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Reality
or Illusion?
Crowe
and Cruise ask the question.
By Lois
Wadsworth
VANILLA SKY: Written
and directed by Cameron Crowe. Based on the film Abre Los Ojos,
written by Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil. Producers, Tom Cruise,
Cameron Crowe and Paula Wagner. Executive producers, Jonathan Sanger,
Danny Bramson. Cinematography, John Toll. Production design, Catherine
Hardwicke. Editor, Joe Hutshing. Costumes, Betsy Heimann. Composer,
Nancy Wilson. Music supervisor, Danny Bramson. Starring Tom Cruise.
With Cameron Diaz, Penélope Cruz, Jason Lee, Kurt Russell, Timothy
Spall and Noah Taylor. Cameo, Steven Spielberg. Paramount Pictures,
2001. R. 136 minutes.
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David
Aames (Tom Cruise) and Julie Gianni (Cameron Diaz) are good bedfellows..
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Cameron Crowe's remake of Alejandro Amenábar's
1997 Spanish film, Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes), is
apparently true to the original but reimagined as taking place in New
York around the pleasure-seeking life of a wealthy, 33-year-old magazine
publisher, David Aames (Tom Cruise). Playboy Aames' alarm clock wakes
him from a vivid dream, softly crooning "Open your eyes, David," in
a woman's Spanish-accented voice. From the bed, Julie Gianni (Cameron
Diaz) talks to him as he dresses to leave. He's noncommittal about calling
her again but sweet when she reminds him how good last night was. Then
he's gone.
Aames next drives through deserted streets to an empty
Times Square. Everything looks ordinary, except there are no people
on the streets, no buses, no cars but his own. It freaks him out,
and he leaves the car and screams. Have we stumbled into a post-Apocalyptic
future? A dream state? These and related questions arise often in
this entertaining but twisted tale of mutable identities, irreconcilable
temporal dislocations and mystifying parallel stories.
As his tale unspools, Aames becomes ever more desperate
to discover what in his experience is real and what illusion. Cruise
plays a man you can easily imagine being named "The Sexiest Man Alive"
by People magazine. Loaded with money, surrounded by adoring
women, working at the top of a glamorous profession and blessed with
great good looks, Aames is sitting pretty, rather like Cruise himself.
When Aames stands in front of the bathroom mirror, tweezers in hand
to remove one unnoticeable gray hair, the irony of the situation surely
is not lost on the actor. Nor would he overlook the dark humor inherent
in playing a wealthy, handsome NY doctor in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes
Wide Shut and now playing a rich, good-looking NY publisher in
the American version of Eyes Wide Open.
In fact, Eyes Wide Shut is the film I am most
reminded of here — the solitary hero, tempted by sexy women
at every turn, failing to remain faithful to his true love, haunted
by visions and terrifying dreams, confused about reality and eager
to use his wealth and status to buy answers to metaphysical questions.
Cruise and Crowe are not only star and director but
also co-producers, so one might suppose that they talked about celebrity,
the temporal nature of beauty, the expectations and disappointments
that ambition attracts, the hollowness of greed, the desire to live
forever, the ubiquity of pop culture. As in Crowe's autobiographical
Almost Famous, musical and visual references to popular culture
abound. My favorite is an old Bob Dylan album cover come to life,
but others are more subtle.
Maybe Aames is a dilettante, flitting from one amusement
to another, although Cruise makes credible the character's desire
for greater self-awareness. In Aames spacious apartment, Sofia (Penelope
Cruz) stands in front of his framed Pete Townshend guitar and notes,
"So this is what rock-and-roll music has become — a broken guitar
in a glass case on a rich man's wall." It speaks well for Aames that
he's attracted to a woman who doesn't want to be one of his trophies.
Vanilla Sky asks lots of questions and gives
few satisfying answers. I'll see it again, because once is not enough
for this erotic thriller. Highly recommended, it's now playing at
Cinemark.
Back to top
Pure
Nostalgia
Strategems
of love.
By Lois
Wadsworth
AMÉLIE: Directed
by Jean Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet and Guillaume Laurant. Producer,
Claudie Ossard. Cinematography, Bruno Delbonnel. Composer, Yann Tierson.
Costumes, Madeline Fontaine. Editor, Herve Schneid. Starring Audrey
Tautou, with Mathieu Kassovitz, Serge Merlin, Madeleine Wallace. Miramax
Zoë, 2001. R. 122 minutes.
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Audrey
Tautou plays the charming Amelie in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's confection..
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It's hard to see how director Jean Pierre
Jeunet (City of Lost Children) could have a problem with his
runaway smash hit, Amélie, but by the time the Cannes Film
Festival opened last June, some 2.5 million people in France had flocked
to see the film in its first two weeks, which probably sweetened for
the director the festival's rejection of his film. In this country,
such a film opens with great — perhaps unrealistic — expectations.
There's a contrary current in criticism that looks for cracks in such
popular fantasies, and where a trained eye looks, faults major and minor
can be discovered.
So it is with Amélie, a fragile vehicle
for the playful story of a shy young woman who escapes her miserable
childhood the minute she's old enough to walk out the front gate,
board a train for Paris and find work in a small Montmartre cafe,
Deux Moulins (Two Windmills).
Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tautou) is terribly afraid
to express herself to others, so when she discovers a boy's treasure
box hidden away behind a tile in her bathroom, she concocts a plan
to find the boy (now a man of 50) and return it to him secretly. Thus
begins the hidden do-gooder adventures of a lonely and nearly mute
woman in an indefinite era that looks a little like the late 1940s,
early '50s but could be anytime.
As we watch Amélie meddle in the lives of the
people around her, only one person sees through her efforts to Amélie's
own longing for love, her neighbor, Dufayel (Serge Merlin). A painter
who meticulously recreates Monet's The Boating Party over and
over, Dufayel sees that despite all her pranks, Amélie must confront
her fears and reach out to the young man, Nino (Mathier Kassovitz),
she's fallen in love with or end up with a pointless life herself.
Jeunet is aware of the criticisms his film has engendered
— the fable is superficial; it's a whitewashing of Montmartre's
poverty and dangers; and it ignores the multiracial population of
present day France with its nearly all-white cast. Certainly Delicatessen
and City of Lost Children contain plenty of darkness, but here
Jeunet's created a fantasy city and a lighthearted but purposeful
heroine. However, Amélie's Louise Brooks hairstyle and Audrey
Hepburn-like wide-eyed innocence may be way too retro for many young
urbans.
When is too much of a good thing too much? For me,
the first long voice-over sequence in the film exceeded my allowable
sugar intake for the remaining 100 minutes or so. It's Disney cute,
with an edge of childish cruelty that allows little Amélie to
dismiss her parents as neurotics. Granted, they are rather weird,
but that's how it is with parents. And while the film improves markedly
once the girl is in Montmartre, Tautou's cuteness and her thoughtless
tinkering with the lives of others still irks.
On the other hand, it's the perfect winter holiday
confection. You can enjoy the liberties Jeunet has taken to enhance
the beauty of the City of Light, although I prefer Baz Luhrmann's
recreations in Moulin Rouge. Amélie is not a bimbo or
a waif; she's just a very quiet girl with no idea how to find someone
to love, and she learns that it's not right to play around with other
people's lives. Amélie is an optimistic fairy tale with
just enough reality ballast to keep it from floating off into the
heavens.
Back to top
Tolkein
Memories
The Land
of Enchantment.
By
Lark Wadsworth
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Eight
year old Lark with Fatty Bolger, the dog..
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When we arrived in New Mexico in June
of 1971, my family consisted of a core of three women, three kids
and three dogs. The kids were me and my two older brothers; the women
were my mother and two friends who had become my other mothers. We
had been traveling together from California, moving from one national
park to the next.
By the time we camped out in a canyon near Taos, we
were professional campers. My mom, Sonja and Liz could get the trailer
unhitched, tent out and set up, cook stove fired up and food in the
skillet with an efficiency and economy of movement that was amazing
to behold.
We kids knew when to get out of the way and when to
help with cleanup, when to feed the dogs and when to show up for dinner.
We staked out our campsite boundaries and scoped the other campers
to see if they had any interesting kids we might play with. We scouted
the other side of the creek and calculated the number of hours before
it would be too dark to explore any more. We noted interesting places
to investigate, fallen trees, brambly bushes, meadows, hills, places
where wildflowers grew and places where no other campers would go.
And in the evening, after we had played hard with
the dogs at our heels all day — tirelessly watching out for
us and following wherever we would take them — we returned to
camp, ravenous. After eating and doing our chores, the sky would darken,
and Lois, Sonja or Liz would light the Coleman lamp, and we would
all pile into our sleeping bags in the big tent, ready for the evening's
enchantment to begin.
It was the way we finished every day when we were
camping. One of the moms pulled out our beaten-up copy of Tolkien's
Lord of the Rings and read a chapter aloud, while the rest
of us snuggled in and listened with rapt attention. It was our transition
between daytime and dreamland — a window into a world both different
from and oddly similar to our own.
Like Tolkien's characters, we were also on the road,
facing the unknown. Here, we were women, kids and dogs, living from
one day to the next. And there, in Middle Earth, were dwarves, elves,
hobbits, men, orcs and wizards, whose hair-raising adventures and
wonderful experiences we got to share.
I don't know when we had first started reading Tolkien
out loud, but by New Mexico, we were giving The Lord of the Rings
a second go around. I remember this because I understood the books
much better the second time. Each chapter was so vivid, the characters
so alive, the danger so imminent, the courage of Aragorn and Gandalf
so reassuring! I was six-going-on-seven years old and couldn't decide
whether I would rather be an elf like Legolas or a hobbit like Samwise.
Those evening readings are etched into my memory so
deeply, I have but to close my eyes and I am back in that sleeping
bag. I can see the flickering lamp haloing my mother's dark curly
hair and hear her voice conjuring the excitement of the flight from
the Shire and the whimsical wonder of old Tom Bombadil.
With a little more concentration, I can taste the
night air, crisp and clear where it snuck in through the tent flap
and mixed with the kerosene odors of the lamp and the lived-in, comforting
smell of the blue canvas tent itself. I can hear the background chorus
of crickets, the gurgling of the creek and the occasional sigh of
one of the dogs just outside, the profound satisfaction and security
of falling asleep after the chapter was over, surrounded by my two
brothers, three mothers and three dogs.
That August was the last time we read to each other
like that, as a family. At the end of the month, we found a house
to live in, and somehow, in the midst of settling in, trying to get
jobs and get us kids enrolled in school, the nightly readings got
lost in the shuffle.
That was the end of a time in our lives, though we
didn't know it then. You never do, I guess, until you look back on
it. It was the last time we wandered freely about the country, burdened
with no more than a funky trailer full of tents and camping gear.
We found a house, we settled down, we began to experience life in
New Mexico. The Land of Enchantment. The land of hard winters, breathtaking
sunsets, abject poverty, Chicanos, Indians, hippie communes, wonderful
solstice parties and mind-expanding psychedelic experiences. The land
of my wild girlhood.
I started first grade that fall, and my life changed
drastically, but I never quite let go of the trilogy. The last chapter
we had read was "A Knife in the Dark" from book one in the trilogy.
Because I couldn't remember from the first time we had read it what
happened in the story, suspense burned in me. From time to time I
begged my mom to read it again, but she was too busy. Winter was hard,
we were poor, and she had other things that needed doing.
So I went to school and began the laborious process
of learning to read for myself. A year later when I started second
grade, I discovered that somehow over the summer, it had become easy.
Now the words seemed to read themselves. I went through every book
in the school library, and my teacher even brought me her own books
to read. And midway through the year, I had something of an epiphany.
I could read the trilogy! And find out at last what
happened.
I spent the whole winter working my way through the
three books and had such vivid dreams about the story that my mom
made me write them down. I still have them, in a notebook covered
with stickers, scribbled in my childish handwriting, page upon page.
Tolkien has become family lore. Our lives, as individuals
and as a family, have changed so much since that time. Yet I think
none of us has ever quite forgotten the magic of those nightly readings,
and the immediacy and wild freedom we lived each day. We named our
pets after Tolkien's characters for years and years. We had a beloved
dog named Frodo, another big dog called Fatty Bolger, and a kitty
named Lobelia Bracegirdle Sackville Baggins. For me, The Lord of
the Rings remains not only the finest work of fantasy fiction
ever crafted but also brings back the special resonance of family,
security, love and freedom.
[On Sunday, I'm going to see the new movie of The
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings with my husband, my three
mothers and my large, extended family.]
OPENING
OR RETURNING:
Films open the Friday following date of EW
publication unless otherwise noted.
Ali: Will Smith plays Muhammad Ali in Michael
Mann's (The Insider) film about the legendary fighter. Also
stars Jon Voight, Giancarlo Esposito, Mario Van Peebles and many others
in a drama that follows one of the most controversial sports hero
of our time. R. Opens 12/25. Cinemark.
Amelie: Jean Pierre Jeunet's film about a shy
young French pixie who meddles in the lives of her co-workers, family
and neighbors instead of looking at her own need for love. Too sugary
at times, this little fairy tale has just enough gravity to stay grounded.
Fabulous. R. Bijou. See review this issue.
Beautiful Mind, A: Inspired by the true story
of a mathematical genius whose great discovery came early in his career,
Ron Howard's film stars Russell Crowe, Ed Harris and Jennifer Connelly.
Crowe plays the man who battled his own demons for many years, fulfilling
his promise only late in life. PG-13. Opens 12/25. Cinemark.
Corky Romano: Corky (Chris Kattan) is a kindly
veterinarian who gets drawn into becoming an F.B.I. agent to help
out his long-lost Mafia boss father (Peter Falk), who's being investigated.
PG-13. Movies 12.
Heist: David Mamet's too-clever caper film
stars Gene Hackman, Rebecca Pidgeon, Danny DeVito, Delroy Lindo, Ricky
Jay and Sam Rockwell. Hackman, Lindo and Jay are top-notch; plot is
pedestrian. R. Movies 12. Online archives.
How High: Rap superstars Redman and Method
Man find some really good smoke that helps them ace their college
entrance exams. Yeah, right. Somebody's pot fantasy run amok. R. Cinemark.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Madcap Jim
Carrey brings to life Dr. Seuss's green grinch who wants to keep Christine
Baranski, Molly Shannon and Bill Irwin and others from celebrating
Christmas. Directed by Ron Howard. Plays just one week. PG. Movies
12.
Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius: Animated tale of
an inventive 10-year old boy and his robot dog who live in a world
where wishes come true. Jimmy wishes his parents would disappear.
When all the parents disappear, Jimmy and his pals have to bring them
back. G. Cinemark. Cinema World.
joesomebody: John Pasquin directs Tim Allen
as a divorced father whose workplace humiliation in front of his daughter
pushes him to change his life. Also stars Kelly Lynch, Jim Belushi,
Julie Bowen, and Greg Germann. PG. Cinemark. Cinema World.
Kate and Leopold: Sappy looking time travel
romance stars Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman, who has been accidentally
fast forwarded to New York at the present from the 19th century. James
Mangold (Girl, Interrupted) directs. Opens 12/25. PG-13. Cinemark.
Lord of the Rings, The: The Fellowship of the Ring:
The first book of J. R. R. Tolkien's literary trilogy reaches the
screen, directed by the talented Peter Jackson and shot entirely in
New Zealand as Middle Earth. Stars Elijah Wood as Frodo, Ian McKellen
as Gandalf, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, with Liv Tyler, Sean Astin,
Christopher Lee. PG-13. Cinemark. Cinema World.
Majestic, The: Jim Carrey plays a blacklisted
Hollywood writer who loses his memory after a car crash but finds
a new life in a 1950s small town. Directed by Frank Darabont (The
Green Mile). Bob Balaban is a Commie-hunter with HUAC, Martin
Landau is the owner of the local movie theater, and Laurie Holden's
the girl. Eugene's David Ogden Stiers also stars. PG. Cinemark. Cinema
World.
Max Keeble's Big Move: Seventh grader Alex
D. Linz thinks he's moving in a week so he concocts sweet revenge
against classmates, only to discover that the family's not moving
after all. Oops. Directed by Tim Hill. PG. Movies 12.
Riding in Cars with Boys: Drew Barrymore stars
in Penny Marshall's film about a woman who wants to be a writer but
ends up with a baby at 15 and a junkie husband. Based on a true story.
With Steve Zahn and Brittany Murphy. PG-13. Movies 12.
Serendipity: Destiny has them meet by chance
in a department story, and fate parts them right away. Now it's 10
years later, and John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale try to find each
other again. Directed by Peter Chelsom (Town & Country).
PG-13. Movies 12.
CONTINUING
Behind Enemy Lines: John Moore directs this
military drama, which has Gene Hackman as a naval officer and Owen
Wilson as the hot dog pilot who sees where the bodies are buried in
a war-ravaged country. He's shot down, and some soldiers are after
him. PG-13. Cinemark.
Bread and Tulips: A sweet Italian love story
played out in beautiful Venice is directed by Silvio Soldini and stars
Licia Maglietta and Bruno Ganz. Highly recommended. Old fashioned
story makes you long for more foreign films. PG-13. Bijou. Online
archives.
Hardball: Keanu Reeves plays a soft-spoken
baseball coach for an inner city middle school. He helps the team
come together and meets the girl. PG-13. Movies 12.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Early
reviews say it is utterly faithful to J.K. Rowling's book, which can
either be a good thing or not. Stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson,
John Cleese, Robbie Coltrane and more. Directed by Chris Columbus.
PG. Cinema World. Cinemark. Online archives.
K-PAX: Ian Softley (Wings of the Dove)
directs Jeff Bridges, who plays a psychiatrist, and Kevin Spacey's
the patient who says he's from another planet. The good doctor notices
changes for the better in the other mental ward patients. PG-13. Movies
12.
Man Who Wasn't There, The: Ethan and Joel Coen's
latest film is a black-and-white beauty. Stars Billy Bob Thornton
as a small town barber in an existential crisis who makes all the
wrong decisions trying to change his life. Frances McDormand, James
Gandolfini, Michael Badalucco, Scarlett Johansson and Tony Shalhoub
are also excellent. A slow-paced crime story that's a cut above other
pulp wares, Thornton's mesmerizing performance resonates. Bijou. Online
archives.
Monsters Inc.: From Pixar, the creators of
Toy Story, comes a new computer-animated feature about a scare
factory, Monsters Inc., and its top monster, Sulley (voice of John
Goodman). Also voices of Billy Crystal, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly,
Steve Buscemi and Mary Gibbs. G. Cinemark. Online archives.
Not Another Teen Movie: Directed by MTV producer
Joel Gallen, this comedy is set in high school involves a bet a jock
(Chris Evans) takes to turn a nerdy girl (Chyler Leigh) into a prom
queen. Duh! R. Cinemark. Cinema World.
Ocean's Eleven: Steven Soderbergh's remake
of the old Rat Pack's '60s heist movie stars George Clooney, Matt
Damon, Julia Roberts. Brad Pitt and Andy Garcia. This gang plans to
hit several Las Vegas casinos on the same night, while everyone's
distracted by a high-profile boxing match. Soderbergh never disappoints,
and he's assembled great players. PG-13. Cinema World. Cinemark. Online
archives.
Princess Diaries, The: Directed by Garry Marshall,
this comedy about a S.F. teen who finds out she's a princess stars
Anne Hathaway, Hector Elizondo, Julie Andrews, Robert Schwartzman
and Heather Matarazzo. G. Movies 12.
Rush Hour 2: Brett Ratner returns to direct
Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker as detectives who travel to Hong Kong,
LA and Vegas looking for a master criminal. Also stars Zhang Ziyi
(Crouching Tiger, The Road Home). PG-13. Movies 12.
Spy Game: Robert Redford is a CIA officer who
mentors Brad Pitt in this spy thriller directed by Tony Scott (Enemy
of the State). Also stars Catherine McCormack. R. Cinemark.
Thirteen Ghosts: Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis
produced this special effects remake of a 1960 horror film that stars
Tony Shalhoub, Embeth Davidtz and Matthew Lillard. They're given keys
to a fantastic house that contains the spirits of thirteen murder
victims. R. Movies 12.
Vanilla Sky: Cameron Crowe directs this erotic
thriller starring Tom Cruise as a publishing executive who's misplaced
his soul. Entertaining but twisted tale of mutable identities, irreconcilable
temporal dislocations and mystifying parallel stories also stars Penélope
Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Kurt Russell, Jason Lee and Timothy Spall. Highly
recommended. R. Cinemark. See review this issue.
Zoolander: In his first directorial foray since
The Cable Guy, Ben Stiller also writes and stars in this comedy
about a male model brainwashed into taking on a secret mission. With
Owen Wilson as the ultimate Eurotrash supermodel, Christine Taylor
as a bimbo and Milla Jovovich in leather. Moments of mad genius. PG-13.
Movies 12. Online archives.
MOVIE
THEATERS
Use the links provided below for specific show times.
Bijou
Art Cinemas
Bijou Theater 686-2458 | 492 E. 13th
Regal
Cinemas
Cinema World 342-6536 | Valley River
Center
Springfield Quad 726-9073 |
Cinemark
Theaters
Movies 12 741-1231 | Gateway
Mall
Movies before 12:30 are Sat. Sun. only. $1.50 all shows all days.
Cinemark 17 741-1231 | Gateway Mall
NEW
RELEASES ON VIDEO:
Releases subject to change. Available the Tuesday following
date of EW publication, sometimes sooner:
Brother: "Beat" Takeshi Kitano stars in and directs this Yakuza-in-LA
tale of gang violence, blood ties and mobster brotherhood. Elvis Mitchell
of The New York Times says Kitano is "channeling Clint Eastwood
through Toshiro Mifune with a little bit of Buster Keaton thrown in."
Not rated. Available Jan 2.
Circle, The: Iranian director Jafar Panahi
(The White Balloon) looks at his society's cruelty to women.
The New York Times said "his bravery arises from the bracing
conviction that it is necessary and possible for an artist simply
to tell the truth." Not rated.
Dancing at the Blue Iguana, Michael Radford
directs Daryl Hannah, Jennifer Tilly and other strippers whose lives
collide one week in LA. R.
Evolution: David Duchovny and Julianne Moore
star in an Ivan Reitman summer comedy about pterodactyls and meteors.
PG-13.
Fast and Furious, The: Undercover cop (Paul
Walker) infiltrates gang-like LA street racing teams in Rob Cohen's
action-adventure. PG-13. Available January 2.
Glass House, The: Psychological nightmare stars
Leelee Sobieski as an orphaned girl (and her brother) taken in by
her parents' best friends(Diane Lane and Stellan Skarsgard). PG-13.
Available Jan. 2.
Kill Me Later: Black comedy about a suicidal
woman drawn into a bank robbery in her building stars Selma
Blair and Max Beesley. R.
Two Can Play That Game: Shanté (Viveca
A. Fox) gets even when her sweetie (Morris Chestnut) sees another
woman (Gabrielle Union), and she gets a lot of help from her friends
(Mo'Nique, Tamala Jones and Wendy Raquel Robinson). His buddy (Anthony
Anderson) helps him in this romantic comedy directed by Mark Brown.
R.
What's the Worst That Could Happen: Thief Martin
Lawrence and businessman Danny DeVito star in this Sam Weisman comedy
about a ring DeVito steals off of Lawrence's hand as he's taken off
to jail. Revenge ensues, with comic results. With John Leguizamo,
Glenne Headley, William Fichtner and Bernie Mac. PG-13. Available
Jan 2.
Next week: Greenfingers, Jeepers Creepers,
The Man Who Cried, Mark Twain and Queer as Folk.
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