SIN Entertainment
'The Portrait Of A Lady"
Everyone Says I Love You is set
in New York City and features
a diverse ensemble cast, includ-
or anyone at all familiar with ing Alan Alda, Goldie Hawn, Ju-
the work of Woody Allen, it lia Roberts, Drew Barrymore,
should not come as a total Edward Norton (from The Peo-
surprise that his latest film ple Vs. Larry Flynt), Itzhak Perl-
is a musical. Music has
man and, of course, Allen
always played a promi-
himself. While stalwarts
MOVIES
nent role in Woody's
like Alda and Hawn fit
films, affecting the mood
naturally within Woody's
and meaning of a given scene as neurotic universe, even more
much as the actors, lighting and satisfying is Allen's knack for
location. Given his past utiliza- coaxing engaging performances
tion of tunes by George Gersh- out of ordinary talent. For ex-
win, Cole Porter and Louis ample, in the abstract, it is dif-
Armstrong and his recent use of ficult to imagine Drew
a chorus to reflect and fore- Barrymore blending into the
shadow in Mighty Aphrodite, Woody Allen nervous operandi;
Everyone Says I Love You real- but, surprisingly, Barrymore
ly is the logical next chapter for comes across more lovely and
Woody's collective body of work. likable than ever before. The
As with most of Woody's films, same can be said for Julia
Roberts. And Woody? He's, well,
Richard Halprin practices law
Woody, more likable than love-
when he isn't watching movies.
ly.
PH OTO BY JOHN CLIFFORD
Rated R
But enough with the opening
accolades. What is this musical
about? In a nutshell, passion, fi-
delity, morality and mortality.
In other words, the same issues
that Woody Allen ponders in all
of his films. And, alas, therein
lies the problem. Twenty years
ago, Woody's bumbling misfit
had an endearing quality that
women found cute and men
could either relate to or laugh at.
These days, Woody is on the up-
per rungs of middle age and that
same inept character doesn't
seem quite as amusing as before,
more pathetic than sympathet-
ic.
That is not to say that the film
lacks humor overall, and some
of the funniest sequences
do involve Allen using the
world as a banana peel. But at
the same time you can't help
wish the Woody Allen persona
would show a little personal
growth.
So, is Woody Allen, the film-
maker, in a rut? Infidels would
argue that he has been in a rut
for his entire 26-film career, with
nothing new to say and so he's
singing it instead. For those who
feel like Woody is akin to a fam-
ily member who visits once a
year or so, Everyone Says I Love
You is funny business as usu-
al.
,
(t
Q) *
— Richard Halprin
*Woody loses a half bagel for
singing and for asking us to be-
lieve that he and Julia Roberts
could be lovers. Icky!
Drew Barrymore and Ed Norton are in tune in Everyone Says I Love You.
In lieu of interior monologues
which are central to the novel,
Campion makes liberal use of
as Isabel Archer this trag- double images, grainy slow-mo-
ic of a heroine in Henry tion shots and freeze-frames of
James' The Portrait of a Isab.ers face or the swishing hem
Lady? Jamesian scholars of her dress as she runs away
have apparently taken umbrage from yet another marriage pro-
at this portrayal of a single Amer- posal — devices that draw us al-
ican girl abroad who becomes most violently inside the
heir to her uncle's fortune, be- character's psyche. She drops one
lieving it a feminist subversion
montage in the middle of the
of the novel's true inten-
film, before Isabel finally
tions.
marries, in which a frown-
MOVIES
But contemporary
ing young woman rides a
audiences might feel more •
camel near the pyramids
comfortable with this Isabel with the woman (Barbara Her-
Archer, who has a lot more com- shey) who inadvertently becomes
plexity and resonance than the her nemesis. World travel is not
original. Director Jane Campi- all it's cracked up to be? Isabel
on's stark intepretation turns Is- only wants to be in the arms of
the man she loves?
Perhaps the latter. Portrait
opens with the voices of women
chatting about the intimacy and
the beauty of a kiss, and then
lights on images of young mod-
ern women dancing, braiding
each other's hair and lying beat-
ifically in the grass. Campion
right away draws the parallel be-
tween their innocence and pas-
sion and Isabel's, showing us hers
is no ordinary adaptation of a
19th-century literary work.
Indeed, early on in the film, af-
ter rejecting her first suitor, Is-
abel fantasizes about three men
caressing and kissing her in her
bed. She later marries Gilbert
Osmond (John Malkovich), a
Svengali who lures her into mat-
rimony with a kiss. Even after he
hits her and her tears soak her
cheeks, there is a frisson of sex-
Nicole Kidman in Jane Campion's The
ual passion as she passes him on
Portrait of a Lady.
her way out the door.
But much about Isabel's ac-
abel (Nicole Kidman) from an tions are left to the viewer to
openhearted sophisticate to a judge. Like any finely drawn por-
full-bodied human being—frag- trait, what lies behind the face is
ile, callous, coquettish, loving, a glorious mystery.
worldly — rebelling against so-
cietal conventions while she
searches for her own soul. This
— Julie Edgar
version concerns itself with the
desires of women, and the con-
current punishment they endure
to fulfill them.
As in the Oscar-winning The
Piano, Campion's last portrayal
of a woman's journey of self-dis-
covery, Portrait is shot in darkly
sensuous hues that heighten the
tension and add a compelling lush-
ness to the landscape. The story
is set in England and Italy, where
the visual murkiness is caused by
either incessant rain or the baro-
queness of decaying splendor.
Rated PG-13
W
PHOTO BY JUERGEN TELLER
'Everyone Says I Love You'
® 00
The fact that she's on a pilot-
less plane with a storm brewing
outside is an additional source of
discomfort. Flying instructions
via the radio of pilot Sam Bow-
den (Ben Cross) prove the sole
glimmer of hope amidst the
Weaver-wrought chaos.
As he demonstrated several
years ago in Scorcese's Goodfel-
las , Ray Liotta has a knack for
the thee-guy killer role. In Tur-
bulence, he emphasizes both —
but primarily the latter — ex-
tremes as a very energized and
impressively loud individual, and
without a doubt, the thriller's
most striking moments occur
when he pushes Weaver's insan-
ity to the forefront. Lauren Hol-
ly is up to the action, and looks
good even with gore smeared all
over her face.
Ultimately, it's not the crew
but engine failure that proves the
film's weakness. The all-out
adrenaline pumping madness
upon which Turbulence thrives
shows up in sporadic spurts and
peters out sans a suitable climax.
In other words, cabin pressure is
lost just a bit too quickly.
And since this flight doesn't
even include frequent-flyer miles,
there's probably a better bargain
for your money.
0 Q)
—Dan Zimmerman
Bagel Barometer
Outstanding
Very Good
Q)
Good
Fair
Julie Edgar is senior writer at
The Jewish News.