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Indie Flix
By PHILLIP BOOTH and STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 29, 2001
Movies in limited release:
Faithless
(R; nudity, sexual situations, profanity) (142 min). Adultery and divorce are too often trivialized, if not glamorized, with the consequences ignored or treated as inevitable.
Ingmar Bergman's Faithless, inspired by a chapter of the retired Swedish director's own life and directed by his star and sometime lover Liv Ullmann, offers an opposing point of view. These are people whose lives have been absolutely shattered by an affair.
Set on the island of Faro, where Bergman lives, the film is constructed around a series of imaginary conversations between a white-haired old man (Erland Josephson) and an attractive, fortyish woman, Marianne (Lena Endre). She lives only in his mind's eye, summoned up to help him recall details of a long-ago romance.
Their brief exchanges offer relief from emotionally harrowing scenes told in flashback, as well as a different perspective on the events of the past. Something like forgiveness transpires when the Bergman character conjures up a younger version of himself.
Misery, in this case, may just have produced memorable art.
Swedish with English subtitles. Now playing at Tampa Theatre. B+
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-- PHILLIP BOOTH, Times correspondent
To Kill A Lawyer
(Unrated, mild sexual situations) (88 min.) Two years ago, Tarpon Springs attorney Steve Stavrakis teamed with his former roommate, filmmaker Gino Cabanas, to produce an $800,000 film in his hometown. Privately financed by that city's Greek community, the film, originally Stavro, was profiled in a 1999 Times article.
Two years and a title change later, To Kill a Lawyer surfaced, first at the recent TamBay Film Festival where it was named best feature, then for a two-week run at Channelside 9. This weekend, the film moves to Citrus Park 20 in north Tampa. Foreign distribution has been arranged with RGH Lions Share Productions, and more U.S. engagements are being sought.
The new title and a garish ad campaign completely at odds with the story are concessions to distribution economics. You can't easily sell a movie with a title translating to "cross" and a strong spiritual subtext. To Kill a Lawyer sounds, and looks like in its promotion, a sleazy exploitation flick. It isn't.
Stavrakis plays an attorney in moral crisis at work and home. Temptations to deceive insurance companies and his wife are getting stronger. He's haunted by the memory of his dead brother (Cabanas) and other childhood events leading back to the straight and narrow.
The most important is retrieving the blessed cross on Epiphany Day, a Greek Orthodox tradition. Cabanas filmed during the actual 1999 religious event, and the film's travelog elements are its best. Performances range from overly pensive (Stavrakis) to excessively wacky (the attorney's scamming clients). Drama is sketchy. However, familiar locations are always interesting to see on screen.
Nice message, some interesting visuals but, overall, a minor contender in the competitive world of independent cinema. Opens Friday at Citrus Park 20. C
Company Man
(R) (86 min.) Douglas McGrath co-wrote, co-directed and stars in this Cold War comedy about a high school teacher sucked into a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro. McGrath somehow lured Sigourney Weaver, Denis Leary and Alan Cumming into roles, plus a cameo by Woody Allen as an exasperated CIA agent.
Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert said of McGrath's film: "It's an arch, awkward, ill-timed, forced political comedy set in 1959 and seemingly stranded there.
"As bad movies go, Company Man falls less into the category of 'Affront to the Audience' and more into the category of 'Non-Event.' It didn't work me up into a frenzy of dislike, but dialed me down into sullen indifference."
Opens Friday at Channelside 9 in Tampa.
-- STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
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