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There
are two ghost ships this weekend…
One
is – duh! – Ghost Ship.
The other is The Truth About Charlie, which
will remain - for now, at least – a ghost of Charade…
whether it’s fair or not.
The
less interesting title is the action/horror movie, produced
by the Zemeckis/Silver/Adler company that they started for
just this kind of film… the B-movie chiller thriller. And damn it, this one starts out incredibly
promisingly.
The
film starts in the past… ghost ship is in the past, in its
time. Men and women
laugh and dance, dressed to the nines. An Italian torch-singing knockout moves seductively
in her electric red dress… and then the movie begins, not
with a bang or a whimper… with something much, much worse. And something really original, but gloriously reminiscent of the
great ghouly Brit horror flicks of the 60s and 70s… worthy
of Dario Argento.
Second-time
director Steve Beck still suffers from first-time-director
disease. (Close-up, close-up, close-up, close-up… there is
a table scene early on and I swear, the master must have been
burnt or something.) But
he has some really nice ideas.
He also has great taste in actors.
Gabriel Byrne and Isaiah Washington are
both quite high on my list. Ron Eldard can bring it when he wants
to. Juliana Margulies
may have been an in-house, inexpensive choice, but she shows
here that she can carry the weight, basically playing the
lead.
So
I was very frustrated when Beck & Co. just kept making
the wrong decisions. Some things were too underdone. I found the little girl whose been at the center
of the banner campaign and her relationship with her human
just about right. But
the haunting of the rest of the players…. Just not daring
enough. The movie
proves that it can be pretty twisted, but it just isn’t twisted
enough. Yet, there
are way overdone elements as well.
Watching the movie, you get the feeling that Steve
Beck would have kept the whole movie scored in the 50s
lounge music style. But
as soon as we get a desperate montage, here comes the heavy
metal. You can practically
hear the meeting. “It’s
too slow. The kids love that loud shit!” Maybe. But
it still feels more like desperation editing and really irritating.
This
was one of those movies where the really clever third act
just never materializes. I don’t want to give anything specific away,
but there is one character who is killed and this movie would
have been a lot better if he had come back to ghost life for
an entire act, finally free of some of the restraint he felt
in life. But no…
he’s just dead. Yawn.
Thing
is, a movie like this has to be a step ahead of us because
this territory is so well trod. The golden oldie twist is great.. but they
give up on it. The
maniacally extreme violence can be fun… but we only get it
once. And if you
are going to make a “count movie” – a movie in which one character
has to achieve a numbered goal – there had better be a clear
count and there had better be clear consequences.
Cause if Beck thought he was riffing on The Devil’s
Advocate, he didn’t come close to the very underrated
Taylor Hackford/Pacino-scenery-chewing movie.
Francesca Rettondini’s breasts are bigger than
Connie Nielsen’s and Charlize Theron’s combined…
but they are not used to anywhere near as smart an effect.
I
didn’t hate Ghost Ship… and many will.
But it was like a bright kid who should be doing better
than C- work.
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