STN Entertainment

'Kolya'

COU RTESY OF MIF1AMM FILMS

'Hotel de Love'

Jan Sverak directed his father, Zdenek Sverak, left, who wrote the screenplay and starred in Kolya.

Rated PG-13

music lessons and touching up the
inscriptions on headstones with
lthough it already has won gold paint.
prizes at the Golden Globe
When not hustling for work, the
Awards and the Tokyo In- marriage-shy Louka hustles
ternational Film Festival, women, from young music stu-
and has a shot at an Academy dents to married women, includ-
Award for Best Foreign Film, Jan ing Klara (Libuse Safrankova),
Sverak's Kolya is a mostly hack- who sings at the crematorium ser-
neyed cross between The Un- vices (in the film's opening scene,
bearable Lightness of Being, Green Louka lifts her skirt with his bow
Card and Three Men and a Baby. while she's in the middle of "The
Although not really a bad film, it Lord's Prayer").
is obvious and uninspired.
To reduce his debts, Louka
Set in 1988 Prague (about a agrees to marry Nadezda (Irena
year before the "Velvet Revolu- Livanova), a pretty young Russ-
tion" ended the Soviet occupation), ian who wants Czech papers and
Kolya focuses on Frantisek Lou- is willing to pay for that privilege.
ka (Zdenek Sverak, the di-
But even before immi-
rector's father and the
gration gets around to
MOVIES
screenwriter), an impover-
checking up on their
ished ex-filharmonie cellist
sham marriage, Nadez-
and confirmed bachelor. Kicked da escapes to the West, leaving
out of the orchestra for offending Louka to take care of Kolya (An-
a government bureaucrat, Lou- dre] Chalimon), her 6-year-old son.
ka's reduced to playing funeral
Now the film turns to all of the
services at a crematorium, giving usual bachelor-and-child movie
cliches: Louka loses Kolya on the
train; Kolya walks in when Lou-
Stephen Bitsoli is the former
ka's with a girl; Kolya gets sick.
entertainment editor of Detroit
Plus, these situations are compli-
Monthly magazine.

A

cated by their different
languages, Louka's
Eti-Russian feelings
and the threat of ar-
rest or separation by
the authorities.
Sverak the elder
has little screen
charisma, and his
Louka evokes little
sympathy until the
movie's half over.
Chalifnon seems nat-
ural enough as Kolya,
but 6-year-olds just
aren't great actors.
In the end, only a
few scenes stand out.
The best is when
Kolya, having seen
several cremations
with Louka, re-enacts
one using a toy stage, shoe box
and puppet. It's amusing, dis-
turbing and definitely not cliched.
There should have been more
such moments.

— Stephen Bitsoli

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Rated R

Bossell creates a lovable char-
acter of a man desperate for any
t once was the job of the Eng- sort of emotional connection.
lish to provide us with small, His "hit and run" I-love-yous
quirky, likable films. In the to Melissa as he follows her
past few years, though, with throughout the hotel, unable to
the release of movies like utter anything but those three
Muriel's Wedding, Priscilla, well-rehearsed words, ring
Queen of the Desert and now, hilariously true for anyone
Hotel de Love, the Australians who has ever experienced unre-
seem to have taken up that task quited love. Aden Young and
with a vengeance.
Saffron Burrows are also en-
With sweet humor and a gen- dearing as Rick and Melissa,
tle tone, first-time director and bickering and wooing with grace
screenwriter Craig Rosen-
and style.
berg puts his own
Hotel de Love exudes
MOVIES
unique stamp on the
a graceful goofiness as it
age-old tale of two broth-
examines that often in-
ers in love with the same girl. As comprehensible emotion called
teen-agers, Rick and Stephen love. Using a hotel as the film's
meet Melissa at a party and are setting and a cast of characters
both instantly captivated. Rick that includes families, hopeless
wins Melissa's heart, enjoying a romantics, couples just getting
magical summer romance, while started and couples on the verge
Stephen pines silently, desper- of breaking up, Rosenberg found
ate to tell her his true feelings.
the perfect way to look at love in
Ten years later, Stephen is a all its different guises. From the
• successful but lonely stockbro- romantic to the cynical, the log-
ker who still loves Melissa. Rick ical to the familial, love is put

I

Aden Young (Rick) and Saffron Burrows (Melissa) play old high-school sweethearts
who are reunited in the Australian film Hotel de Love.

has become the cynical manag-
er of the cheerfully tacky Hotel
de Love, a tourist trap for lovers,
boasting such gaudy wonders as
a 3-foot-tall waterfall called Ni-
agara Smalls. The old competi-
tion begins again when Melissa
and her fiance unexpectedly
turn up at Hotel de Love and the
brothers find a woman not re-
motely interested in revisiting
the past.
As the hyperactive and un-
gainly brother Stephen, Simon

under the microscope and tak-
en apart piece by piece.
Yet, despite the serious
undertones of its themes and
situations, Hotel de Love never
loses sight of its desire to enter-
tain, and that is what makes it
work.
Rosenberg knows this is not
great art. But it is a good movie
— funny, sweet, unpretentious
and a very pleasant way to
spend an evening.

112

Liz Lent is an avid moviegoer.

— Liz Lent