ray (Johnny Knoxville of "Jackass"), a recovering addict, to help him crack Jay's speed-manufacturing business. Adding drugs to the corrosive stew of gambling and prostitution, the adaptation ups the ante on moral certainty with broad strokes: Chris' young teen nephew (Khleo Thomas) has an unspecified medical emergency relating to the ingestion of crystal meth, and Chris and Ray are wholesomely abusive cops as they set out to rid their town of vice.
This lean retelling mercifully compresses the physical attacks on the hero and his family, albeit into unbelievably brazen simultaneous ambushes on the precinct and the Vaughn home. As the senior Vaughn, Beasley makes an impression as a former soldier who must overcome his aversion to guns to protect his wife (Barbara Tarbuck) and single-mom daughter (Kristen Wilson).
Director Kevin Bray keeps the action tight and brutal, from the first casino brawl to the final face-off between Jay and Chris (hatchet vs. tree branch). The cast acquits itself well, with the Rock evincing a quiet balance between humor and brawn. Unlike Baker's Pusser, Chris is not a conflicted man, and the pared-down action loses some of its dramatic tension because there's no doubt that the Rock will prevail -- driving home the point is a low-angle shot of the jeans-clad sheriff, wooden club in hand.
Production designer Brent Thomas and costume designer Gersha Phillips achieve a lived-in look that never calls attention to itself. Glen MacPherson's camerawork captures the setting's natural riches and economic straits, while well-chosen '70s rock tunes help propel the proceedings.
WALKING TALL
MGM Pictures
A Hyde Park Entertainment/Mandeville Films production in association with Burke/Samples/Foster Prods. and WWE Films
Credits:
Director: Kevin Bray
Screenwriters: David Klass, Channing Gibson, David Levien, Brian Koppelman
Based on a screenplay by: Mort Briskin
Producers: Jim Burke, Lucas Foster, Paul Schiff, Ashok Amritraj, David Hoberman
Executive producers: Keith Samples, Vince McMahon
Director of photography: Glen MacPherson
Production designer: Brent Thomas
Music: Graeme Revell
Co-producer: Bill Bannerman
Costume designer: Gersha Phillips
Editors: George Bowers, Robert Ivison
Cast:
Chris Vaughn: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Ray Templeton: Johnny Knoxville
Jay Hamilton: Neal McDonough
Michelle Vaughn: Kristen Wilson
Deni: Ashley Scott
Pete Vaughn: Khleo Thomas
Chris Vaughn Sr.: John Beasley
Connie Vaughn: Barbara Tarbuck
Sheriff Stan Watkins: Michael Bowen
Booth: Kevin Durand
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Friday, April 2
This might not be your father's Buford Pusser, but the remake of "Walking Tall" remains the tale of a vigilante with a badge -- and a very big stick. As a man of few words who takes on the forces of pure evil in his rural hometown, WWE star-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a self-possessed, charismatic screen presence. Drawing on his fans and tapping into hero hunger, the film should find solid footing at the boxoffice.
Like the 1973 Joe Don Baker starrer -- a hit that spawned two sequels, a telefilm and a short-lived series -- this version is inspired by the true story of Tennessee sheriff Pusser. But here the central character, unmarried and ultra-buff, is not an unlikely savior. To the well-chosen strains of Gregg Allman's "Midnight Rider", we first see Chris Vaughn as a solitary figure on a ferry to Washington state, returning home after eight years in the Army Special Forces.
It's a relief that "Walking" strips Mort Briskin's original screenplay of its cloying family-man angle and tragic elements. That helps to lessen the self-righteousness of an uneasy, if popular, combination of moralizing and head-slamming. But that combustible mix is still the heart of the story.
Paying tribute to the central character's weapon of choice -- a hunk of wood -- the story has been moved to lumber country (Vancouver subs for Kipsat County, Wash.). Expecting to work in the town's mill, like his Father John Beasley), Chris finds it's been shuttered by Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough, whose ice-blue eyes spell "villain"). After inheriting the plant, the town's lifeblood, Jay has turned his entrepreneurial efforts to a lucrative casino, the front for an even more lucrative drug operation. Emblematic of the Wild Cherry's grip on the town, Chris High' school girlfriend, Deni (Ashley Scott), dances in a peep show at the sensory-overload venue.
For Chris, the casino is an assault on small-town integrity. Ever-vigilant to corruption and wrongdoing, he crosses the powers that be and winds up sliced and left for dead by Jay's goons. Denied legal recourse by the sheriff (Michael Bowen), who considers the casino a "no-fly zone," Chris puts a huge stick of cedar to use in the name of justice and ends up in jail. After baring his impressive torso and its gruesome scars for a jury, he's elected sheriff.
He deputizes his pal Ray (Johnny Knoxville of "Jackass"), a recovering addict, to help him crack Jay's speed-manufacturing business. Adding drugs to the corrosive stew of gambling and prostitution, the adaptation ups the ante on moral certainty with broad strokes: Chris' young teen nephew (Khleo Thomas) has an unspecified medical emergency relating to the ingestion of crystal meth, and Chris and Ray are wholesomely abusive cops as they set out to rid their town of vice.
This lean retelling mercifully compresses the physical attacks on the hero and his family, albeit into unbelievably brazen simultaneous ambushes on the precinct and the Vaughn home. As the senior Vaughn, Beasley makes an impression as a former soldier who must overcome his aversion to guns to protect his wife (Barbara Tarbuck) and single-mom daughter (Kristen Wilson).
Director Kevin Bray keeps the action tight and brutal, from the first casino brawl to the final face-off between Jay and Chris (hatchet vs. tree branch). The cast acquits itself well, with the Rock evincing a quiet balance between humor and brawn. Unlike Baker's Pusser, Chris is not a conflicted man, and the pared-down action loses some of its dramatic tension because there's no doubt that the Rock will prevail -- driving home the point is a low-angle shot of the jeans-clad sheriff, wooden club in hand.
Production designer Brent Thomas and costume designer Gersha Phillips achieve a lived-in look that never calls attention to itself. Glen MacPherson's camerawork captures the setting's natural riches and economic straits, while well-chosen '70s rock tunes help propel the proceedings.
WALKING TALL
MGM Pictures
A Hyde Park Entertainment/Mandeville Films production in association with Burke/Samples/Foster Prods. and WWE Films
Credits:
Director: Kevin Bray
Screenwriters: David Klass, Channing Gibson, David Levien, Brian Koppelman
Based on a screenplay by: Mort Briskin
Producers: Jim Burke, Lucas Foster, Paul Schiff, Ashok Amritraj, David Hoberman
Executive producers: Keith Samples, Vince McMahon
Director of photography: Glen MacPherson
Production designer: Brent Thomas
Music: Graeme Revell
Co-producer: Bill Bannerman
Costume designer: Gersha Phillips
Editors: George Bowers, Robert Ivison
Cast:
Chris Vaughn: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Ray Templeton: Johnny Knoxville
Jay Hamilton: Neal McDonough
Michelle Vaughn: Kristen Wilson
Deni: Ashley Scott
Pete Vaughn: Khleo Thomas
Chris Vaughn Sr.: John Beasley
Connie Vaughn: Barbara Tarbuck
Sheriff Stan Watkins: Michael Bowen
Booth: Kevin Durand
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 3/29/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The crowd-pleasing, relatively lightweight closing-night film of the dramatically uneven 52nd Cannes International Film Festival, "An Ideal Husband" is a late-19th-century romantic comedy based on an Oscar Wilde play. The upcoming Miramax release has solid boxoffice potential with adult audiences.
Cate Blanchett and Rupert Everett headline the small but fine cast allowed to pitch the material at an involvingly brisk pace under the light-handed direction of Oliver Parker ("Othello"). Lushly mounted but largely a chamber piece, "Ideal Husband" concerns the efforts of eligible bachelor Lord Arthur Goring (Everett) to preserve the marriage and career of his friend, politician Sir Robert Chiltern (Jeremy Northam).
Married to Lady Gertrude Chiltern (Blanchett), Robert is blackmailed by devious Mrs. Cheveley (Julianne Moore), who possesses knowledge of a secret in his past. She wants his support for an expensive boondoggle, knowing that Gertrude will be devastated if she learns Robert deceived her in any way.
The privileged lives of the upper crust leads are shaken by forged notes, conversations overheard by the wrong parties and shocking revelations. While Robert struggles with his conscience, Cheveley sets her sights on becoming Lady Arthur Goring. Unaware of the simmering scandal, Arthur's Father John Wood) encourages the reluctant bachelor to choose a wife.
Robert's sister Mabel (Minnie Driver) also has a crush on Arthur, but he is tempted by Cheveley's seductive final offer and wrongly assumed of betraying Robert before things get sorted out in the happy ending.
Underplaying the character but looking fabulous in formal wear, Everett stands to gain the most from such a plum role as he embodies the kind of wily but impossibly well-groomed rogue to which one's attention naturally gravitates. The scenario's most resonant, serious emotional material is reserved for Robert and Gertrude's marital crisis when she realizes he's not the ideal husband and waits to see how he resolves the threat posed by Cheveley.
Blanchett, Driver and Moore are well-cast and look great in Caroline Harris' costumes. Filmed on location and at Leavesden Studios in Herts, England, "Ideal Husband" is an evocative re-creation of the times, thanks to the luxurious production design of Michael Howells ("Ever After").
AN IDEAL HUSBAND
Miramax Films
Icon Entertainment International presents
a Fragile Film in association with Icon Prods.,
Pathe Pictures, the Arts Council of England
Writer-director: Oliver Parker
Producers: Barnaby Thompson, Uri Fruchtmann, Bruce Davey
Executive producers: Susan B. Landau, Ralph Kamp, Andrea Calderwood
Director of photography: David Johnson
Production designer: Michael Howells
Editor: Guy Bensley
Costume designer: Caroline Harris
Music: Charlie Mole
Color/stereo
Cast:
Lady Gertrude Chiltern: Cate Blanchett
Lord Arthur Goring: Rupert Everett
Mrs. Cheveley: Julianne Moore
Sir Robert Chiltern: Jeremy Northam
Mabel Chiltern: Minnie Driver
Lord Caversham: John Wood
Running time -- 97 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Cate Blanchett and Rupert Everett headline the small but fine cast allowed to pitch the material at an involvingly brisk pace under the light-handed direction of Oliver Parker ("Othello"). Lushly mounted but largely a chamber piece, "Ideal Husband" concerns the efforts of eligible bachelor Lord Arthur Goring (Everett) to preserve the marriage and career of his friend, politician Sir Robert Chiltern (Jeremy Northam).
Married to Lady Gertrude Chiltern (Blanchett), Robert is blackmailed by devious Mrs. Cheveley (Julianne Moore), who possesses knowledge of a secret in his past. She wants his support for an expensive boondoggle, knowing that Gertrude will be devastated if she learns Robert deceived her in any way.
The privileged lives of the upper crust leads are shaken by forged notes, conversations overheard by the wrong parties and shocking revelations. While Robert struggles with his conscience, Cheveley sets her sights on becoming Lady Arthur Goring. Unaware of the simmering scandal, Arthur's Father John Wood) encourages the reluctant bachelor to choose a wife.
Robert's sister Mabel (Minnie Driver) also has a crush on Arthur, but he is tempted by Cheveley's seductive final offer and wrongly assumed of betraying Robert before things get sorted out in the happy ending.
Underplaying the character but looking fabulous in formal wear, Everett stands to gain the most from such a plum role as he embodies the kind of wily but impossibly well-groomed rogue to which one's attention naturally gravitates. The scenario's most resonant, serious emotional material is reserved for Robert and Gertrude's marital crisis when she realizes he's not the ideal husband and waits to see how he resolves the threat posed by Cheveley.
Blanchett, Driver and Moore are well-cast and look great in Caroline Harris' costumes. Filmed on location and at Leavesden Studios in Herts, England, "Ideal Husband" is an evocative re-creation of the times, thanks to the luxurious production design of Michael Howells ("Ever After").
AN IDEAL HUSBAND
Miramax Films
Icon Entertainment International presents
a Fragile Film in association with Icon Prods.,
Pathe Pictures, the Arts Council of England
Writer-director: Oliver Parker
Producers: Barnaby Thompson, Uri Fruchtmann, Bruce Davey
Executive producers: Susan B. Landau, Ralph Kamp, Andrea Calderwood
Director of photography: David Johnson
Production designer: Michael Howells
Editor: Guy Bensley
Costume designer: Caroline Harris
Music: Charlie Mole
Color/stereo
Cast:
Lady Gertrude Chiltern: Cate Blanchett
Lord Arthur Goring: Rupert Everett
Mrs. Cheveley: Julianne Moore
Sir Robert Chiltern: Jeremy Northam
Mabel Chiltern: Minnie Driver
Lord Caversham: John Wood
Running time -- 97 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 5/28/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Playing a mother whose 3-year-old son vanishes and remains missing for nine years, portraying possibly the worst type of prolonged anguish inflicted on human beings, Michelle Pfeiffer dives into one of her best roles and pulls the viewer into the stormy waters of director Ulu Grosbard's involving adaptation of Jacquelyn Mitchard's darker 1996 novel.
While its boxoffice take will be ducky at best, a tsunami of tears will flow from the target audience of women and mature couples. "Deep End" should more than tread water internationally and has a successful voyage ahead in ancillary seas. Teenage girls may also show more than passing curiosity when word gets around about Emmy winner Jonathan Jackson's career-making performance as the eldest son who flounders in a dysfunctional riptide in the wake of family tragedy.
Destined to be remembered next awards season, Pfeiffer's performance is heartfelt and unmanipulative. Grosbard's unobtrusive yet carefully calibrated direction, accompanied by Elmer Bernstein's fluty orchestral score, showcases the actors and employs few of the standard tension-building techniques or storytelling shortcuts, though the black clouds hanging over the characters tend to block out most scenes of normal, relaxed interaction.
With her three children, photographer Beth (Pfeiffer) motors from Madison, Wis., to Chicago for her 15th high school reunion. In a jammed hotel lobby, middle child Ben Michael McElroy) disappears without a trace. Friends help Beth look for him, and a reassuring police detective (Whoopi Goldberg) shows up with a small army. But the hours tick off, and there's no news. Unable to maintain her composure, Beth bursts into hysterics. Husband Pat (Treat Williams), arriving in an agitated state, tries to take charge -- but still no Ben.
Oldest son Vincent (Cory Buck) and Pat are the unintended victims of Beth's severe depression that results from Ben's unknown fate. Beth almost brings the family down by neglecting her baby daughter, never getting out of bed and giving up her career.
The story takes a nine-year leap, with too-quickly matured Vincent (Jackson) evolved into a high schooler with a sullen, seen-it-all attitude, though the family appears to be back to normal.
One day a young boy named Sam (Ryan Merriman) mows the family's lawn, and Beth starts to believe in miracles. Goldberg's character swings into action again when it's proven that the boy is indeed Ben and a possible kidnap victim. At this point, the details of the disappearance and the plot in general flirt with the unbelievable, but the focus settles on Sam's dilemma -- should he go to his real family or remain with the adopted Father John Kapelos) who has loved and nurtured him most of his life.
At first, Vincent is a jerk because he's never known the love and attention lavished on Sam -- who moves back home and shows up his Big Brother in basketball for starters. But the bonding of the brothers is presented as the only hope to reconstructing a family long-ago torn asunder. The tough truth is Kapelos' character is such a decent bloke -- as shocked and devastated as the others by the turn of events -- that Sam's return is not necessarily permanent.
Keeping pace with Pfeiffer and Jackson, Merriman (HBO's "Lansky") is superb as the sad but precocious Sam. In one giddy scene, he leads a party group in the dance from "Zorba the Greek", but he also shines brightly in intensely emotional exchanges with his co-stars. Williams is solid as the father and husband caught in a nightmare that finally ends with a tidy, optimistic finale.
THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN
Columbia Pictures
Mandalay Entertainment presents
A Via Rosa production
Director: Ulu Grosbard
Screenwriter: Stephen Schiff
Based on the book by: Jacquelyn Mitchard
Producers: Kate Guinzberg, Steve Nicolaides
Executive producer: Frank Capra III
Director of photography: Stephen Goldblatt
Production designer: Dan Davis
Editor: John Bloom
Costume designer: Susie DeSanto
Music: Elmer Bernstein
Casting: Lora Kennedy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Beth: Michelle Pfeiffer
Pat: Treat Williams
Vincent: Jonathan Jackson
Sam/Ben: Ryan Merriman
Young Vincent: Cory Buck
George: John Kapelos
Candy: Whoopi Goldberg
Young Ben: Michael McElroy
Running time -- 108 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
While its boxoffice take will be ducky at best, a tsunami of tears will flow from the target audience of women and mature couples. "Deep End" should more than tread water internationally and has a successful voyage ahead in ancillary seas. Teenage girls may also show more than passing curiosity when word gets around about Emmy winner Jonathan Jackson's career-making performance as the eldest son who flounders in a dysfunctional riptide in the wake of family tragedy.
Destined to be remembered next awards season, Pfeiffer's performance is heartfelt and unmanipulative. Grosbard's unobtrusive yet carefully calibrated direction, accompanied by Elmer Bernstein's fluty orchestral score, showcases the actors and employs few of the standard tension-building techniques or storytelling shortcuts, though the black clouds hanging over the characters tend to block out most scenes of normal, relaxed interaction.
With her three children, photographer Beth (Pfeiffer) motors from Madison, Wis., to Chicago for her 15th high school reunion. In a jammed hotel lobby, middle child Ben Michael McElroy) disappears without a trace. Friends help Beth look for him, and a reassuring police detective (Whoopi Goldberg) shows up with a small army. But the hours tick off, and there's no news. Unable to maintain her composure, Beth bursts into hysterics. Husband Pat (Treat Williams), arriving in an agitated state, tries to take charge -- but still no Ben.
Oldest son Vincent (Cory Buck) and Pat are the unintended victims of Beth's severe depression that results from Ben's unknown fate. Beth almost brings the family down by neglecting her baby daughter, never getting out of bed and giving up her career.
The story takes a nine-year leap, with too-quickly matured Vincent (Jackson) evolved into a high schooler with a sullen, seen-it-all attitude, though the family appears to be back to normal.
One day a young boy named Sam (Ryan Merriman) mows the family's lawn, and Beth starts to believe in miracles. Goldberg's character swings into action again when it's proven that the boy is indeed Ben and a possible kidnap victim. At this point, the details of the disappearance and the plot in general flirt with the unbelievable, but the focus settles on Sam's dilemma -- should he go to his real family or remain with the adopted Father John Kapelos) who has loved and nurtured him most of his life.
At first, Vincent is a jerk because he's never known the love and attention lavished on Sam -- who moves back home and shows up his Big Brother in basketball for starters. But the bonding of the brothers is presented as the only hope to reconstructing a family long-ago torn asunder. The tough truth is Kapelos' character is such a decent bloke -- as shocked and devastated as the others by the turn of events -- that Sam's return is not necessarily permanent.
Keeping pace with Pfeiffer and Jackson, Merriman (HBO's "Lansky") is superb as the sad but precocious Sam. In one giddy scene, he leads a party group in the dance from "Zorba the Greek", but he also shines brightly in intensely emotional exchanges with his co-stars. Williams is solid as the father and husband caught in a nightmare that finally ends with a tidy, optimistic finale.
THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN
Columbia Pictures
Mandalay Entertainment presents
A Via Rosa production
Director: Ulu Grosbard
Screenwriter: Stephen Schiff
Based on the book by: Jacquelyn Mitchard
Producers: Kate Guinzberg, Steve Nicolaides
Executive producer: Frank Capra III
Director of photography: Stephen Goldblatt
Production designer: Dan Davis
Editor: John Bloom
Costume designer: Susie DeSanto
Music: Elmer Bernstein
Casting: Lora Kennedy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Beth: Michelle Pfeiffer
Pat: Treat Williams
Vincent: Jonathan Jackson
Sam/Ben: Ryan Merriman
Young Vincent: Cory Buck
George: John Kapelos
Candy: Whoopi Goldberg
Young Ben: Michael McElroy
Running time -- 108 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
One of the year's best-looking and most artistically ambitious films is also one of the toughest to warm up to. A chilly, emotionally potent but romantically constrained period drama starring Nicole Kidman, Jane Campion's "The Portrait of a Lady" will be a strong draw for women, but the Gramercy Pictures release needs major support from critics and strong word-of-mouth to overcome its limited appeal.
Based on Henry James' 1881 novel (first serialized in Atlantic Monthly), Campion's film boasts many fine performances and a largely faithful screenplay by Laura Jones, who collaborated with the director on the excellent "An Angel at My Table". But the tale of Isabel Archer (Kidman), a young American in 1870s Europe who makes a disastrous marriage choice, is frustratingly choppy and ultimately unsatisfying.
The problem is not in Campion's sharply focused filmmaking, and the casting could not be better. Kidman follows up her award-winning performance in "To Die For" with another superbly realized portrayal of a complex character. An uprooted American trapped by duplicitous expatriates, Isabel is a woman of means with an innocence that blinds her to the ulterior motives of one persuasive man and then binds her to him in a masochistic relationship. She is one of the great heroines of 19th-century literature.
But James' groundbreaking realism (for American authors) is painstakingly constructed and unfolds over hundreds of pages of dense prose. Campion and Jones struggle to find the compelling narrative needed for a work of audience-friendly cinema. Too often, such as when Isabel is wooed and won by the dilettantish American Osmond (John Malkovich), the story abruptly leaps forward.
Beyond her youth and naivete, why does strong-willed Isabel -- who in her own words refuses to "crawl" before any man -- get herself in such a sorry situation? For Campion there is no such question; that's the way it was back then. Osmond is a better catch on the surface than honorable Lord Warburton (Richard E. Grant) or persistent Goodwood (Viggo Mortensen).
The sickly cousin (Martin Donovan) who really cares for her is out of the running and inadvertently sets up her downfall by convincing his aged Father John Gielgud) to leave her a fortune in his will. The key figure is sophisticated Yank Serena (Barbara Hershey), an ambitious, mature woman who introduces Isabel to Osmond and sticks around suspiciously afterward -- for years.
And as the years go by, "The Portrait of a Lady" eventually zeroes in on the central tragedy of Isabel's mistake, resulting in several painful relevatory scenes and a final, wrenching epiphany. Malkovich, again playing a manipulative monster with a rotten soul, is in firm command of the situation. When his motives and abusive nature are made evident, the film unsettlingly reverberates a reality facing women then and now -- predatory, devious men of no use to the world and with no fortune of their own make for truly awful husbands.
Overall, this is a dark "Portrait", which is not an intrinsically fatal flaw. Campion's "The Piano" was similarly murky and yet never failed to engage one's interest. Despite marvelous cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh, splendid production and costume design by Janet Patterson and many evocative locations (from Rome to Florence to Salisbury in England), the film is distant, appealing to one's head but mostly failing to earn one's heartfelt sympathies for the long-suffering heroine.
THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY
Gramercy Pictures
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment presents
a Propaganda Films production
A film by Jane Campion
Director Jane Campion
Producers Monty Montgomery, Steve Golin
Screenplay Laura Jones
Based on the novel by Henry James
Co-producer Ann Wingate
Director of photography Stuart Dryburgh
Production and costume design Janet Patterson
Editor Veronika Jenet
Music Wojiech Kilar
Color/stereo
Cast:
Isabel Archer Nicole Kidman
Gilbert Osmond John Malkovich
Madame Serena Merle Barbara Hershey
Henrietta Stackpole Mary-Louise Parker
Ralph Touchett Martin Donovan
Mrs. Touchett Shelley Winters
Lord Warburton Richard E. Grant
Countess Gemini Shelley Duvall
Running time -- 145 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Based on Henry James' 1881 novel (first serialized in Atlantic Monthly), Campion's film boasts many fine performances and a largely faithful screenplay by Laura Jones, who collaborated with the director on the excellent "An Angel at My Table". But the tale of Isabel Archer (Kidman), a young American in 1870s Europe who makes a disastrous marriage choice, is frustratingly choppy and ultimately unsatisfying.
The problem is not in Campion's sharply focused filmmaking, and the casting could not be better. Kidman follows up her award-winning performance in "To Die For" with another superbly realized portrayal of a complex character. An uprooted American trapped by duplicitous expatriates, Isabel is a woman of means with an innocence that blinds her to the ulterior motives of one persuasive man and then binds her to him in a masochistic relationship. She is one of the great heroines of 19th-century literature.
But James' groundbreaking realism (for American authors) is painstakingly constructed and unfolds over hundreds of pages of dense prose. Campion and Jones struggle to find the compelling narrative needed for a work of audience-friendly cinema. Too often, such as when Isabel is wooed and won by the dilettantish American Osmond (John Malkovich), the story abruptly leaps forward.
Beyond her youth and naivete, why does strong-willed Isabel -- who in her own words refuses to "crawl" before any man -- get herself in such a sorry situation? For Campion there is no such question; that's the way it was back then. Osmond is a better catch on the surface than honorable Lord Warburton (Richard E. Grant) or persistent Goodwood (Viggo Mortensen).
The sickly cousin (Martin Donovan) who really cares for her is out of the running and inadvertently sets up her downfall by convincing his aged Father John Gielgud) to leave her a fortune in his will. The key figure is sophisticated Yank Serena (Barbara Hershey), an ambitious, mature woman who introduces Isabel to Osmond and sticks around suspiciously afterward -- for years.
And as the years go by, "The Portrait of a Lady" eventually zeroes in on the central tragedy of Isabel's mistake, resulting in several painful relevatory scenes and a final, wrenching epiphany. Malkovich, again playing a manipulative monster with a rotten soul, is in firm command of the situation. When his motives and abusive nature are made evident, the film unsettlingly reverberates a reality facing women then and now -- predatory, devious men of no use to the world and with no fortune of their own make for truly awful husbands.
Overall, this is a dark "Portrait", which is not an intrinsically fatal flaw. Campion's "The Piano" was similarly murky and yet never failed to engage one's interest. Despite marvelous cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh, splendid production and costume design by Janet Patterson and many evocative locations (from Rome to Florence to Salisbury in England), the film is distant, appealing to one's head but mostly failing to earn one's heartfelt sympathies for the long-suffering heroine.
THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY
Gramercy Pictures
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment presents
a Propaganda Films production
A film by Jane Campion
Director Jane Campion
Producers Monty Montgomery, Steve Golin
Screenplay Laura Jones
Based on the novel by Henry James
Co-producer Ann Wingate
Director of photography Stuart Dryburgh
Production and costume design Janet Patterson
Editor Veronika Jenet
Music Wojiech Kilar
Color/stereo
Cast:
Isabel Archer Nicole Kidman
Gilbert Osmond John Malkovich
Madame Serena Merle Barbara Hershey
Henrietta Stackpole Mary-Louise Parker
Ralph Touchett Martin Donovan
Mrs. Touchett Shelley Winters
Lord Warburton Richard E. Grant
Countess Gemini Shelley Duvall
Running time -- 145 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 12/23/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.