Short Subjectives January 08 2003

Opening Friday

ADAPTATION (R) One of the best and brightest films of the year, this brilliant follow-up to director Spike Jonze and writer Charlie Kaufman’s Being John Malkovich follows the self-loathing tribulations of Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) as he struggles to adapt cerebral New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean’s (Meryl Streep) book The Orchid Thief for the screen. An astoundingly inventive exploration of writing’s emotional and psychological complexity, the film also goes far deeper than its clever meta-construction to become a tender, lovely glimpse into the search for elusive dreams and desires in all of our lives. --Felicia Feaster

JUST MARRIED (PG-13) Dude, where’s my honeymoon? The slapstick teen romance depicts Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy as newlyweds who face one disaster after another once they tie the knot.

THE HOURS (PG-13) Stephen Daldry’s splendidly literate film uses Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway to unite three women, cutting between the day Woolf (Nicole Kidman) is writing it, a 1950s housewife (Julianne Moore) is reading it, and a 2002 book editor (Meryl Streep) is somehow living it. The film’s increasing reliance on theatrical monologues means the pay-off doesn’t equal the brilliant set-up, but its nevertheless a lush, rich film experience, with Kidman donning a prosthetic nose, which liberates her as an actress. --Curt Holman

NARC (R) Despite Tom Cruise’s endorsement (he had Paramount pick it up after seeing it at Sundance), this isn’t far removed from the usual cops ‘n’ robbers fare that passes through the multiplex. Its primary strength is the intense performance by Ray Liotta as a detective paired with an undercover officer (Jason Patric) to investigate the murder of a fellow cop. Writer-director Joe Carnahan has made a moderately involving crime flick in the gritty French Connection tradition, but it’s undermined by a protracted finale and a ludicrous last-minute twist. --Matt Brunson

NICHOLAS NICKLEBY (PG) Charles Dickens’ nearly 1,000-page novel is distilled into a breezy, 132-minute film seemingly populated by half of the most lovable character actors in England — and a few ringers from the New World. Writer/ director Douglas McGrath gives his actors plenty of leeway and they all have a grand old time, especially Christopher Plummer as a Scrooge-like uncle and Jim Broadbent as a bullying schoolmaster. The film embraces Dickens’ florid dialogue and melodramatic plot twists for comic effect but also injects more knowing, modern humor in the mix, especially during the scenes with an acting troupe that includes Nathan Lane, Alan Cumming and Dame Edna.--CH

THE 25TH HOUR (R) Edward Norton effectively plays a convicted drug dealer spending his last day as a free man, but filmmaker Spike Lee’s strongest images have virtually nothing to do with that story. Shots of the former World Trade Center site and other post-9-11 landmarks have such a haunting power that the personal crises of Norton’s characters and his pals seem trivial by comparison. Do The Right Thing director Spike Lee is overdue for a comeback, but still can’t seem to find a story that fits his sense of emergency. --CH

?Duly Noted
FILMS BY M.E.D.I.A. (NR) IMAGE Film & Video Center screens an evening of nine short films directed by students ages 15-19 who participated in its Media Education Initiative-Atlanta Project. Three of the young filmmakers — Nubia Rahim, Nandi Murphy and Dymon Godbey — have been selected to attend Sundance Film Festival’s 2003 Reel Studio: Young Filmmakers Program. Presented by IMAGE Film and Video Center. Jan. 8, 7 p.m. Atlanta Fulton Public Library, One Margaret Mitchell Square. Free. 404-352-4225.

MAMA AFRICA (2002) (NR) Queen Latifah introduces three short films directed by African women. South Africa’s “Raya” sees a young woman released from jail after doing time for dealing drugs. “Uno’s World” from Namibia depicts a single mother raising the child of a former freedom fighter. Nigeria’s “Hang Time” follows a basketball whiz trying to get a new pair of shoes before meeting an American basketball scout. African Film Showcase. Jan. 11, 8 p.m. Woodruff Arts Center, Rich Auditorium. $5. 404-733-4570. www.high.org.

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) (R) The cult classic of cult classics, the musical horror spoof follows an all-American couple (Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick) to the castle of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), a drag-queen/mad scientist from another galaxy. It’s all fun and games until Meatloaf gets killed. Dress as your favorite character and participate in this musical on acid. Midnight Fri. at Lefont Plaza Theatre and Sat. at Marietta Star Cinema.

br>?Continuing
ABOUT SCHMIDT (R) Jack Nicholson does an about-face in his performance as a smaller-than-life midwestern insurance executive facing multiple crises mostly funny ones upon retirement. Election director Alexander Payne’s critique of American mediocrity can feel snide and elitist, but also has considerable comic invention, from Schmidt’s inappropriate letters to an impoverished African boy to Kathy Bates and Dermot Mulroney as the prospective in-laws from hell. --Curt Holman

ANALYZE THAT (R) Sure, “The Sopranos” does the whole mobster/shrink thing with deeper insights and better jokes, but the original comedy with Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal provided harmless laughs. The follow-up even nods to the HBO series by having the gangster consult for a similar TV show, but the idea gets wasted. Otherwise, the sequel is like beating a dead horse — then putting its head in somebody’s bed. --CH

ANTWONE FISHER (PG-13) The screenplay’s the story here, and Denzel Washington (in his directorial debut) gets out of its way, letting his actors relate it honestly without gumming it up with show-off stylistics. Antwone Fisher wrote the script, based on his own life story, and he and Washington luck out by having engaging newcomer Derek Luke handle the heavy lifting, playing a troubled sailor whose anti-social behavior brings him into contact with a Navy psychiatrist (Washington) who eventually helps him get to the root of his emotional problems. --Matt Brunson

BARBERSHOP (PG-13) Ice Cube goes for a day-in-the-life-of-the-‘hood vibe comparable to his trilogy of Friday films, but this modest comedy centered around a Chicago hair-cuttery feels trimmed of laughs. The labored slapstick with two accident-prone ATM thieves and the squabbles between the barbers are about as thin as a comb-over. As the oldest and most outspoken barber, Cedric the Entertainer makes a lonely effort to give the film some old-school personality. --CH

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (PG-13) Steven Spielberg’s most purely entertaining film since the early 1980s finds Leonardo DiCaprio as a chameleon-like high schooler who flees his broken home by brazenly passing as an airline pilot, an Atlanta pediatrician and more. Tom Hanks finds plenty of rueful humor as the Joe Friday-esque FBI agent who’s always one step behind. When other filmmakers remake classics like Charade, they’re striving for the kind of ease, star power and fluency that this film generates without breaking a sweat. --CH

CHICAGO a (PG-13) First-time feature director Rob Marshall reclaims the musical genre from Moulin Rouge with this sexy, robust, big-screen version of Bob Fosse’s cynical stage hit. As Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones play Jazz Age murderesses vying for the attentions of superlawyer Richard Gere, showbiz and the legal system prove to be opposite sides of the same tarnished coin. The entire cast, including John C. Reilly and Queen Latifah, reveal remarkable musical showmanship, selling the hell out of the vaudeville-style numbers. --CH

DIE ANOTHER DAY (PG-13) Pierce Brosnan’s fourth outing as 007 isn’t the best Bond film by a long shot, but it may be the fastest. Director Lee Tamahori brings a breakneck pace and a spirited willingness to show the audience some wild, new spectacle, notably a melting ice palace and chases across a frozen lake. Homages to earlier films are plentiful, while Halle Berry, as comely assassin Jinx, and Judi Dench, as Bond’s spy boss, each have Academy Awards, lending a little legitimacy to the silly puns and stunt work. --CH

DRUMLINE (PG-13) A brilliant but insolent drum prodigy (Nick Cannon) joins the marching band of fictitious “Atlanta A&T University” and learns that there’s no I in team. Even skeptical audiences will gladly march to music and moves of the marching band’s “drumline,” while the script ably explores the tensions between showmanship and musical accomplishment. Only Cannon’s shallow performance hits discordant notes. --CH

8 MILE (R) Bratty rapper Eminem plays a struggling hip-hop artist loosely based on himself in this struggling-artist story from Academy Award-caliber director Curtis Hanson. Structured around a series of public rap “duels,” the film plays like a Rocky or Karate Kid movie, only with profane rhymes substituting for fisticuffs. If not a versatile thespian, Eminem proves comfortable in front of the camera, and the film reveals a genuine interest in hip-hop culture and the impoverished Detroit setting. --CH

THE EMPEROR’S CLUB (PG-13) This prep school dramedy about a bookish teacher (Kevin Kline) and a spoiled student (Emile Hirsch) plagiarizes a little from Dead Poet’s Society before developing some fresh ideas about second chances and how youthful experiences shape adult character. Subtract points for its sleepy tone and for putting contemporary slang in the mouths of students in the ’70s. That’s not how they did it Old School. --CH

EMPIRE (R) John Leguizamo plays an up-and-coming, South Bronx crimelord whose bid for to make a Wall Street killing leads to bloodshed. Featuring Denise Richards, Isabella Rossellini and Fat Joe.

EVELYN (PG) Pierce Brosnan takes a break from James Bond for some double-o hokum as a single dad challenging the Irish church and legal system to get his kids back. The climatic courtroom scenes hold our interest, but director Bruce Beresford tries so hard to offer a wholesome crowd-pleaser he waters down the darker implications of the material in favor of sugary platitudes. With Stephen Rea, Aidan Quinn and Alan Bates taking turns intoning “David and Goliath” cliches as the legal team.

FAR FROM HEAVEN (PG-13) A rhapsodic, and often surreally accurate homage to the classic 1950s melodramas made by one of the genre’s greatest subversives, Douglas Sirk, this tale of homosexuality and prejudice in 1957 Connecticut stars Julianne Moore and has all the stifled passion and bone-deep malaise of a Sirk production. As he did in the neo-rock opera Velvet Goldmine, director Todd Haynes has revitalized a disparaged genre, the women’s picture, and in the process made one of the most heartfelt expressions of female confinement around. --FF

FRIDA (R) Tony Award winning director Julie Taymor brings a slightly off-kilter sensibility to this strong bio-picture of the tempestuous life and times of Mexican painter and feminist icon Frida Kahlo. Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina as the love of her life, Diego Rivera, are convincing and human as the terminally at-odds husband and wife whose fascinating involvement with the art and radical politics of the ’30s and ’40s makes them long overdue for such a film treatment. . At United Artists Tara Cinemas. --FF

FRIDAY AFTER NEXT (R) The Ice Cube series of comedies becomes a trilogy, with Mike Epps and John Witherspoon returning for this Christmas-themed installment.

GANGS OF NEW YORK (R) Though Martin Scorsese’s historical epic has a more conventional plot line than his more morally ambiguous, violence-soaked films, Gangs of New York is no small feat. A vortex of crime and corruption based on the real life mire of 1800s Manhattan street gangs, Gangs is a smarter than average epic, though far short of Scorsese’s best work. Its greatest saving grace is a brilliantly charismatic, psychopath leader of the Native gang, Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis) whose often justified guttersnipe rage far outshines the milquetoast heroism of his Irish gang rival played by Leonardo DiCaprio. --FF

HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (PG) Schoolboy sorcerer Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his pals try to solve a series of mysterious attacks at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The first film found narrative momentum in Harry discovering his place in the newfound magical realm, but the sequel plays like an overlong Hardy Boys story set in Disneyworld’s Haunted Mansion. Exciting scenes involve monstrous spiders and snakes, and Kenneth Branagh conjures huge laughs as a fatuous professor, but they can’t make up for the slack storyline and surplus characters. Call it Harry Potter and the Chamber of Exposition. --CH?

THE HOT CHICK (PG-13) A high school hottie (Anna Faris) wakes up to find herself trapped in the body of a 30 year-old man (Rob Schneider). If you’ve always wanted to see Schneider prancing like a schoolgirl, this is the film for you.

I SPY (PG-13) Mindless entertainment, with the emphasis on mindless — unless you happen to find particularly entertaining the idea of yet another buddy/action comedy in which mismatched partners must overcome cultural differences (and death-defying stunt sequences) to save the world. This in-name-only “remake” of the ’60s secret-agent series features a disarmingly agreeable turn by Owen Wilson as the flustered straight man, but Eddie Murphy really ought give his obnoxious smart-ass routine a rest. --Bert Osborne

IMAX Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West (NR) Jeff Bridges narrates this sweeping documentary that traces the famed explorers’ 8,000-mile trek across America. Through March 28. Whales (NR) Follow orca, blue, humpback, right whales and dolphins through oceans around the globe in this doc narrated by Patrick Stewart. Through March 28. Fernbank Museum of Natural History IMAX Theater, 767 Clifton Road. www.fernbank.edu.

THE LION KING (G) Disney’s highest grossing film ever gets the IMAX treatment. Sort of like Hamlet on the plains of Africa, it depicts a young lion trying to reclaim his place atop the food chain from his usurping uncle. It’s not really in the league of classics like Pinocchio or Beauty and the Beast, despite its all-star voice cast and Elton John/Tim Rice songs that a generation of kids knows by heart. Regal Cinemas Mall Of Georgia IMAX, 3379 Buford Drive, Buford. --CH

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS (PG-13) The middle film based on Tolkein’s Middle-Earth epic is so full of spectacle it makes Fellowship of the Rings look like director Peter Jackson was just clearing his throat. It’s also a more black-and-white affair, stressing mortal combat over moral struggles as heroes like Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) resist the forces of evil. The schizophrenic Gollum, an all-CGI creation superbly voiced by Andy Serkis, has the most complicated inner life and proves the film’s unlikely star. --CH

MAID IN MANHATTAN a (PG-13) (PG-13) It wants to be Jennifer Lopez’s own monogrammed version of Pretty Woman, but the end product is more like Pretty Woeful. Lopez plays a hotel employee who, in one of those “mistaken identity” crises pulled off with more elan by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, finds herself wooed by a compassionate Republican who believes she’s another hotel guest. Ralph Fiennes is uncharacteristically relaxed as the politician, but this unimaginative effort marches with martinet precision through the usual cringe-worthy circumstances. --MB

MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING (PG) While not as accomplished as Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, this is nevertheless a gratifying romantic comedy that gently tweaks stereotypes even as its characters wallow in them. Adapted by Nia Vardalos from her own one-woman show, the film centers on the plight of a 30-year-old lonelyheart (Vardalos) who risks the wrath of her family when she falls for a non-Greek (John Corbett). --MB

PERSONAL VELOCITY (R) Though writer/director (and daughter of Arthur) Rebecca Miller’s film about three different women’s lives — in a nutshell, an abused wife, a preppie and a punk rocker — can bear traces of the overly precious, purposeful ambiguity of the modern short story, it also benefits from the craftsmanship and subtleties more often seen in contemporary prose than in movies. It is hard to think of a recent film with such challenging female characters engaged in such psychologically murky situations. At Lefont Garden Hills Cinema. --FF

THE PIANIST (R) Though less stylish and darkly humorous than typical Roman Polanski fare, this true story of Polish pianist and Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) will be fascinating stuff for Polanski fans who will find copious allusions to the director’s life and films in this somber and enlightening story. --FF

PINOCCHIO a (G) Released at the end of December, Roberto Benigni’s

take on the classic tale just beat the buzzer to emerge as the worst film of 2002. This is a monumental achievement in practically every facet of inept filmmaking: joyless, idiotic, annoying, heavy-handed, visually atrocious, and often downright creepy. The 50-year-old Benigni has cast himself as the wooden puppet who longs to become a real boy, and his performance is both tiresome and terrifying; the wretched dubbing from Italian into English helps to render it completely unwatchable. --MB

RABBIT-PROOF FENCE (PG) This archetypal tale of resisting impression resembles a runaway’s tale from Uncle Tom’s Cabin transported to the outback setting of Walkabout. In 1931 three Aboriginal girls of mixed parentage are stolen from their families to be forcibly integrated into white society, until they escape and try to make their way home along the 1200 mile fence of the title. With a chilling blandness, Kenneth Branagh plays the career bureaucrat who believes the policy of state-sanctioned kidnapping is doing the Aborigines a favor. At Lefont Plaza Theatre. --CH

RED DRAGON (R) The second film adaptation of Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon feels less like a remake of Michael Mann’s menacingly sterile Manhunter than a stylistic imitation of Jonathan Demme’s impeccable Silence of the Lambs. Director Brett Ratner offers an overlong but adequately suspenseful B-movie with an A-list cast that boasts remarkable work from Ralph Fiennes as a tormented killer and Emily Watson as his sightless paramour. Anthony Hopkins still zestfully chews scenery and hapless co-stars alike as Hannibal Lecter, but hopefully his third outing marks his retirement from the role. --CH

THE RING (PG-13) Mulholland Drive’s Naomi Watts plays a Seattle reporter investigating an urban legend about a videotape that kills its viewers — which may be no myth. This American remake of the superb Japanese thriller Ring can be both more self-consciously arty and more expensively gory than the restrained original. Director Gore Verbinski nevertheless finds some honest, atypical scares, generating paranoia of communications technology with the spookiest staticky TV set since Poltergeist. --CH

THE SANTA CLAUSE 2 (G) In the modestly entertaining original, Tim Allen played a hapless Joe who became a better dad by taking the role of St. Nick. The sequel, at one point known as The Mrs. Clause, finds Allen’s portly Kris Kringle tasked to find a wife in modern-day America.

STAR TREK NEMESIS (PG-13) The tradition that even-numbered “Star Trek” films are better than the odd ones holds up — barely — with the Enterprise’s tenth outing. Captain Picard’s (Patrick Stewart) conflict with a more youthful doppleganger (Tom Hardy) leads to choppy plotting, weak comedy and sets as cheesy as the original series’. But with a worthy villain, stellar combat scenes and Stewart at the helm, Nemesis sees the audience to a safe harbor. --CH

SWEET HOME ALABAMA (PG-13) You get a more accurate depiction of the South in that movie about the Country Bears than this lazy, laugh-deficient romantic comedy. Reese Witherspoon plays a hotshot designer engaged to the son of New York’s mayor, who she must get a divorce from the laid-back husband (Josh Lucas) she abandoned in her sleepy Alabama home town. Witherspoon’s controlled performance gives a few grace notes to a predictable parade of both Southern and wedding movie cliches. --CH

TREASURE PLANET (PG) Disney’s heart is in the right place for this animated, space-faring version of the Robert Louis Stevenson adventure, which boasts spectacular set pieces and a nice relationship between cabin boy Jim Hawkins and a cybernetic pirate named Silver. But unnecessary ballast comes from such shameless, pandering touches as a wisecracking robot (voiced by Martin Short), a pop power ballad, a cutesy alien sidekick and interludes for extreme sports. --CH

TWO WEEKS NOTICE a (PG-13) Sandra Bullock pratfalls her way through this inane romantic comedy as a klutzy environmental lawyer who reluctantly agrees to work for a millionaire playboy (Hugh Grant), but discovers her true feelings for him only after submitting her titular resignation. The hackneyed script from Marc Lawrence (Miss Congeniality, Forces of Nature) feels lifted from a handful of better films, and both leads show a “let’s-just-go-with-it” kind of resignation. --Tray Butler

WES CRAVEN PRESENTS THEY (PG-13) Robert Harmon, director of the cult suspense film The Hitcher, presents this horror flick about hotties who fear that their “night terrors” suggest that bona fide boogeymen are stalking them.

THE WILD THORNBERRIES MOVIE (PG) With such ambitious animated works as Monsters, Inc. being created specifically for the big screen, it’s becoming increasingly hard to justify plunking down hard-earned cash to sit through yet another big-screen adaptation of a currently popular cartoon television series. This time, it’s The Wild Thornberrys Movie, a takeoff on the show about a 12-year-old girl who, like Dr. Dolittle, has the ability to talk to the animals. This is basically a glorified TV episode — not painful, but awfully hard to get excited about. --MB