They’re crazy old coots, given to sitting on their porch, sipping iced tea
and taking aim at the traveling salesman who keeps sniffing around after
hearing of their purported millions. Walter, abandoned by his trampy, flaky
mom (Kyra Sedgwick), is spooked by the trigger-happy grumps but gradually
warms to their idiosyncrasies and tales of adventure in the French Foreign
Legion.
Walter, having discovered mementos of Duvall’s onetime exotic romance,
wonders if the Legionnaire yarns aren’t faked. “Just because something ain’t
true don’t mean you can’t believe in it,” Duvall replies — a twisted
sentiment.
Boosting the movie’s “ahhh” moments, the wacky uncles also keep a menagerie
of five inseparable dogs and one pig, to which they add an aging, mail-order
lion (hence the title). They’d just as soon shoot the ragged critter, but
Osment, the movie’s bleeding heart, begs them to spare the beast.
McCanlies, the screenwriter of the animated hit “The Iron Giant,” makes a
genial but disappointing directing debut with this coming-of-age schmaltz fest.
Caine and Duvall are expert, but the movie strains too hard for cockeyed
whimsy, and Osment, too old for his part, is less than convincing as a wide-
eyed, impressionable naif.
He’s at the awkward stage, beyond childhood but not ready for young
romantic leads. Most child actors don’t finesse the transition — Jodie Foster
and Drew Barrymore are exceptions — and if Osment makes any more mistakes
like “Secondhand Lions,” he could join the sad ranks of former child stars.
– Edward Guthmann
‘THE FIGHTING TEMPTATIONS’
Comedy with music. Starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Beyonce Knowles and the O’Jays.
Directed by Jonathan Lynn. (PG-13. 110 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)
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“The Fighting Temptations” announces its priorities from the first scene,
with a gospel choir rocking the floor boards of a small church in rural
Georgia. The music is glorious; the scene is exuberant and edging toward
frenzy, and everyone is exultant and moving in the spirit. “The Fighting
Temptations” is all about such musical numbers, and the rest of it is just a
clothesline to hang them on.
For the most part, it’s a sturdy clothesline, providing, despite a few sags,
a warm comic story that’s fairly engaging even when no one is singing. Cuba
Gooding Jr. plays Darrin Hill, a New York advertising executive whose life is
foundering in lies, petty fraud and unpaid debt. Partly to avoid his creditors,
he heads south to attend the funeral of a beloved aunt — and then decides to
stay when he finds out there’s something in it for him: His aunt’s will
stipulates that, if he leads the church choir in a regional competition, he
will inherit stock worth $150,000.
Like the similarly named Harold Hill in “The Music Man,” Darrin is a
softhearted faker who inspires a small town to dream. But his usual pattern of
taking the money and running becomes less attractive to him once he meets the
woman of his dreams right there in rural Georgia. Beyonce Knowles plays a
single mom who also does a sultry singing act in the town’s hot spot. Knowles
is the main musical attraction of the film — she sings “Fever” as though she
were Rita Hayworth in “Gilda” putting the blame on Mame, plus a number of
traditional gospel tunes.
The O’Jays also appear as townspeople who join the choir, and gospel
legends such as Shirley Caesar and the Blind Boys of Alabama, playing
themselves, also perform. Gooding doesn’t sing, but his buoyant energy is in
keeping with the music, and his comedic skill is considerable. He’s ably
supported in the New York scenes by Dakin Matthews, who plays Darrin’s boss
with impeccable comic timing.
- This film contains a couple of mild sexual situations.
– Mick LaSalle
‘DEMONLOVER’
Thriller. Starring Chloe Sevigny, Connie Nielsen and Gina Gershon. Directed
by Olivier Assayas. (Not rated. 117 minutes. At the Lumiere)
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A thriller in need of Sandra Bullock, Ashley Judd or someone else to root
for, “Demonlover” is well-scripted, well-acted and occasionally sexy, but just
isn’t all that interesting.
The film focuses on Diane (Connie Nielsen), who works for a huge French
corporation called VolfGroup. We meet her during a plane trip, where she
orchestrates the drugging and mugging of a colleague so she can take over a
big account.
It soon becomes apparent that Diane isn’t what she seems — nobody is in
“Demonlover” — and the next 110 minutes are spent following her life-or-death
maneuvering with love interest Herve (Charles Berling), American businesswoman
Elaine (Gina Gershon) and long-suffering assistant Elise (Chloe Sevigny).
“Demonlover” aspires to be about sex, murder, Japanese animation and
corporate game-playing — with the women doing most of the double- and triple-
crossing — but the movie often fails to make sense.
While the actors are game for wherever the plot takes them, the audience is
left wondering why this collection of characters is willing to lie, rape and
kill over the subject of VolfGroup’s big deal — a few bad pornographic
cartoons. As the film meanders gleefully to Internet torture Web sites and
other forms of sexual brutality, nobody seems shocked or concerned.
Director and writer Olivier Assayas is skilled with handling actors and
making a little money go far (the film manages to create the illusion that
events take place in France, the United States and Japan — even though most
of it appears to have been shot in empty hotel rooms). A pivotal dinnertime
confrontation between Diane and Herve is particularly nuanced, and the
partially subtitled film shuffles between three languages (French, Japanese
and English) without breaking stride.
What Assayas lacks is the ability to make the viewer care about his
characters, even as the movie takes some interesting turns. None of the main
players in “Demonlover” seem to have families or lives outside of screwing one
another over, which makes it easier to feel indifferent about their fates.
Maybe it’s a French thing, but all of the leads in “Demonlover” seem
clinically depressed. After a while there’s nothing for the audience to do but
feel the same way.- This film contains graphic sex scenes, adult language and violence.
– Peter Hartlaub
‘MAMBO ITALIANO’
Comedy. Starring Luke Kirby, Peter Miller, Paul Sorvino, Ginette Reno.
Directed by Emile Gaudreault. Written by Steve Galluccio and Gaudreault. (R.
88 minutes. At the Embarcadero.)
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The mega hit “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” reopened the closet doors to broad
ethnic humor. That film was subtle compared with “Mambo Italiano,” a coming-
out comedy that mines every cliche of cloistered Italian culture. But like
“Greek Wedding,” “Mambo” has enough funny moments to save it.
Characters smack one another on the back of the head and yell “basta” as
cloying string music keeps telling us, “These people are Italian.” The movie
is set in Montreal’s Little Italy in the present, but it could be the 1950s,
with Mama in flour-sack dresses, young women in teased hair and tight clothes,
and parents smiting their foreheads because their grown sons want to move out
of the house.
The homosexuality of lead character Angelo (Luke Kirby) is supposed to
modernize the picture, but the gay plotline seems more like a device amid all
the paisano antics. Anything “other” would have set off Angelo’s shrieking
family — at least his lover Nino (Peter Miller) is Italian.
The gay element seems especially flat because the Angelo character is
barely likable. First, he outs his cop lover against his wishes, then berates
his parents (Paul Sorvino and Ginette Reno) for their small minds and
constrained lives. Filmmaker Emile Gaudreault hasn’t done enough to establish
Angelo as a nice guy before the family crisis starts.
The freshest moments come from the guys’ respective families trying to one-
up each other, even in their horror that their sons are gay. Angelo’s parents
engage in a heated argument with Nino’s mother about who’s the dominant
partner in the gay couple. Sorvino and Reno bring a lived-in, bickering
affection to their roles that offsets the caricatured elements.
Gaudreault and co-writer Steve Galluccio pack the movie with jokes, and
about half of them are at least mildly funny. There are a few humdingers, like
a brief, hilarious speech at the headquarters of a gay phone help line. It’s
also a nice conceit that Angelo, a travel agent who dreams of being a TV
writer, pens scripts that are truly terrible.
Kirby has a fresh-faced appeal that sees his character through his flaws,
and Miller’s enigmatic quality suits a guy who might not really be gay. But
the leads are required to be tortured by their homosexuality, and thus not
very funny. Miller actually has more chemistry with sassy Sophie Lorain, as an
alpha female out to make Nino straight: “Give me an hour in the gay village,
and there won’t be a gay village no more.”
“Mambo Italiano” lacks any violence — other than those smacks to the head -
- and the sexuality is discreet, so the R rating must have come from its
gratuitous language. Characters say the f-word like they’re in “Reservoir
Dogs” — a curious choice for a quaint family comedy.
- This film contains sexual situations, raw language.
- Carla Meyer
‘SMALL VOICES’
Drama. Starring Alessandra de Rossi, Dexter Doria, Gina Alajar, Amy Austria
and Bryan Homecillo. Directed by Gil Portes. Written by Gil Portes, Adolfo
Alix Jr. and Senedy Que. (Not rated. 105 minutes. Tagalog with English
subtitles. At the Lumiere, Shattuck in Berkeley, Metro Center in Colma and the
Towne 3 in San Jose.)
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It’s too bad only one foreign film usually gets attention at the Academy
Awards. Scores of countries submit entries every year — and every year the
submissions are pared down to a select winner (this year: “Nowhere in Africa”)
while the rest are often left behind, lucky to get any mention.
Fortunately, the Philippines’ 2003 entry, “Small Voices,” has been picked
up for American distribution, giving U.S. audiences a chance to check out this
movie about a young, idealistic teacher who works with children in a poor
village. At times dramatic, sweet, funny and sentimental, “Small Voices”
almost seems like a fable — except that it’s based on a real story and
includes a subplot threaded with violence.
Melinda Santiago (Alessandra de Rossi) faces stiff resistance from parents
and fellow teachers when, shortly after taking the job, she tries to enter her
class in a regional singing contest. Santiago’s corrupt and cynical colleagues
aren’t used to someone who questions school policies and uses resolve and
creative measures (like selling ice candy to villagers) to support class
projects. Although Santiago’s students are excited about practicing for the
vocal competition, their parents say it needlessly cuts into their kids’ time
for house chores and farming duties. One mother threatens to take her daughter
out of class because “you’ll (eventually) just marry and have kids.”
“Small Voices” addresses issues that transcend Filipino culture, and the
setting and characters may even seem familiar to those who enjoy the work of
Satyajit Ray and other directors who are considered humanist filmmakers. But
Gil Portes — a Philippine-born-and-raised director and screenwriter who now
lives in New York — includes many details that are unique, including the
guerrilla insurgency that draws in the father of two students. Perhaps the
biggest blemish of this touching film are the white subtitles that are
occasionally hard to read.
- This film contains scenes of dead bodies.
– Jonathan Curiel
‘IN THIS WORLD’
Drama. Starring Jamal Udin Torabi and Enayatullah. Directed by Michael
Winterbottom. Written by Tony Grisoni. (R. 90 minutes. In Dari, Farsi and
other languages, with English subtitles. At the Metreon.)
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They’re usually just nameless people cited in U.N. documents or newspaper
briefs about human cargo. Whether it’s Chinese immigrants caught on ships
bound for America or Turks and Iraqis found in big-rig containers heading for
Europe, these illegal immigrants keep risking their lives in search of a
better home.
With “In This World,” director Michael Winterbottom puts an empathetic face
on the problem, dramatizing the plight of two Afghans who leave the squalor of
Pakistan for the promise of London. Employing a technique more common to
Iranian filmmakers than those in the West, Winterbottom puts nonactors in the
main roles. In fact, the two Afghans who star in “In This World” are refugees
whose lives mirror the ones they portray in this sensitive and illuminating
work.
Jamal Udin Torabi, whose character is named Jamal, and Enayatullah, whose
character is named Enayat (many Afghans have just one name), lived in Pakistan
when they were tabbed by Winterbottom’s crew. Their lack of English and
affectation give the film its realism, and so does Winterbottom’s sweeping
camera work, which shows the two Afghans going overland from Peshawar,
Pakistan (on the border with Afghanistan), to Iran’s capital, Tehran, to the
mountains of Turkey and onward. The footage of peaks and open-road terrain is
stunning.
Make no mistake, though: While Jamal and Enayat succeed in embarking on an
epic journey (thanks to paying off human traffickers), they are forced along
the way to spends days in shabby, pathetic “hotel” rooms. Their time hiding in
the backs of fruit and animal trucks isn’t any better. Everywhere they go,
authorities seem to be nearby. In short, Jamal and Enayat go through hell to
leave conditions that are also hellish.
Winterbottom’s last film, the jaunty, funny “24 Hour Party People,” was
about Manchester’s musical heyday. Where that movie showcased fame, sex,
excess and narcissism, “In This World” profiles conditions that many
Westerners would rather ignore. Winterbottom is a credit to his profession —
someone who doesn’t fit easy categorization, and someone who lets his
conscience dictate his projects. By humanizing an immigrant/refugee crisis
that is not abating, Winterbottom does a cinematic service that happens to be
damn interesting, too.
- This film contains a scene of an animal killing.
– Jonathan Curiel
‘CET AMOUR-LA’
French romance. Starring Jeanne Moreau and Aymeric Demarigny. Directed by:
Josee Dayan. Written by Josee Dayan. (Not rated. 98 minutes. In French with
English subtitles. At the Lumiere.)
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Harold and Maude play it straight in this French — very French — take on
an autumn/spring relationship. Legendary French actress Jeanne Moreau, whom
Orson Welles once called simply “the greatest actress in the world,” is
onscreen for virtually every second of this take on the end of the life of
prolific writer Marguerite Duras.
Moreau, now 75, can still command the camera. At times she glares into the
lens and dares you to suggest that she can’t play the romantic lead. Hey, you
tell her, the rest of us are too intimidated.
But her moonstruck lover, Yann (Aymeric Demarigny), seems equally
overpowered by the Moreau steamroller. Some of it is the role she is playing.
As shown here, Duras is a bossy, obstinate, mercurial diva whose social graces
weren’t improved by alcoholism. She is given to statements like “I am
incredibly talented. That is a fact.”
The idea is that Yann is so awed by her gift that he is willing to overlook
everything: the difference in their ages, her moods and fits, and the loss of
any sense of his own life, just to be with her. But as Yann, Demarigny looks
like Harry Potter’s older brother and acts like a lovesick puppy. Since he and
Moreau are pretty much the entire cast, he doesn’t give the Duras character
much to play against.
As the film drags on, and Duras’ health begins to fail, their relationship
seems more unlikely than ever. It seems inconceivable that this young man
would put his life on hold to spend every waking moment with this jealous,
possessive, combative old woman.
Except, of course, that it is a true story. Yann Andrea, a college student,
became so infatuated with Duras, then 65, that he wrote her as many as five
letters a day for five years. When they met he moved in with her, ministered
to her demons and helped to coax one last great book, “The Lover” from her.
And then, when she died, Andrea found he had learned the writing craft from
her. He wrote the novel on which this movie is based.
It is a great story, but it hasn’t been translated to the screen. It is
never a good sign when the biographical notes have more emotional wallop than
the movie.
- Adult themes and drinking.
– C.W. Nevius