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Falling for 'Bridget' all over again
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 11, 2001
New releases
Bridget Jones's Diary (R)
[Photo: Miramax]
Renee Zellweger, left, and Hugh Grant star in Bridget Jones’s Diary.
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One year in the life of a lonely, spunky woman as she struggles to lose weight and find true romance. Bridget (Renee Zellweger) tumbles into bed with her charmingly vulgar boss (Hugh Grant), misses the concealed affections of a wisecracking friend (Colin Firth) and generally acts a martyr and role model for any woman ever left home alone on Saturday night.
First impressions: "Zellweger added 20 pounds and British intonation to her crinkly eyed fragility that made Jerry Maguire melt, making Bridget Jones a delightfully crude romantic . . . more real than movies usually allow . . . Mostly, the film glides, even when it's doubling back on itself with Bridget's romantic relapses . . . a brisk, bawdy 96 minutes. You may not think you can smile that long. Bridget Jones's Diary proves how easily it can be done."
Second thoughts: Still one of the best films of a poor movie year.
Rental audience: "Singletons" and "smug marrieds" alike.
Rent it if you enjoy: Breakfast at Tiffany's, Muriel's Wedding, Helen Fielding's novel.
One Night at McCool's (R)
[Photo: USA Film]
Michael Douglas, left, and Liv Tyler in One Night at McCool’s.
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Beautiful woman (Liv Tyler) walks into a bar and starts seducing every man in sight. The bartender (Matt Dillon) thinks he loves her, his cousin (Paul Reiser) wants to steal her away, and the detective (John Goodman) investigating her claims of a killing in self-defense can't keep his mind on his work. Each man has his own Rashomon-style recollections of what truly happened.
First impressions: "One Night at McCool's does not quite work, but it has a lot of fun being a near-miss. It misses, I think, because it is so busy with its crosscut structure and its interlocking stories that it never really gives us anyone to identify with . . ." (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
Second thoughts: This movie sat on USA Films' shelf for nearly a year before escaping into theaters. It will be barely noticed on video store shelves even longer.
Rental audience: Fans waiting with bated breath for the next Paul Reiser movie.
Rent it if you enjoy: Happy hour at the Hub.
DVD: New and noteworthy for digital players
The Godfather DVD Collection
[Times files]
Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando, right), head of a powerful underworld family, listens as his son Michael (Al Pacino) tells him that he will follow in his footsteps in The Godfather.
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The only thing about the movie You've Got Mail that I've wanted to remember is a scene in which Tom Hanks comically explains how The Godfather provides answers to every question in life: "What to pack for a trip? Leave the gun, take the cannolis." Et cetera.
Now the godfather of The Godfather has some answers revealing how that 1972 film and two sequels achieved such enduring status. Francis Ford Coppola, the most mercurial filmmaker since Orson Welles, explains it all in an exhaustive five-disc set including nearly three hours of bonus materials, an offer no cinephile can refuse.
Of course, digital remastering makes all three Godfather chapters look sharper and sound clearer than any previous home video version. Coppola's trenchant audio commentary occasionally exposes his remaining insecurities about the projects despite their glory. At other times, Coppola sounds as if he's directing the film all over again, rambling passionately about character motivation and the importance of the smallest details.
Figure on two viewings of each movie, one for Coppola's narration and the other just to see the Corleone family saga played out again. Then set aside an entire evening just for the special features disc.
Start with a peek at the Corleone family tree, an ornately sketched diagram summarizing the cross-generational method Coppola employed. Biographies of the cast, chief artists and their characters are reminders of the trilogy's creative and genealogical sweep.
A 73-minute documentary produced in 1991 to coincide with part III's release is included, featuring interviews with Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, James Caan but not Marlon Brando who, the director notes, was still upset about not being paid much for his Oscar-winning turn in the original.
Other featurettes show production designer Dean Tavoularis taking viewers on a tour of New York's Lower East Side locations, where Don Corleone was shot and young Clemenza emerged from an impromptu tryst. Gordon Willis defines his shadowy cinematography choices in one short film while Coppola and author and co-scripter Mario Puzo explain their choice of words.
Two featurettes are choice cinematic artifacts. Coppola shares a massive notebook he crafted as the first film's blueprint, pasting each page of Puzo's novel on sheets with margins for first-instinct notes. We're reading history over his shoulder. Another bonus allows us to hear it. Coppola plays an audio cassette of the first time composer Nino Rota played for him The Godfather's various themes and his excited reactions. The director's father, Carmine Coppola, is shown conducting his contributions to part III's score.
Scenes deleted from the original movies are included with notes explaining where they would fit in or why they were edited out. Most have been seen in the chronological Godfather Saga created for television. Clips of Academy Award acceptance speeches are more fun for the dated fashions than what anyone says.
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