Friday, 2 February 2001

WEEKEND PREVIEW

Welcome to the first weekend of davidpoland.com. Things are going to be a little different around here for now. For one thing, there will be no weekend edition (News By The Numbers). For another, I'm going to incorporate Box Office Extra into the main column. Together, we'll discover how that works. One of the primary changes to the new Hot Button so far is that we are updating every night, dumping the daily noon deadline. This may well end up exposing my lack of a copy editor, but so be it. All good things in time.

There are 8 new films premiering around the country this weekend. Four of them are on 10 screens or less - The Million Dollar Hotel, In The Mood For Love, Amy and Nico & Dani. Of the four, I have seen only one. Unfortunately, at the moment, I can't link you to my comments about In The Mood For Love because of some technical issues at the former roughcut.com. But I will reprint them in "The Good" below.

The limited, but more-than-100-site release, is Invisible Circus, the Sundance feature starring Jordana Brewster and Cameron Diaz. The mid-sized release of the week is the Kirk Cameron vehicle (yes, he's still acting), Left Behind.

The wide releases are Head Over Heels and Valentine. Only one of the two intends to be a horror movie. I haven't seen either, but box office prognosticators should remember that Freddie Prinze, Jr. is Mr. End of January. Two years ago, She's All That did $63 million domestic after opening on the last weekend of January. Last year, they tried a week early Freddie start with Down to You and ended up doing only $20 million. So, this year, they are trying the week after She's All That. We'll know what happens soon enough. But it's pretty unlikely that even Freddie Power can come close to matching last year's first-weekend-in-February opening of Scream 3… $34.7 million.

In holdovers, Cast Away will pass the $200 million mark this weekend. Thirteen Days loses about 25 percent of its screens this weekend, falling from 1936 sites to 1461 sites. Major holiday hits What Women Want and Miss Congeniality seem to be on their way out of the Top Ten this weekend, with $100 million in sight for the Sandra Bullock comedy and Mel Gibson's romp well on its way to $180 million.

WEEKEND GUESSTIMATES

1. Valentine - 2310 sites – new – 13.7 million
2. Head Over Heels - 2365 sites – new – $9.3 million
3. The Wedding Planner – 2785 sites – off 40 percent - $8.1 million
4. Save The Last Dance - 2570 sites – off 35 percent - $6.4 million
5. Cast Away - 2648 sites – off 30 percent - $5.7 million
6. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - 1161 sites – up 3 percent - $5.2 million
7. Traffic - 1580 sites – off 30 percent - $4.5 million
8. Sugar & Spice - 2150 sites – off 50 percent - $3 million
9. Finding Forrester - 1983 sites – off 35 percent - $2.99 million
10. Snatch - 1240 sites – off 40 percent - $2.8 million

THE GOOD: It is an interesting year in which Wong Kar-wai and Ang Lee have both decided to make decidedly old fashioned movies. Lee twists the musical, love story and Kung Fu flicks into Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger to explosive, enormously crowd-pleasing effect. And Wong Kar-wai takes the black-and-white melodrama into new territory, with the story of two married people faced with their partners' infidelities… with each other. The story's been done before, but never quite like this. And Wong Kar-wai's collaboration with cinematographer Chris Doyle (and his replacement, who came in when Doyle had to leave as production ran over, Mark Li Ping Bing) continues to be eye candy of rare sweetness.

Maggie Cheung is perfect as the object of restrained desire. Her lanky form, flattered by magnificent high-necked dresses that compliment her curves and accentuate her long, long, long legs. Tony Leung is also dead on in his composed, eternally poker-faced potential lover. He explains to a friend who has a pliable sense of moral values, "I am not like you." And he's not.

But In The Mood For Love is not the romantic tragedy that you might expect out of a 1930s melodrama. These two suffer, but they aren't tragic. Melancholic is probably the low point for them. But there is always an odd, almost inexplicable sense of joy somewhere in the background, no matter how sad the moment.

THE BAD: There are few experiences in this business more frustrating than a movie loaded with talent that just misses the mark. The Invisible Circus is one of those movies. The acting is terrific. The direction is okay for a first timer. (Unfortunately, this is Adam Brooks third film.)

So what went wrong? Well, the core problem is the indecision about just whose story was being told here. The story is about a young woman who is tying to deal with the mysterious death of her idealized elder sister's memory. The sister, played by Cameron Diaz, was a free spirit who seemed ready to take on anything. Her death has haunted her younger sister, played by Jordana Brewster, and causes her to stay more conservative in her life choices. That is, until she decides that her own personal freedom demands that she take a journey in her late sister's footsteps to learn exactly what happened.

But the problem is that Cameron Diaz' character doesn't just haunt the film, but seems to be equal in importance to the film as the sister who drives the story. This is a huge mistake. This has to be Jordana Brewster's film and she does everything you could ask of her to fill those shoes. But the lure of Cameron Diaz, who does a fine job herself, is too much for Mr. Brooks.

The other big misstep is the casting of Christopher Eccleston as the hippie radical turned regular European guy who becomes the middleman between the younger sister and the truth about her older sister. I love Eccleston as an actor. But he's an iceman. He's not the warm, free-love type guy whom this part is meant to embody. It's kind of reminiscent of Helen Hunt in Cast Away, though Eccleston is a lot more dominant in this movie than Hunt is in that film. And his chill makes whole sections of the movie unbelievable.

This could have been a great success and a lovely, gentle tale about coming of age and love between siblings that reaches beyond time and space and even the grave. Unfortunately, it's been reduced to a travelogue with a couple of interesting stories that could have been told a lot more simply. Too bad.

THE UGLY: I don’t know how noticeable it is, but I am extraordinarily exhausted these days. I hope the column isn't suffering… and you with it. Between the quiet pre-Oscar nod period and post-Sundance exhaustion and post-layoff clean up of roughcut, I am ready for a one month nap. But I'll still see you Sunday night.

RADIO RADIO: If you haven't heard, I can no longer be heard on KABC-790 on Saturdays. The Movie Show is dead. Long live The Movie Show.

GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: From the Associated Press: "Laid-off hourly workers at Amazon.com Inc.'s Seattle customer service center will now be able to receive extra severance benefits without signing an agreement prohibiting them from bad-mouthing the company. Amazon had earlier told the laid-off workers they would each receive an extra six weeks' pay and $500 in cash if they signed an agreement that included a promise not to make derogatory comments about the company. Amazon said Thursday it is still asking hourly employees to sign the 15-page agreement to receive the extra benefits, but told workers they can delete that particular clause. Employees that do not sign the agreement will receive only the standard two weeks' pay. The remainder of the agreement covers confidentiality, noncompetition and other legal issues. On Tuesday, Amazon announced that it would lay off 1,300 workers, or 15 percent of its workforce. The layoffs are part of Amazon's plans to become profitable by the fourth quarter of 2001. Though a leader in online retailing, the company that sells everything from books to tools has never turned a profit."

JUST WONDERING: Did anyone really think that Marilyn Manson was going to play Willy Wonka in a Tim Burton remake of the classic film?

BAD AD WATCH: I'm still trying to figure out what Roger Ebert had for breakfast the morning he decided to laugh at Sugar & Spice. ("Thumbs up! I loved this movie! It's really funny!") I haven't seen a movie throw away the kind of talent involved in that picture since… well, since Little Nicky. But don't think that I'm saying that if you liked Little Nicky, you'll like Sugar & Spice. At least there were some competent moments in Little Nicky. (As one New Liner said, when asked about whether S&S being cut from the R-rated comedy they shot to the PG-13 comedy they release, "It was the same piece of shit with an R-rating as the piece of shit it is with a PG-13 rating.") In fact, I'm pretty sure the only satisfaction Mike DeLuca got out of being fired at New Line was that it came before Sugar & Spice could soil his name by being released during his tenure. (Actually, the payout for the remaining months of his contract was probably a bit more satisfying.)

READER OF THE DAY: This comes from Sam The Man: "I read your comment about the reason Jodie Foster passed on Hannibal, i.e. that De Laurentiis was offering Hopkins twice what he offered her.

However, De Laurentiis has - in several interviews now - insisted that Foster's agent Joe Funicello told him he had received instructions from Foster to not even accept a script to read until De Laurentiis offered Foster $20 million + 15 %. Hopkins is only getting $10 million + 15%. If what De Laurentiis is saying was false, spokespeople for Foster (not to mention lawyers) would have already come forward – Foster annoyed a lot of fans (myself included) by passing and would logically like to protect herself from backlash coming from the perception she was overly greedy.

Both Foster and De Laurentiis have gone on record about their mutual dislike (in Rachel Abramowitz's book "Is That a Gun in Your Pocket?" Foster says it was Dino's calling her fat when she was 14 that gave her an eating disorder).

I liked the novel Hannibal but there was something very strange in all the coincidences between the lives of Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins and the Clarice and Hannibal in Hannibal. I read on a Silence-obsessives board a quite impressive list of jarring similarities.

Hannibal is suddenly the exact same age as Hopkins. There are rumors about Hopkins' sexuality, the same is true of 'people who knew' Hannibal in the back story of that novel. Hopkins trained as a concert pianist before becoming an actor, Hannibal is now an accomplished pianist. There were several others which I don't recall. Foster obviously had a child with a turkey baster like Margot in the book. Foster is reported to be a lesbian, everyone in the FBI in Hannibal thinks Clarice is - Foster has never had a boyfriend, neither has Clarice. Clarice cannot rid herself of the influence of her father, Foster's mother is the domineering stage mother from hell.

As I said, I won't list them all, and don't remember some, but Foster must have been struck by the similarities which are eerie and suggest that Thomas Harris may have wanted to get back at his lead actress. He must approve of Hopkins; he gets the juicy role. If you recall when Silence came out, there was a lot of protest from - then - newborn gay advocacy groups that Silence was homophobic. The new gay characters in Hannibal would have been enough to scare off the King of PC, Jonathan Demme. When Foster was publicizing Silence, she tried to 're-write' it as a feminist epic - to a great degree deforming Harris' work to suit her personal political agenda (and not,negligibly, to diminish Hopkins' impact). Clarice's transformation in Hannibal could be seen as Foster's comeuppance.

I'm looking very much forward to this film, though it seems like the Barney-Margot romance - which mirrored the Clarice-Hannibal story - got the chop, which is a great pity. They were worth a movie unto themselves."

E ME: For the first time, let me write, "The opinions set forward by readers of the day are not necessarily those of davidpoland.com, it's proprietors or any of it's subsidiaries, such as David's former girlfriends." But hey, it's a tasty bit of bite. What do you think, even having not seen the film? The one thing I massively disagree with is that Jodie Foster would respond to a rumor about herself out of self-protection. If there has anyone in this business who has lowered her head and taken on the storm without responding to any of the many, many rumors about her and her personal life in particular it is Foster. What do you think?