PHOTO BY DEBORAH R. KI NGE RY
spies the Boucher-Fragonard-like set of
pastel flowering shrubs, a wooden swing
on long party-garland rope and columns
capped by scrolled capitals. Bravo to
Christopher Carothers for eloquent set de-
sign.
Yet, despite valiant efforts by the tal-
ented cast, the effort at creating a styl-
ish and charming historical bon-bon
stumbles. Partly, perhaps, due to the
translation; I don't know the French, but
the English sounds flat-footed: "Six of one,
half dozen of the other," says one charac-
ter. Language is action and here it is rou-
tine; prose can be passionate, here it is
limp.
Still, though there are moments when
Antoinette Doherty as Lisa or Karl Kip-
pola as Trivet seem about to let fly and be-
gin to sing — figuratively — nothing quite
catches fire. The director, Robert Emmett
McGill, has been clever — his freeze
frames at act opening and end, with good
lighting from Donald Robert Fox, are quite
lovely.
But, I'm sorry to say, Mr. Marivaux's
charmboat seems to sink under the weight
of its prose and a generalized niceness of
acting, which, with a few exceptions, is
bland, bland, bland. Robin's and the
prince's wigs are the essence of a bad hair
day and the very nice costumes and shoes
are by Mary Leyendecker.
qt)t-
The Double Infidelityis a romantic tale of those who underestimate the
power of love, now playing in rotating repertory at Hilberry Theatre.
- Michael H. Margolin
'Bed of Roses'
Rated PG
ingy. Drab. Bed of
Roses has as
much color as the
heroine's favorite
flower, the Sterling
Rose, a breed with a
dull, gray color. Smart-
aleck Christian Slater is
cast as Lewis, proprietor
of a flower shop, who
takes a stab at love with
Lisa (Mary Stuart Mas-
terson), an investment
banker.
If this is a modern
New York love story,
then romance in the Big
Apple is doomed. These
characters lead such
empty existences that
for excitement they go to
children's story hour at
the public library. Ex- Mary Stuart Masterson and Christian Slater star in the
cuse me, but has Broad- storybook romance Bed of Roses.
way gotten that bad?
bizarre ... decadent" although
Lisa's ugly duckling friend they never show us any behavior
Kim (Pamela Segall), who gets that remotely resembles those
the best laugh in the film by de- adjectives. Maybe banal, boring
scribing herself as a Jewish elf, and pedestrian would be more
describes T Asa's stock-
appropriate.
broker beau as "Cap-
Lisa; as it turns out, is har-
MOVIES
tain Thoughtful ...
boring a terrible secret
about as romantic as
(Warning: read no further if you
a night light." Such is the miser- don't want to know). She was
able state of metaphoric language abandoned at an airport when
in this dismal relationship film. she was 3 months old; she doesn't
The characters are given to de- know who her real parents are.
scribing their lives as "strange, Her only relation, Stanley
Krasne, her adoptive fa-
ther, has died as the
movie begins.
Prior to the start of
the film, Lewis has gone
the investment banker
route and found it un-
satisfying. He's discov-
ered the secret life of
plants and the secret of
happiness, albeit alone.
Which strikes me as
oddly uncharacteristic
when one considers the
genuinely loving ex-
tended family Lewis is
from. This leads Lisa to
her major crisis: How
can she relate to his
family if she's never
known one? What a
trauma.
Fortunately, her dear
friend Kim has written
a play to be performed
by grade-schoolers. In it
a princess learns, "It's easy to
stay in a dream. No one ever gets
hurt ... but no one can love you ei-
ther." Well, hit me over the head
with a croquet mallet and call me
cured. These pseudo-yuppie
dropouts lead lives devoid of cul-
ture and meaning. You'd do bet-
ter to rent Crossing Delancey.
Sam the Pickle Man is Sir Gala-
had next to Lewis the Flower
Man.
1 /2
—Dick Rockwell
'Big Bully'
middle-school shop teacher.
Rated PG
Known as Fang in his youth,
he 1980s will always be re-
membered as the film Bigger has been transformed by
decade of the nerd. Every- his time in a reformatory into a
one remembers The Re- weak shadow of his former self.
venge of the Nerds trilogy, But with Leary back in town,
revolutionary in its glorification Fang is revitalized, and the one-
of those members of society who sided rivalry, in which Fang
have traditionally comprised its makes Leary's life a living hell,
armpit. The late '80s was a peri- is renewed. Adding to the irony
od when nerds particularly (thin irony) is the fact that the
thrived — and also when the de- men have sons, each the opposite
finitive nerd torch bearer reached of his respective father. Leary's
his heyday on the silver screen. son, Ben (Blake Bashoff), bullies
Fang's son, Kirby (Cody Mc-
The man: Rick Moranis.
Always lovable, always Mains).
While it may be based on a
pitiable and always nerdy,
Moranis gained more audience cute, workable plot, Big Bully is
surprisingly tedious,
appeal than any nerd in
starting out so slowly
history by appearing as
MOVIES
that it loses the audience
a protagonist in a num-
early and for good. Even a
ber of successful films —
including Little Shop OfHorrors decent performance by Tom
and Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. Arnold, who manages to seem
genuinely evil, fa ils to salvage the
The list goes on and on.
But, alas, we are well into the film. Also appearing are Don
'90s, and the years have taken Knotts, as the school principal;
their toll. Moranis' latest movie, Julianne Phillips, as Leary's love
Big Bully, is essentially an obit- interest; and Curtis Armstrong
uary — the age of the nerd is (Booger in Revenge of the Nerds)
as a biology teacher. Armstrong,
over.
In Big Bully, directed by Steve a graduate of Berkley High
Miner and written by Mark School, proves by his lackluster
Steven Johnson, Moranis has performance that he is yet an-
less audience appeal than (and I other nerd wash-up.
OK, so Big Bully is a film fail-
cringe) Tom Arnold. Still a nerd,
Moranis is now middle-aged, and ure. But I do recommend it for
boring, as David Leary, an au- certain people. For instance, if
thor who returns to his childhood you're stressed for time but need
town to teach a middle-school more than a few hours to relax,
writing class. Somewhat of a lo- then Big Bully may be just what
cal hero, Leary quickly encoun- you're looking for. The movie is
ters the ghost of his tormented so mundane, it makes an hour
past — namely the bully who and a half seem like five.
made his formative years a liv-
ing hell: Roscoe Bigger (Tom
—Dan Zimmerman
Arnold) who, it so happens, is the
Rick Moranis and Tom Arnold star in the new comedy Big Bully.