for Summer 2006
The Silence of the Lambs (1991, 118 min, R) **** - Directed by Jonathan Demme, starring Jodie Foster, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Anthony Heald, and Ted Levine.
And speaking of B-movies with A-budgets, I finally got around to seeing Thelma and Louise (**1/2). Like so many movies that were intensely popular a decade or so ago, but whose popularity has dropped sharply, “Thelma and Louise” felt under-whelming. It’s a road movie, and road movies are supposed to be B-movies, and B-movies are tight, efficient, unvarnished, and brutal. But the big budget, big stars, big run-time, and director Ridley Scott make the whole thing too fancy, too flabby, with too many “poignant” country-rock ballads. As the leads, Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are at once great, yet someone spilled the beans to them before shooting started and told them, “you’re playing soon-to-be cultural icons!” They’re behind glass, which is only intensified by the easygoing accessibility of the supporting players, including Thelma’s moron of a husband (a brilliant Christopher MacDonald) and the two lackadaisical cops (Harvey Keitel and Stephen Tobolowsky).
Still, the movie is shot beautifully and has some good laughs. Michael Madsen also shows up, 13 years before “Kill Bill,” and it’s interesting to see how much he’s refined his acting since then; his turn in “Thelma” is nothing but tics, clicks, winks, and thoughtful glances. His current acting is still basically the same, but he does so much less of it. It’s kind of like watching Hugh Grant in “About a Boy” and then mugging his way through “Four Weddings and a Funeral.”
“Thelma and Louise” reminds me of another Ridley Scott film with more bells-and-whistles than it needs, Hannibal (**1/2), sequel to The Silence of the Lambs (****). Both “Hannibal” and “Silence” have the kind of subject matter that used to be treated only by gritty black-and-white cheapies with questionable sound and Roger Corman in the credits. The big difference between “Hannibal” and “Silence” is that, despite the A-budget and big stars (Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins), “Silence” is still, basically, one of those intense, gritty cheapies, while “Hannibal” aspires for something more credible. Perhaps the apotheosis of the blood-and-guts American cheapie, “The Silence of the Lambs” is directed by Corman veteran Jonathan Demme, and Corman himself even makes a cameo. Watch the movie again and you’ll notice how absurdly tight it is—as tight as a movie that couldn’t afford to be anything but tight—with hardly a scene, a shot, or even a word wasted. As much gore is suggested as shown, and Demme often has his characters speak directly into the camera.
Even the color schemes suggest a difference of intent between “Silence” and “Hannibal.” While Roger Ebert mentions all the red-white-and-blue that appears in “Silence,” I remember it being largely a movie of autumnal greens and greys, with a distinct flavor of “I’ve been there before.” Every location seems vaguely familiar in a sleepy way, and “Silence” creates a great aura of evil lurking behind ordinary places. Even psycho killer Buffalo Bill’s (Ted Levine) crazy naked dance brings to mind a lonely kid hanging out in his room by himself, struggling to have a good time and keep the silence at bay.
The Poseidon Adventure (1972, 117 min, PG) ** - Directed by Ronald Neame, starring Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, and Shelley Winters.
“Hannibal,” however, is shot in the abstract, bold primary colors that Ridley Scott uses later in “Blackhawk Down.” It is filled with exotic locations (Italy), classical music, gore (literally revealing the same gore that was only suggested in the previous film), and is, overall, entirely too slick in its moviemaking apparatus. It is overloaded with technique. To make matters worse, it replaces the tightness of its predecessor with a loose, sloppy plot—the first half really does not contribute to the second half—and killer Hannibal (Hopkins) can simply appear anywhere out of thin air, whenever the plot needs him to.
Another neat little touch that makes “Silence” superior to “Hannibal” is that it has hardly any “faceless” characters. “Hannibal,” like so many big budget movies, has soulless bit players on both sides of the law who show up only to get blown away. Yet “Silence” makes it its business to make characters out of little one- or two-scene parts; the movie almost plays as a kind of warts-and-all ode to law enforcement. We don’t just come to know the officers who are Hannibal’s victims in the hotel, we get to know the faces of that entire swarm of cops that comes up the stairs after him. Chris Isaak shows up as the SWAT team leader. The SWAT guy who takes a peek in the elevator shaft isn’t just an obscured face behind a gun who speaks in a generic cop voice, but in his minute-or-so of screen time seems like a real person.
Still, “Hannibal” is an enjoyable flick the way every Ridley Scott thriller is at least sort of engaging in its sheer mechanics. This is the man, after all, who helmed “Gladiator,” which, empty as it is, is awfully slick. And you should probably read up on “Manhunter” and “Red Dragon.”
Of movies with B-hearts and A-aspirations, I finally got around to seeing The Poseidon Adventure (**) about the ocean liner that flips over. The disaster flick is the least credible of all genres, not because there’s anything inherently wrong with it, but because nearly everyone who makes disaster flicks wants to apologize for them. We the audience want the mechanical fascination of watching a building turn over, followed by the equally mechanical fascination of watching strong character types escaping from the overturned building. (There are several engrossing setpieces in “The Poseidon Adventure,” including the overturned ballroom, that live up to this fascination.)
Yet the people behind “The Poseidon Adventure”—and “Armageddon” and that other flaming brick in the sky movie from about the same time—are always trying to legitimize the disaster flick with needless “human interest:” whining characters, soppy romances, sentimental music, and stupid lessons learned. “Poseidon’s” religious allegory is well-intentioned and interesting, but it is delivered with all the subtlety of, well, an ocean liner being flipped over. “Poseidon” has a few moments of great camp, such as the character falling to his death from a ladder for no real reason at all, and the captain is played by Leslie Nielsen (need I say more?). Afterwards, I really wanted to watch “Airplane!” Gene Hackman is always reliable and does the best that he can, while the normally fun Shelley Winters goes way out of line; this is the fifth movie of hers that I’ve seen and she’s only lived through “Alfie.”
Reviews in a Hurry for Summer 2006.
More Reviews in a Hurry for Summer 2006.