Movies : September 2001

21 September 2001

Diamond Men

An itinerant diamond salesman, Eddie Miller (Robert Forster), has had a heart attack and by the time he is ready to work again, the company has been sold and they don’t want to insure him. As a sop, rather than simply terminating him, they offer to let him train his replacement, Bobby Walker (Donnie Wahlberg). Bobby has no experience with the industry (he used to stock vending machines) and has a contemptuous attitude towards the towns and populations where they have to sell their line to small jewelry stores in central Pennsylvania. Ugh! He even sings along to loud rock music over headphones. And there isn’t a pretty face he won’t try to get into bed back in the motel room. As the weeks go by, though, Eddie and Bobby open up to each other and life seems to be turning a corner until one too many visits to the Altoona Riding Club, an out of the way brothel run by Bobby’s friend (Jasmine Guy). Did I like it? I’m pretty sure I’ve driven some of these very roads in Pennsylvania! So the geography is more palpable than in Lucky Numbers and the familiarity is an asset. The desperation of the wholesale trade is effectively conveyed. Wahlberg reminds me more of David Duchovny than his younger brother Mark. But the silliness of the repeated visits to the brothel, notwithstanding how funny they are (and some will appreciate the toplessness) do play against the apprehension the characters should be feeling. There’s a bit of the shaggy-dog to the ending, which is relentlessly upbeat (there is no way Bess Armstrong is almost fifty).

100 minutes.

15 September 2001

Happy Accidents

A slightly off-kilter romantic comedy, the viewing of which is made tenser by the Manhattan locations, conveys its science-fiction atmosphere strictly through dialog. No, no, explains Sam Deed (Vincent D’Onofrio) to bemused guests at an art gallery opening, it became Yugo-Serbia after the Petroleum Wars of 2011. Marisa Tomei, perhaps disappointed at being stuck in supporting roles (What Women Want, Someone Like You) or forgotten exploitation (The Watcher) and seeing the small boost that Hope Davis got from the writer-editor-director’s previous effort (Next Stop Wonderland) plays Ruby Weaver, the just-fired, hopelessly co-dependent, shrink-visiting single with a gaggle of supportive friends who are also still in the dating pool. When Sam, the driver of a hospice van taking a break on a park bench, speaks to her, it doesn’t take long before they’re living together. But his fear of small dogs, his facility with multiple languages combined with ignorance of the United Nations, and his spacey spells begin to arouse her suspicions. When Ruby starts to believe his stories of life in the year 2470, his explanation of how backtraveling works (that part is rather R-rated, actually), and his prediction of her death on Friday, she isn’t sure where to turn. Did I like it? The curiosity of trying to deliver a science-fiction plot just about as complicated as The Terminator (no coincidence, the time travel inspired by love of a photograph is common to both) in the context of a girl-meets-boy, takes him to visit her parents, wonders whether she’s doing the right thing over beers with her girlfriend sort of movie with a lot of handheld, facial close-up scenes reflecting its meager budget has a certain fascination. The two leads convey desperation and befuddlement effectively. The therapist (Holland Taylor) has a payoff whose multiple levels only became apparent to me later. And I guess I’m not that much of a New Yorker—I did not get the meaning of the name Chrystie Delancey which figures prominently in Sam’s sketches.

110 minutes.

14 September 2001

The Glass House

Ruby (Leelee Sobieski) sits at a school desk and I imagine the actress thinking How did I end up in another high school picture (Never Been Kissed))? I played the Maid of Lorraine (Joan of Arc)! I was in a Stanley Kubrick film (Eyes Wide Shut)! Yet here she is, back as a 16-year old, scamming her ’rents and having fun until those parents die when their car plunges off a California cliff. The new guardians (Stellan Skarsgård and Diane Lane) for Ruby and her brother Rhett (Trevor Morgan) seem nice enough, but... Did I like it? Once Ruby’s suspicions about the guardians’ health and finances are aroused, how long did she think her connection to the Internet with a wireless modem in her tangerine iBook Macintosh notebook was going to last? Since when does the Los Angeles Times offer free access to articles in its archives? What sloppiness or desperate reworking of the finalé led to the replacement of the sheriff’s Ford Crown Victoria with a model 5 years newer?

106 minutes.

10 September 2001

Soul Survivors

What could have induced me to use a free pass to see this? Could it be… Eliza Dushku? Despite her prominence in the print advertising, she is saddled as a supporting player to Cassie (Melissa Sagemiller, the bland object of affection from Get Over It) who is being driven to college by her boyfriend (Casey Affleck, about whom the less said the better) and her ex-boyfriend (Wes Bentley). When the partying at the hopelessly fictional Middleton College within a days’ drive from Chicago proves inadequate, the foursome looks for some more action and find it at an abandoned stone church (in Wisconsin?). A Ford Explorer, unbelted passengers, and a slick road lead to circumstances that Cassie doesn’t understand. Did I like it? Those of you who know what I’m talking about will think I’ve said too much when I say: a Jacob’s Ladder for the college-bound with no pesky Vietnam flashbacks. Some dubbing sufficiently inept for me to catch and a clothed shower scene between the two female leads (all to get that PG–13 rating) add up to an unsatisfying experience. Well, except for Dushku’s Goth lite stewardess look.

85 minutes.

06 September 2001

Rat Race

Uh-oh, I can just imagine the cast saying to themselves, why isn’t my agent returning my phone calls and pages? A Las Vegas casino owner (John Cleese) with outrageously false teeth, seeking to attract high rollers, has devised quite the betting proposition: six randomly chosen patrons (well, randomly chosen from those who use the slot machines) are invited to retrieve $2 million from a locker in Silver City, New Mexico. And they’re off! And hilarity is supposed to ensue. Did I like it? There was one laugh which got us in the audience rolling in the aisles (courtesy of Jon Lovitz) but otherwise it’s just barely amusing. The slapstick with the loose organ?—done in Monkeybone.

111 minutes.

02 September 2001

The Vertical Ray of the Sun

The women are impossibly pretty, the men smoke incessantly. Life in Hanoi moves langorously from sleeping to eating, to a little chatting, to more eating, a little drinking, planning the next meal… The temptation to adultery, incest, fornication is always there, however. But as long as each morning can start with some stretching in bed by the director’s wife (Tran Nu Yen Khe) clad in a tank top, life is good. Did I like it? As much as I could, considering the dizzying array of infidelities, and the almost utter absence of motor vehicles. (Did someone say Cyclo! ?) Totally non-confrontational, totally non-political, this is definitely a film for export.

113 minutes.

01 September 2001

The Deep End

You’re a mother of three. Your husband is at sea and isn’t returning your telephone calls. Your father-in-law is underfoot at your lakeside home in Nevada. You’ve just discovered the dead body of your high-school-senior boy’s gay lover on the beach by your dock. What do you do? If you’re Margaret Hall (Tilda Swinton), you pull the anchor out of the man’s chest, toss the body into the boat, seek out a secluded cove, weigh down the legs with the still-bloody anchor, and toss it all overboard. Ah, but life will throw you a few more curve balls. Note to self: in rural areas, getting rid of the car is just as tough as disposing of the body. There will be a blackmailer (Goran Visnjic) seeking $50,000. Did I like it? Yes. Swinton is effective in conveying the anxieties and burdens of her role. That electric blue Chevrolet Corvette parked on the street side of the house is quite the problem. He may not be the James Mason of The Reckless Moment (based on the same novel), but Visnjic has the brooding countenance to be the villain who, nevertheless, has not done his research—there’s no $50,000 coming out of this family.

101 minutes.

Entries subject to editing at any time. Last edited on: 14-Nov-2007