Just in time for Labor Day comes The Cookout (PG-13), a comedy that wasn't screened for critics in time for Weekend review. Well-done films under those circumstances are rare, indeed.
The Cookout stars newcomer Quran Pender as Todd Anderson, a basketball phenom whose $30-million contract with the New Jersey Nets can buy an off-the-hook block party. The problem is that Todd now lives on a different block, in a mansion that a neighborhood security officer (Queen Latifah, above foreground) doesn't believe such a young man can afford. Once that misunderstanding is settled, Todd's barbecue party is besieged by relatives, friends and Madison Avenue hustlers wanting to share the wealth.
Latifah's role is brief, but the story was partly her idea, so it's polite to show up. Audiences may also recognize rap and hip-hop stars Eve and Ja Rule in supporting roles. If not, maybe Danny Glover and Farrah Fawcett playing Todd's uptight neighbors are more familiar. The Cookout should fare well at the box office, if only because the sole, fairly new comedy alternative for the holiday weekend is Without a Paddle.
- STEVE PERSALL, Times film critic
French remake doesn't translate
The latest French film to be Americanized is Gilles Mimouni's 1996 thriller L'Appartement, in which four urbanites share a Hitchcockian connection. The new version is Wicker Park (PG-13), and when it isn't losing erotic tension in the translation, it proves why U.S. audiences generally don't share French tastes, even without subtitles.
Wicker Park is self-consciously downbeat, well beyond the capacity of its attractive young cast to adequately convey. None of the actors seem worldly enough to shoulder all the angst they're asked to tote. As the game of mistaken identity, switched identities and identity crises proceeds, such immaturity sinks the drama to the level of high school jealousies.
Josh Hartnett's immobile face represents Matthew, left, a Chicago investment banker having second thoughts about marrying the boss' sister. Matthew is heading to China for a crucial meeting when he thinks he sees Lisa (Diane Kruger, right), a woman who broke his heart. Matthew cancels his trip - the boss never seems to notice - and obsessively follows Lisa's trail. Learning that he isn't the craziest person in the story is the film's only surprise, leading to a parade of contrivances.
When the movie ends, at least 30 minutes too late, it's clear that this problem could have been avoided with one simple telephone call from Lisa. Another call from Matthew's boss would have suddenly ended the quest, and caller ID would prevent a mysterious woman (Rose Byrne) from gumming up the works. This isn't a mystery; it's a marathon Cingular commercial.
Director Paul McGuigan (The Reckoning) draws attention to the plot's weaknesses by wrapping them in self-conscious cinematic tricks: interlocking split screen effects, tricky dissolves, and all sorts of reflected and refracted images in glass. It's like tying a gorgeous bow on a booby prize. McGuigan isn't aping Alfred Hitchcock; he's imitating Brian De Palma, who already milked the master dry.
The mood of Wicker Park is frustrating: pensive in the present and shifting to romantic comedy mode for Matthew's flashbacks to happier days. It's also one of those films in which scenes are replayed at least once, adding new clues each time, but none of them jaw-dropping. That is, unless you count the ridiculously complex obsessions that materialize. French filmmakers regularly succeed with such material because their audience is patient. American audiences want answers now, and sometimes require them to be repeated. McGuigan is happy to oblige, at the expense of his movie. C-
