'Heavenly Creatures' ... See what landed heretofore cult director Peter Jackson his cush job with "The Lord of the Rings." At Michigan Theater. 7 p.m. michigandaily.com /arts S MONDAY APRIL 8, 2002 Denvative 'High gi { Crimes' By Jenny ltes Daily Arts Writer "High Crimes" is far from impr strangely, it is difficult to poin makes it feel so awkward. The film essarily predictable because the scr esting enough to keep you hooked about what will happen next, but what dry and lacks energy. Any po film may have seems to come fron tor's sense of timing and scene tra from the dialogue or even the actio that director Carl Franklin can pt somewhat baffling - and one can' the film survives because it has de ing or just good manipulation of characters, which can then hope- fully turn a typical thriller/drama into an engaging story. Neverthe- less, the overall feel of the film is pure mediocrity. The story is about Claire Kubick (Ashley Judd), a defense attorney who is married to former Marine Tom Kubick (James Caviezel). When Tom is tracked down by the military and put in prison because of a first-degree murder charge, Cla the case in defense of her husband learns, however, that her husband Marine duties are a mystery, and sh with her doubt and confusion over story that Tom had killed nine innoci in El Salvador. Although Claire fee she believes he didn't do it. With the that she is in over her head trying the unfamiliar territory of military seeks out expert attorney Charles Gr gan Freeman). Grimes, however, is n sputters expected- he's a recovering alcoholic teetering on the brink ressive, but of relapse, and Claire n t out what finds his seeminglyF is not nec- lackadaisical outlook s ipt is inter- distracting. Neverthe- and curious less, they work well it is some- together, and they wer that the continue fighting for n the direc- her husband's free- nsition, not dom. n. The fact Judd and Freeman" ull it off is do excellent jobs when 't be sure if looked at individually; Azeem, trying to get Naom cent direct- but, the chemistry between their characters and the development of their relationship seems forced and unnatural. On that note, any chemistry between any of the characters in the film HIGH CRIMES fails. This is due to some poor act- ing on Caviezel's part. He, lacks At Showcase and energy and believability, and his Quality 16 constant stoic attitude is annoy- Paramount ing,and completely ineffective. For Judd and Freeman, however, the awkwardness with their roles lies ire takes on in the fact that the script paid little attention to d. She soon character development and too much attention 's past and to plot. The plot feels overworked, while the e must deal characters and their motivations are ignored. the alleged For example, there is no mention as to why ent civilians Grimes even decided to help Claire with the Is doubtful, case, and Tom is surprisingly complacent while e realization in prison. Although further developments of the the case, in story explain a lot more about Tom's past and court, she why he acts the way he does, this is not rimes (Mor- explained through his words or emotion. It has lot what she to be assumed through flashback scenes and Ben Marcus pens life less ordinary, not really his own By Katie Cloud Daily Arts Writer Imagine having a distant mother con- ditioned in the extreme ideology of a silent cult. Imagine having a father buried alive in order to instrument a ing of 'fiction'. In a recent interview, Marcus dis- closed his inspirations for writing the text as well as his views toward the paradoxes in canonization. He admitted that his childhood was very pleasant and his family was very loving. It was Courtesy of 20th Century Fox i's sister to remake "Kiss the Girls." side references. For being such a central charac- ter, Caviezel is hidden in the shadows. Rather, Grimes' alcohol habits are constantly alluded to as if this is just as big of a problem. However, simply showing Grimes as a worn-out man, bur- dened by age, is insufficient, and it does little to strengthen his relationship with Claire and their work on the case. "High Crimes" is cooked up to be something intriguing, but it is really just arranged in a way that merely appears interesting. It is almost as if you are tricked into thinking that you are seeing a great story develop. Similar to a mystery novel, the film can be enjoyed because of its entertainment and not necessarily its substantive worth. All the ingredients of a great film are there, however, so it's a shame that the filmmak- ers couldn't try harder to fully develop the film as a whole. With a deeper exploration of the characters and dialogue, which are necessary to delivering the story just as much as the plot is, "'High Crimes" would be much more success- ful. The makers just seemed to lose sight of what was important. traumatic experience in your life. Imagine exist- ing as an experiment, as a "plan", for an emotion removal operation. Imag- ine Ben Marcus. "Indeed, I herewith ask all readers, once they have absorbed and stud- ied my remarks, and then 1" v I 1' w I BEN MARCUS At Shaman Drum Bookshop Tonight at 7 p.m. this precise picture of family unity that drove Marcus to develop such a dark, satirical piece of lit- erature. He said, "I want- ed to write the opposite of my life." Marcus admits that his use of a rather "tepid" title was indispensable to _ LL_, ,,,,, ... m ,:. _ _ _ w,. 'Monsoon' rains sorrow, delight on viewers Todd Weiser Daily Arts Writer An unusual fact that most movie- goers are not aware of is that India has the largest film industry in the world. India sometimes puts out 1000 films a year. But despite their incredible production, Mor as foreigners, we do not WEI often have a large num- ber of Indian films At Michi playing in American Film Co theaters. The term for- o eign film has an all- too-negative connotation to many Americans who dread subtitles and foreign cultures. "Monsoon Wed- ding" is most likely the easiest for- eign film in recent memory for foreign-movie haters to enjoy. More than a highly enjoyable, romantic film, it's mixture of Indian and American cultures, most obvious in its use of both Hindi and English, make the film much more accessible to American viewers. "Monsoon Wedding" is, of course, about a wedding. And yes, it will rain during it as well. Their respective parents have arranged a marriage for Aditi Verma (Vasund- hara Das) to Hemant Rai (Parvin Dabas), an Indian-American who lives in Houston. It is engineered for the two to meet one day and be mar- ried only a few days later. Hemant is nervous and excited. Aditi does not want to go through with it; this feel- ing is mostly based on her ongoing affair with a married Indian TV per- sonality (Sameer Arya). The wedding and the events lead- ing up to it are the background for a whole lot of family quarrels and much romance as well. Aditi's father, Lalit (Naseeruddin Shah) NSOON L)DING has a lot on his mind. Not only must he make sure the wedding is perfectly laid out, but he also worries about the kick in his wallet this wedding is giving him. His wor- ries grow when a niece of his starts throwing accusations at a well- respected uncle. transcribed them as an exemplary cau- tion against the treason of children, to forgo whatever follows in this book, all of it certainly folly, I assure you, and burn the thing to cinders with the great- est haste. Bring a hard fire upon it, please, and see it all as an aberration prosecuted by a disease called 'Ben Marcus"', so says Michael Marcus, father of Ben Marcus. Ben Marcus' "Notable American Women" is not real. It is not a history commemorating the progressions and achievements of known, and/or perhaps unknown, American women. It is fic- tion in the most ironic sense of the word. It is the imagined history of author Ben Marcus and what his life would have been like had he been despised and resented by his father ,while used as a testing animal by his mother and other various women in an erratic cult under Jane Dark. Marcus collects the happy memories of his true childhood and creates their antitheses. In turn, one cannot read "Notable American Women" expecting a trans- gression from introductory beginning to a crowning end. The text does not unfold, suspend, climax and culminate. It simply invites its readers to embody an imagined world as a reality. Therefore, one must inject him/herself into "Notable Ameri- can Women" and oppose the natural tendencies to separate the real and the imagined. The novel begins with the reproach of Ben Marcus by his father. Readers are shocked, possibly repulsed, con- fused and yet instantly captivated. The novel then proceeds to unravel the bizarre and inhumane elements of an Ohio women's cult, the Silentists, that focused on experiments ranging from emotion-removal operations, person- blocking strategies (p.b.s.) and the Ohio Lovemaking Stratagem to the Thomp- son Food Scheme and the Female Head Liberation System (FLUSH). Evidently, the novel is not without humor. Marcus describes what books would consist of in a perfect world. "Good books would offer characters with sparse, tear-away clothing and touch- able bodies, sweet faces ... just the most perfect kinds of people." More- over are his descriptions of the "Women's Pantomime". "More and more women, during moments of doubt and confusion, will be pausing in their daily affairs to mime a personalized moment of intercourse, however strenu- ous and interruptive ... and thus recover their courage to move about in the world." The novel is an original innova- tion of parody that redefines the meqg- the story. He wanted to write a satire on the extremities of cult and philosophy, mostly that of Pantheism, Stoicism and Quietism, while at the same time con- tradicting the traditional subjects of American notoriety and acknowledge- ment. He described the various annals of "notable" women as a "scholarship based on bias that, in retrospect, is laughable" since they are mostly written from the authoritative perspectives of men. In this regard, it is evident why "Notable American Women" is some- what of a disparity in traditional literary canons. The text illustrates that reality is only fully present in immediate action, and every subsequent moment, thus, contains an element of fiction. There- fore, the only truth in the novel is emo- tion and this is magnified by the novel's focus of emotion removal. Ben Marcus, the author, studied phi- losophy as an undergraduate at New York University. He received his M.FA. at Brown University and is currently an assistant professor in the graduate writ ing program at Columbia University. His achievements include, but are not limited to, a published book of stories, "The Age of Wire and String", the Whiting Writers Award, a NEA in fic- tion and two Pushcart Prizes. He is an editor of fiction for "Fence" magazine and has reviewed books and essays for "Time", "Feed", "The Village Voice" and "Solan". He began writing "Notable American Women" nearly six years ago and finally introduced the addictive myth to public audiences with its publication in March 2002. Ben Marcus will be visiting Ann Arbor tonight at Shaman Drum. His reading from "Notable American Women" will begin at 7 p.m. and will involve an "emotion removal opera- tion". The evening promises to be an ener- gized, humorous and greatly surprising. gan Theater mpany Here The romance, which will give every audience member a little glow in his or her heart, is spread all around. The love between Lalit and his wife is deep, complex and long lasting; the budding love of Aditi and Hemant is innocent, bud- ding and full of passion. Many other prospective couples surround this world, but the most entertaining and humorous is that of the wed- ding planner, Dube (Vijay Raaz) and the beautiful Alice (Tilotama Shome). Dube is first portrayed as a helpless, flower-eating joke. But with his love, the audience sees Dube as a real person and probably wishes good things upon him more than the main character Aditi (no offense to her romantic courting). With this movie, Mira Nair became the first woman director to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and it is well deserved. Despite the vast cast of characters, they never seem strange or out of place. Also, the musical Courtesy of USA Films Surprise! We arranged your wedding! It is just what you always wanted. sequences, while not the usual Bol- lywood musical set pieces, are well placed and become significant and charming given their place in the structure of the story. One of Nair's best uses of music is the playing of a Mohammad Rafi song early on in the film. Rafi, whose music was featured in the opening credits of Terry Zwigoff's "Ghost World," has a voice than can communicate so much without knowledge of his actual diction. Nair does not pro- vide subtitles to his song, but the mood is set in a subtle, rhythmic way. The drama in "Monsoon Wed- ding" sometimes turns into melo- drama, and the frequent comedy makes it a little difficult to endure the draining, emotional conversa- tions that take place. However, in the end, the beautiful wedding hap- pens and the good time being enjoyed by the characters on the screen takes over the world of each viewer. If you walk out of the theater without a smile on your face, then yo# must have a secret fear of water that needs to be treated immediate- ly. The monsoon rush of emotion at the end of "Monsoon Wedding" is one of joy and love for life, and the love life holds. i , t *4.as Lit i i r4-