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AR s
Monday
April 30, 2001
Clever cast makes
'One Night' memorable
Placebo, Idlewild
rock Detroit tonigi
By Mandy Taylor
For the Daily
"Everywhere you go, there's a dead
guy," states Randy (Matt Dillon), the
bartender at
X: v McCool's bar. This
..: somewhat
One Night at describes the scene
McCool's when Jewel (Liv
Tyler) is around.
Grade: B She is a woman
At Showcase, Quality
6and State who starts manipu-
lating men from
the moment she
enters the movie,
yanked out of a
supposed-attack-
er's car by Randy.
Pretending to be a victim of an
attempted rape, Jewel lies her way into
Randy's home and bed. While there,
she reveals that she and her boyfriend
feign fights on a regular basis so she
can get into an unsuspecting man's
house, wait for her boyfriend to come,
and the two will steal everything.
The real trouble begins when Jewel's
boyfriend Utah (one of two roles played
by Andrew Silverstein, a.k.a. Andrew
Dice Clay) shows up and demands they
return to the bar to get into the safe.
While there, Jewel kills Utah because
she actually likes Randy, an event that
.n - met .u nbort .l :- ;"t - m -r
Detective Dehling (John Goodman)
arrives at the scene to investigate, and
Carl (Paul Reiser) reveals to his thera-
pist (Reba McEntire) that he saw the
feigned fight that brought Randy and
Jewel together. Every principle man in
the movie is completely seduced by
Jewel's beauty and sexuality, and she
manages to manipulate each to get what
she wants: The old American dream of
owning one's own home.
The various perspectives in the story-
line form the different plots. Each story
has a different narrator - Randy tells
the hitman he has hired to kill Jewel
(Michael Douglas), Dehling tells his
priest (who also is seduced by Jewel)
and Carl tells his therapist. As the per-
spectives change, so do the ways in
which the actors play out their roles.
What the men ultimately reveal is
Jewel's seductive versatility. She goes
from a wide-eyed, innocent Marilyn
Monroe-type to a Bettie Page-style
dominatrix, depending on the sexual
fantasies of the men she's seducing.
Page and Monroe are not the only
'50s influences in the movie; Detective
Dehling's story especially takes on the
feel of a detective drama, which trickles
through the rest of the movie in the
form of melodramatic voice-overs.
Even the sets and costumes call to mind
the unnatural, too-bright coloration of
older movies. The film coordinates
This smile Is as fake as my toupee.
most of the colors in each scene. This,
along with Tyler's emphasized beauty
and sexiness, makes the movie wonder-
ful to look at.
The combination of clever writing by
Stan Seidel and direction by Harald
Swart (who makes his feature film
debut) creates a dark comedy that, at
first, is confusing because the scenes
jump from one to the next rapidly, and
the facts of the men's stories occasion-
ally conflict with each other.
When all of the stories come togeth-
er, though, so do many strange and
amusing details that did not necessarily
seem important throughout the movie.
Much of this happens in a scene
inspired by the Village People. The
result is a complicated but well-done
movie that one could probably see more
than once and discover new and inter-
esting details.
Tyler is irresistible and very convinc-
ing as she plays multiple characters in
one. Dillon at first seems a bit flat, but
subtle changes in his character through-
out the different perspectives allow for
his talent to shine. Overall, the charac-
ters are often unlikable, but intentional-
ly so.
The comedy is often dark, originat-
ing in people's deaths, and is occasion-
ally uncomfortable to laugh at. Still, it
is unquestionably funny and quirky.
Interestingly, the apparent moral of the
story (if there is one) is summarized by
Michael Douglas as a hit man, "Women
are much more complicated than we
think .
But Uv, I love you for your mind not just your body.
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Its Friday-its what you've been waitinq or all week!
May 4th
* Club FridayMusic: Hep Cat Revival (swing), 6:3-30 PM.
* FREE tour:Art in Bloom, 6:45 PM.
* FREE Mrusic Performance-
Nrtbviewchamber Singers,7 P.M.
- 4 " d a * eture:Archiving Your Own Collection,7 .M.
*Nr CoaslTeatrePerformance Eternal
Mystery in the Cloister!,7:3o & 8:30 P.M.
* FREE Film: The Mummy (1999), 8 P.M.
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