Monday, 16 April 2001

WEEKEND REVIEW

It was an interesting weekend, as none of the newcomers really turned out to have much juice.  The strongest was Bridget Jones’s Diary, with an estimated $10.8 million.  Of all the wide releases opening, Bridget had the smallest venue count, with just 1611.  Look for Miramax to expand that to over 2000 for next weekend and perhaps even add to their weekend total in weekend two.  With Spy Kids still holding strong for Dimension, this is the best one-two punch from the two-tiered company in over a year and Miramax-proper’s biggest non-Oscar run hit since 1999’s She’s All That.

Back to Spy Kids, Miramax is now publicly predicting that the film will pass $100 million - so it will.  Last weekend, the estimate, in a battle with Along Came A Spider, was $700,000 high, though it still stayed in first place.  This weekend, it may also be high, but it’s also likely to stay on top, estimating a $1.5 million lead over Paramount’s thriller.

The biggest disappointment of the weekend has to be Josie & The Pussycats from Universal, which was very aggressive about selling this PG-13 movie that aimed right at the MTV crowd.  No luck, with an estimated $5.2 million start.  Maybe critics not despising this movie hurt with the teens out there?  (There were plenty who ripped it, but the film did surprisingly well with some of the bigger outlets.) 

Pokemon 3 dropped 67 percent - by estimate.  Ouch.

THE GOOD:  I was shocked at how much I enjoyed Bridget Jones’s Diary.   I read the book at the behest of my 28-year-old niece and enjoyed it, though I wasn’t sure how it would play as a film.  I listened to all the bitching and moaning about the hiring of American Renee Zellweger to play the quintessential British gal.  And every appearance by Zellweger seemed to focus on her weight a lot more than it did on the movie. 

So, surrounded by a theater full of 30something women on Sunday afternoon, I didn’t anticipate much from the film.  And as it started, I was still iffy.  It seemed that first-time director Sharon Maguire was being a  little too cute and trying a little too hard to match the structure of the book. 

But soon, that all fell away.  Maguire is clearly not a great film stylist.  But that slowly became the charm of the film as it went from being a big, hyped film to an art house find before my eyes.  Zellweger’s performance had all the curves of real life.  Hugh Grant gave the most restrained, game free performance I’ve seen for him in a while.  And Colin Firth was drier than any martini.  And all that was good.  

By the time I realized that things like Bridget having a Greek chorus of three friends and Hugh Grant to boot, I was already well past worrying that this was yet another homage to Four Weddings & A Funeral.  (After the film, I realized that the producing team and writer behind Four Weddings and Notting Hill were behind this film as well.)   I really like Four Weddings, but this one is gloriously different, choosing a level of imperfection that contrasts directly with the slick glibness of the progenitor. 

And for me, the message about the basic humanity of people trying to find a human connection was quite beautiful.  Bridget is the clown princess of the effort.  But the men around her are just as flawed, even without the extra weight and fashion faux pas.  Even Bridget’s parents have to deal with the things that being people together and tear them apart. 

For me the film was, in the end, about the forgiving heart.  And that is a message that I was certainly ready to embrace. 

THE BAD:  An interesting story in the L.A. Times Calendar section by Rachel Abramowitz about the Simon Wiesenthal Center here in L.A. and its apparent ability to influence films that they don’t like right out of distribution.  The article was, apparently, inspired by the recent failure of The Believer, Henry Bean’s Sundance winner, to get distribution following an uncomfortable screening for the folks at the center.  Of course, they were there to get the center’s support and, with it, a marketing tool for the film ... the proverbial double edged sword. 

I have mixed feelings about the center’s influence as a film critic, industry analyst and as a Jew.  "Never forget" is the motto (that sounds like such a film word for such a serious subject) of those who discuss the Jewish holocaust of World War II.  And, no doubt, with revisionists everywhere and in a world of short memories, someone needs to be out there beating the drum.  On the other hand, the Wiesenthal Center has a tendency to embrace films that are quite overt about what side of the issue they are supporting.  Films that teach by showing the humanity and difficulties of people caught up in hatred are often shunned.  Great movies like Blood in the Face, Mr. Death and to a lesser extent, The Believer, are considered dangerous because they don’t point and shout, "These people are evil!"

Anyway, your turn to join the debate.  Click here for the story.

PAGE TWO:  Sly, Russell, Peter, Roger & Heath