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Also opening
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 19, 2002
Has film's time come -- and gone?
[Photo: Paramount Pictures]
Heath Ledger and Kate Hudson in the 19th-century colonial drama The Four Feathers. |
It will be interesting to see how audiences respond to Skekhar Kapur's The Four Feathers, a story so old-fashioned it nearly creaks. There wouldn't seem to be much of a market these days for a 19th-century colonial drama set in Africa, even if it stars two of the hottest young actors today.
Heath Ledger, whose diverse credentials veer from A Knight's Tale to Monster's Ball, plays Harry Faversham, a British officer who resigns his post on the eve of a major battle in the Sudan. Three fellow officers brand him a coward, presenting him with three symbolic chicken feathers. The fourth feather cuts deepest, coming from his embarrassed fiance (Kate Hudson, Almost Famous). Harry departs in shame but returns in disguise to assist the British invasion and reclaim respect.
This is the sixth screen adaptation of A.E.W. Mason's novel (including a TV movie), with the 1939 version directed by Zoltan Korda regarded as the best. Kapur, an interesting choice to direct the newest film, was born under British rule in Lahore, India, (now Pakistan) and was accustomed to costume pieces such as Elizabeth and Bandit Queen.
The Four Feathers co-stars Wes Bentley (American Beauty) as Harry's closest disillusioned friend and Djimon Hounsou (Gladiator, Amistad) as Harry's trusty guide through Africa. The film wasn't screened in time for Weekend. See Friday's Page 2B for a review.
A modernized Christian parable
The religious parable Joshua (G), opening Friday at Citrus Park 20 in Tampa, isn't a good movie, but it's accomplished in the sense that the camera stays in focus and the actors learned their lines. The lack of artistry may not matter (the filmmaker apparently hopes) to its targeted audience: devout Christians seeking a night out or a reason for a field trip.
Tony Goldwyn (still known best as the guy who killed Patrick Swayze in Ghost) plays the title role, a modern-day wanderer who reminds the audience, and later a small town's citizens and even the Pope, that he's Jesus Christ. There are doubters, of course, including a vain Catholic priest (F. Murray Abraham). But Joshua's healing effects on troubled hearts and blind eyes eventually shine through.
Director Jon Purdy plays it straight, and the performances are sincere even while the dialogue veers between elementary and heavy-handed. Yet the film seems too freshly scrubbed, to the point where an angry teenager at odds with his parents over his guitar playing is doing contemporary Christian music that many parents wouldn't be concerned about. Comic relief, mostly provided by Kurt Fuller (Scary Movie) as a well-meaning priest, doesn't seem necessary in a film that often inadvertently sets itself up for laughter.
Even infrequent churchgoers will recognize parallels between Joshua and Jesus, from carrying burdens through town while a rapt audience follows, to a resurrection from the dead. Instead of a prostitute, we get a TV reporter (Stacy Edwards, In the Company of Men) attracted to Joshua, although Purdy isn't edgy enough to trace that connection. Everything about Joshua is reverent to a fault except for its audience, too often ignored by Hollywood. C
Waiting for the backlash
[Photo: Columbia Pictures]
Kevin Bacon portrays a criminal who holds Karen Jennings (Charlize Theron) and her husband hostage and kidnaps their daughter in Trapped. |
Sony Pictures Entertainment must recognize the bad timing of Trapped, an R-rated thriller centered around a child's kidnapping, because no advance screenings were planned.
A distributor can't just bury a project featuring Kevin Bacon, Courtney Love and Charlize Theron because recent child kidnappings are in the news (although doing so would be a responsible move). Sony may be hoping to just squeeze out a couple of days of ticket sales before the backlash.
Bacon and Love portray criminals with a scheme to snatch the daughter of a wealthy couple (Theron and Stuart Townsend) and earn a hefty ransom. The plan goes awry for reasons that probably wouldn't occur in real life, therefore cheapening a tragic topic. Trapped is directed by Luis Mandoki (Angel Eyes, When a Man Loves a Woman).
Going ballistic
The fall movie season just started, and we already have a front-runner for its worst title. Ballistic wouldn't be bad by itself: it describes the extreme violence that earned the movie an R rating. But somebody decided to tack on Ecks vs. Sever, two names that don't exactly beg to be remembered. So, we have Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, for better or (probably) worse; Warner Bros. didn't screen it in time for Tampa Bay-area critics. Ecks is Jeremiah Ecks, an FBI agent played by Antonio Banderas. Sever is the code name for a rogue spy played by Lucy Liu. They're chasing each other through international locales until it becomes obvious that someone sinister is chasing them. Then the first, better part of the film's title kicks in. Proceed at your own risk.
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