Friday, 25 February 2000

WEEKEND PREVIEW

It's good vs. evil amongst the new releases this weekend. Wonder Boys is the first "real film" to hit screens in 2000, with a major cast of quality actors, an Oscar® -level director and a call to thought in its sensibility. But all that also makes it what would traditionally be a fall movie opening up in the early spring movie season (winter ends in movieland on January 1.)

On the other hand, we have Reindeer Games, a movie obviously meant for Christmastime. Don’t worry. The conceptual change of season doesn't effect this thriller one bit.

On the third hand, you still have all the Oscar movies to see...including documentaries and shorts if you are somewhere where you can get to them. Plus, if you are in New York, you can now see Soren Kragh-Jacobsen's Mifune, of which I am a big fan. And the much-buzzed-about U.K. comedy The Closer You Get opens in N.Y., L.A. and Toronto, Canada. So, there are some extra choices. Good luck out there.

Box Office Extra will be a click away (here) after noon, e.s.t.

THE GOOD: There is something I really like about Wonder Boys. But I can't quite put my finger on it. I'm going to have to go back to see it again this weekend if I can, because I can't quite get my head around it. I love, as I've written before, Tobey Maguire's performance in particular. I think he gets to play a lot of levels and he works on every one. Frances McDormand has a small role, but she is really, really good. Katie Holmes is embarrassingly sexy. (There is something surreal about a woman with that childlike a face and those breasts.) And Michael Douglas is right there with his performance. The story is quirky and warm and J.M. Barrie-esque, with one grown-up Peter Pan leading another, who has to learn to fly before he can appreciate the earth.

And yet, it never felt to me, watching it the first time, like it all came together. There are so many likeable moments and smart ideas, that you spend your time in the theater smiling. Steven Kloves' script seems to work. And Curtis Hanson got so much right. Even the little casting jobs. But the pace...there's something off. I've looked to other writers to try to find the key here. Jeff Wells analogizes it all to a marijuana haze. Roger Ebert has personalized the film, as I personalize films like Avalon, so that was a little like reading a sonnet to a girl on whom he has a crush. And The New York Times' A.O. Scott started with a book review of the source material and then segued into a review-by-thesaurus that might have been more at home in a philosophy book than a movie review.

And so, I guess the weight is back in my corner. I have to go see the movie again. Maybe I'll love it this time, as all the quirks seep into me like oil on wood. Or maybe I'll feel the cold shiver of didn't-really-work come over me. One thing I will say for sure...this is not just another movie. Something interesting is going on there. I'm just still not sure what.

THE BAD: The news that Harrison Ford was dropping out of Steven Soderbergh's Traffic was quite disheartening. Not for the movie so much -- though I would have loved to have seen Ford in a role like this -- but for Ford, who has made efforts behind the scenes to expand his range lately, but has now gone back to what he's been doing for years, another big action movie. I guess if it turns out that he had to leave Traffic to do the next Tom Clancy movie or Indiana Jones 4 and they just couldn't tell anyone today, that would be okay. But I doubt that either is true. My guess is that Ford ran into tough negotiations, and a role that was already perceived as a little risky and that was going to stay risky with Soderbergh at the helm, and bolted. And that sucks. Ford needed Traffic more than Traffic needed Ford.

The buzz of the moment about a Ford replacement is Kevin Costner. And you know what? I love the idea. For Costner and the movie. Costner hasn't had a director he couldn't steamroll in a long time. And he may be the ideal movie-star casting (after Ford). Unlike some, I don't dislike Costner as an actor. I hate him as an editor. I don't need to see him looking into the distance for 30 seconds at a time ever again. But I do see why he is a movie star. It was there from the moment he stole Silverado from a great cast of actors. If he's really ready to be an actor, and not everything to everyone (everyone being himself), I'm all for that idea. (BTW, Costner is out of Pearl Harbor and as amused as I was about the idea of Costner and Bay going at it, the world is a safer place after the decision.)

One last note: The filmmakers are saying that they are firm on an April 4 start date. The studio is waffling. I wish the studio wouldn't do that. Steven Soderbergh, to whom this column has become a love poem lately, is in a rhythm that is, it seems, a lot about getting to work and moving forward without all the frills. If he and his producers want to rock-n-roll, I say, "Let them." He is a director who is creating like an old-fashioned studio director. Set them up, knock them down. And unlike one friend's contention that one big miss will mark the end of him, I think that if Soderbergh just keeps rolling, he can have a flop at some point and just keep rolling, shooting one while the flop happens, with one set up four months later. That's how they used to do it. Not too expensive, not too persnickety, rolling, rolling, rolling.

PAGE TWO: Nice Butt Ugly, Lil' Jeff & Me and Other Old People