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Video / DVD: New releases
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 13, 2003
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (PG)
Broad stereotypes, rampant overacting and a sitcom-quality script added up to one of the most talked-about movies of last year, an independently made romantic comedy that opened on a limited number of screens, expanded thanks to good word of mouth and turned into a blockbuster.
Nia Vardalos turns in an appealing performance as Toula, a shy, lonely, rather plain 30-year-old server at the Chicago ethnic restaurant run by her Greek-American family. Toula's prospects for romantic bliss dramatically increase when she meets and falls in love with college instructor Ian (John Corbett), a WASP and a vegetarian, therefore Mr. Wrong in the eyes of her gregarious relatives.
Will Toula's stubborn dad (Michael Constantine) and overbearing mom (Lainie Kazan) relent and allow their daughter an escape hatch to happiness? Will the rest of the noisy, rambunctious, fun-loving family frighten away Ian and his stuffy, reserved parents? It's all a bit hokey, but it's warm and affectionate, too. Bonus: Real people -- not supermodels or GQ cover boys -- inhabit this movie, adapted by Vardalos from her one-woman play.
DVD extras: A commentary by Vardalos, Corbett and director Joel Zwick.
Rent it if you enjoy: Monsoon Wedding, stories about unlikely romantic matches.
Steven Soderbergh, probably against the advice of his handlers, followed the Oscar success of Traffic and the commercial appeal of Ocean's 11 with this self-conscious trifle of a drama, shot with digital cameras on an 18-day schedule and a $2-million budget.
The filmmaker, working from a script by rookie screenwriter Coleman Hough, details the comings and goings of a septet of characters over the course of one day, mostly in Los Angeles. Julia Roberts and Blair Underwood play the stars of a movie being produced by Gus (David Duchovny). Magazine writer Carl (David Hyde Pierce) is married to a businesswoman who's having an affair with Underwood's character. The cast also includes Nicky Katt, hilarious as a bad stage actor playing a tortured Hitler, and Mary McCormack as a masseuse.
Full Frontal is either a brilliantly textured skewering of the Hollywood scene or mere self-conscious inside baseball. Either way, it may be disappointing to fans of Soderbergh's more mainstream fare.
DVD extras: A commentary by Soderbergh and Hough; deleted scenes; "in-character" interviews with cast members; an interview with Soderbergh; and other features.
Rent it if you like: Soderbergh's less accessible movies; Living in Oblivion (also released on DVD this week) and other films about filmmaking.
Neil LaBute abandons the ugly social interactions of In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors for a pleasant romance that doubles as a literary detective story. The filmmaker's transition to this high-toned material after the dark, comic Nurse Betty was more successful than might have been imagined.
Possession, adapted by the filmmaker and two co-screenwriters from A.S. Byatt's acclaimed novel of the same name, follows American academic Roland Michell (LaBute regular Aaron Eckhart) and British scholar Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow) as they attempt to solve the mystery of the relationship between two celebrated writers: Randolph Henry Ash was the poet laureate to Queen Victoria, and Christabel LaMotte was an early feminist.
LaBute neatly alternates between contemporary scenes in London, as Roland and Maud fall for one another and then second-guess their hasty trip to the bedroom, and Victorian times, as Ash (Jeremy Northam), married and famously faithful, and LaMotte (Jennifer Ehle), a lesbian, discover feelings for each other.
Rent it if you like: The French Lieutenant's Woman; adaptations of literary fiction.
Two friends, Dre (Taye Diggs) and Sidney (Sanaa Lathan) grow up on hip-hop, and director Rick Famuyiwa admirably demonstrates the music's evolution from street beat to commercial powerhouse.
Hip-hop has been the soundtrack for the lives of Dre and Sidney, going back to 1984, just as rock 'n' roll was the background music for baby boomers.
Now Dre is a successful producer, married to a beautiful social climber (Nicole Ari Parker), and Sidney is the editor of a music magazine and engaged to a basketball player (Boris Kodjoe).
Those elements add up to a moderately entertaining romantic comedy, with a second tier of actors -- Queen Latifah, Mos Def -- who are more entertaining than the film's stars.
DVD extras: A commentary with Famuyiwa and editor Dirk Westervelt; deleted scenes; music videos Love of My Life by Erykah Badu and Brown Sugar by Mos Def.
Rent it if you like: Hip-hop; movies with rap and hip-hop soundtracks; The Best Man, How Stella Got Her Groove Back and other films with Diggs.