0 MARCH 1988 Life and Art
U. THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER 15
MARH 188 Lie nd rt . T E N TINALCOLE(~" N A1%F 1 I
M OVIE R EVIEWS
'Sammy and Rosie':
London s new cult flick
By Richard Weis
The Daily Targum
Rutgers U., NJ
Writer Hanif Kureishi and director
Stephen Frears, who collaborated on
My Beautiful Laundrette, have done it
again. Like their previous effort, Sam-
my and Rosie Get Laid is set in the exo-
tic slums of Margaret Thatcher's Lon-
don and brings up issues of class, race
and sex; treating each with equal con-
cern and wit. A number of provocative
1 questions are asked and no easy
answers offered.
The film opens with Sammy's father Europe."
Rafi's (Shashi Kapoor) unexpected The film is richly textured-winning
arrival. The couple could handle this characters keep turning up. And none
invasion if Rafi wasn't notorious as the more than Danny (Roland Gift, lead sin-
formerly influential leader of a fascist ger of The Fine Young Cannibals), a
regime. Though Rafi's torturing youngblack squatter who has admired
methods are well-documented, Sammy Rosie from a distance and is delighted to
can't be reconciled to his father's crimes. find that she is "downwardly mobile."
Rosie has a slightly easier time of it Sammy and Rosie Get Laid is perfect-
which makes for something less than ly cast. Din and Barber have a way of
marital bliss. Though it actually seems fleshing out Sammy and Rosie's feelings
their relationship was a bit strained be- with the slightest gestures, and Kapoor
fore Rafi entered the picture. manages to make Rafi, despite his arro-
The marriage is based on "freedom gance and probable atrocities, the most
plus-commitment," but Sammy clearly sympathetic character in the film. And
wants Rosie for himself and looks abso- Gift's Danny has a sly, comic side that
lutely forlorn when she goes out to meet takes you by surprise. The film is a
her boyfriend. Sammy has a lover too- knockout. When it's over, you'll know
an American photographer who is that you've seen something that you've
trying to capture "images of a decaying never seen before.
The slums, full of squatters-some
rioters, some musicians, some both-
are volatile, incendiary and seductive.
This is a natural niche for Rosie
(Frances Barber), a liberal, young Brit
and social worker. Though Sammy
(Ayub Khan Din), her Pakistani lawyer
husband, isn't quite as devoted to their
working class neighbors.
Ireland only casualty
in Huston's 'The Dead'
By Erik Reece
Kentucky Kernel
U. of Kentucky
For an audience that thought it was
preparing to see the latest teen-slasher
pulp, John Huston's The Dead is an
understandable disappointment. The
movie stays painfully true to James
Joyce's short story, which portrays one
woman's remembrance of a dead lover.
The story is the last in the collection
Dubliners, which paints the slow
metaphorical death of Ireland.
Argued by many to be the best short
tory ever Written, The Dead is meticu-
lous in its pacing, Joyce being a master
of lyrical cadence. The scenes take place
on the day of Epiphany, 1904, in Ire-
land. Two elderly aunts and a niece are
holding a dinner party for their closest
friends, full of waltzing and idle chatter.
Gabriel (Donal McCann), a guest at
the dinner party and the film's narra-
tor, is the archetypal narcissist, strug-
ling against self-doubt to secure his
wn social identity. He is constantly
seen fidgeting with preparatory notes
for a post-dinner speech.
The irony of this is that Gabriel, the
word man, is unable to communicate
with his wife, Gretta (Angelica Huston).
This tense dichotomy is implanted ear-
ly, culminating in a shattering of Gab-
riel's misconception that he is the most
important element in his wife's life.
Gabriel learns that when Gretta was
a teenager, a sick young boy lost his life
trying to see her before she left for a
convent education. It is a passion Gab-
riel understands, but one he himself
cannot muster. While Gabriel can ar-
ticulate his observations, he is unable to
conceive of the passion that consumes
his wife.
Running about 80 minutes, The Dead
concentrates on one pivotal incident in a
P arriage that gives the relationship an
unrecognizable turn.
The Dead, if nothing else, succeeds in
throwing a chink in the chain of formu-
laic romantic thrillers and romantic
comedies that Hollywood is presently
churning out like packaged luncheon
meat. Instead, The Dead immerses it-
self in poetic nuance. It is a quiet
farewell from an American film legend.