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Video: New releases
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 14, 2001
Catch Clooney on the lam with the Coens
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
[Touchstone Pictures]
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Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson), Pete (John Turturro) and Everett (George Clooney) are trapped in a burning barn in O, Brother, Where Art Thou?
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(PG-13) Homer's epic The Odyssey gets twisted into a Depression-era comedy from Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, The Big Lebowski). George Clooney gives his best performance yet as Everett McGill, a slick-haired, fast-talking prison escapee trying to reunite with his wife (Holly Hunter). John Goodman appears as a Cyclops-style villain. Literature buffs will love the Coens' clever twists on Homer's poem.
First impressions: "Everything in this film is a tribute to something, from filmmaker Preston Sturges' optimism -- the title comes from his Sullivan's Travels -- to the history of country music and cinema itself. Sometimes, it's the Coens joyfully celebrating each other as artists unleashed. Whether they're daring or reckless is for the audience to decide. . . .
"The stroke of genius . . . is the Coens' use of roots-country music of the period to frequently comment on the action . . . country standards become as much a star of the film as the actors. The best scenes occur when music and motion are perfectly meshed, such as a riverside revival with Alison Krauss and a church choir singing Down to the River to Pray . . . Those sequences are hypnotic, but a few others are merely puzzling when the Coens get too clever for their own good. . . . (The film) fits somewhere in the middle of their shaggy oeuvre; odd enough to prove who made it."
Second thoughts: I've watched this movie a half-dozen times, and it keeps getting better.
Rental audience: Coen and Clooney admirers, vintage country music fans.
Rent it if you enjoy: Clean comedy, old-timey songs and crisp filmmaking.
Cast Away
[20th Century Fox]
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Tom Hanks goes through a startling physical and psychological transformation while stranded on an island in Cast Away.
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(PG-13) Tom Hanks scored another Oscar nomination with an actor's dream role: alone on screen for nearly an hour, completely changing his physical appearance to play an island castaway. His character, Chuck Noland, is a Federal Express workaholic turning on to Zenlike calm. Sharp opening, great airplane crash sequence, fascinating survival drama, then a flaccid final act.
First impressions: "Hanks is playing the Everyman at which he excels, a stand-in for anyone tethered to a schedule, arranging personal lives around appointments. The end of his journey is uneasy freedom, confused by lost chances and new potential, soothed by grass-roots dignity. Hanks always plays people we'd like to be, even when it hurts. . . .
"(Director Robert) Zemeckis deftly controls Chuck's island survival. It's a steady progression of mastering primal needs: food, shelter, water and clothing. The director never resorts to easy thrills such as snakes or sharks. That viewers might worry about those perils speaks well of the atmosphere Zemeckis develops."
Second thoughts: The movie doesn't stand up to repeat viewings, although Hanks is always a pleasure to watch. Helen Hunt seems barely there in an encore screening.
Rental audience: If only half of Hanks' fans rent the video, Cast Away will be a huge success.
Rent it if you enjoy: The modern Jimmy Stewart; CBS' Survivor TV series.
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