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 EMMA. The glut of 19th-century literary adaptations continues
with a new version of Emma, Austen's most lighthearted
novel. Gwyneth Paltrow stars as a young woman with the unfortunate
habit of meddling in other people's affairs. The plot is the same
as in Clueless, except the women in Emma wear
nightgowns and the guys ride horses. Emma is not as good
as Sense and Sensibility, but if you like to see meek girls
find husbands, it's a perfectly solid movie; and Paltrow has such
a beautiful smile it's a delight to watch her, even when she's
not quite in stride.
FEELING MINNESOTA. Have you ever been mellow? Have you
ever felt Minnesota? Does "feeling Minnesota" mean we're
all supposed to feel like Keanu Reeves? What's wrong with Keanu
Reeves? Could he be more stiff? Is he really the anamatronic Abe
Lincoln model from Disneyland, with an early-'90s grunge makeover?
Is it time for early-'90s nostalgia already? Why does Cameron
Diaz talk like a 12-year-old girl in this movie? Why on earth
does she want to be a showgirl? Why do those two brothers who
both love the cloyingly girlish Cameron Diaz like to yell and
yell and yell at each other? Does this yelling have something
to do with "feeling Minnesota?" Why is this billed as
a comedy? Do they really think we are going to somehow believe
that this is another version of Fargo? Is feeling ripped
off, bored and disappointed the same as "feeling Minnesota?"
Why are they doing this to us? What have we done to deserve this?
FIRST WIVES CLUB. White ladies are doing it for themselves
in this gleefully man-bashing tale of the fury of women scorned.
Bette Midler, Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn play the discarded
first wives of wealthy husbands who have cast them off in favor
of beautiful, young, ditzy girlfriends. The wives mourn their
fate, bond, then set about getting even in mildly amusing ways.
Though the movie is predictable and silly, and though the victimhood
of women is stressed, celebrated and monumentalized here (even
as the wives take matters into their own hands), First Wives
Club is still engaging because of the fresh subject matter.
It's no All About Eve, but it's still interesting to see
middle-aged women depicted on screen as something other than happy
mothers for once.
FLY AWAY HOME. Anna Paquin stars in this dignified kid's
movie about a young girl who's adopted by a gaggle of orphaned
Canadian geese. Amy (Paquin) is lonely and withdrawn after the
death of her mother, but the discovery of the goslings invigorates
her and leads to a round of bonding with her dad, nature, the
news media and her own little self. An even directorial style
and great cinematography help to keep the corniness from getting
out of hand as Amy learns to fly an ultralight plane and leads
the wild geese in their migration south. Beautiful footage of
geese flying beside the enthusiastic Paquin will warm the chilliest
heart.
LONE STAR. Director John Sayles delivers an offbeat, thoughtful
examination of border life and love in this winding tale of one
lawman searching for his roots. Chris Cooper plays a divorced
Texas sheriff trying to sort out fact from legend, particularly
in regard to his father, who may or may not have been a bad kind
of a guy. His search leads him across the big, dusty state and
into a half-dozen different recollections of a puzzling past.
Though the characters have an annoying propensity for explaining
their motivations in gruesome psychological detail, and though
Sayles (as always) can't resist an opportunity to preach the liberal
cause; and though the production values of this movie are uninspired,
Lone Star still somehow manages to be an engaging, surprising
film.
NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD. A moving, unsentimental film
by Claude Sautet (Un Coeur en Hiver) about the friendship
between a beautiful young woman (Emmanuelle Beart, fresh from
her role in Mission Impossible) and an older man (Michel
Serrault). Nelly is a stunning but poor woman living in Paris
with a depressed husband who won't get out of bed. She falls under
the kind patronage of Monsieur Arnaud, a wealthy but lonely older
man. With his help, she leaves her husband and starts to move
forward in life, while Monsieur Arnaud simultaneously begins to
examine his past. Their relationship, though not sexual, comes
to involve far more complex elements of love, romance, dependency,
hate and desire. Though quite reminiscent of Krzysztof Kieslowski's
Three Colors: Red, the film is anything but derivative.
A TIME TO KILL. An overblown but entertaining courtroom
drama, based on a John Grisham novel, about racial strife in the
deep South. Samuel L. Jackson plays a humble working man driven
to take the law into his own hands when a pair of good ol' boys
rape his young daughter. Matthew McConaughey plays the white-bred
attorney who decides to defend him. (Chris Cooper is also in this
movie, in a strange reprisal of his role in Lone Star.)
Somewhere in there is Sandra Bullock, playing an eager young law
student who both helps and distracts the white guy from his lawyerin'.
Yes, morality is laid out on a nice flat grid, but the fact that
there even is a moral battle here gives this movie a heavy,
heavy dose of tension and drama, despite the fact that its view
of the South and the people in it are so stereotyped they're practically
cartoons.
A VERY BRADY SEQUEL. The characters from the popular TV
series are back, bringing with them our collective nostalgia for
a time when their blandly, happily broken home captured the hearts
of the nation. The Brady's are still stuck in the '70s (though
the world has aged around them), and they're still blithely unaware
of the 20-million dollar price tag on that decorative horse in
the living room. Carol's first husband reappears, coveting her,
the horse, and threatening the stability of a whole generation's
paradigm of what it means to be a family. A loving recreation
and exaggeration of every little nuance of the original TV show
is at the heart of A Very Brady Sequel--if you know the
name of the Brady's dog, you'll probably like the movie.
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