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Indie flicks
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 18, 2001
Complex portrayals elevate 'L.I.E.'
L.I.E. (NC-17) (108 min.) -- Young Howie Blitzer doesn't have anyone to turn to. His best friend ran away, his mother is dead, and his father didn't waste any time moving a bimbo into the master bedroom. "How would you feel if I got some guy to replace you?" Howie asks his absentee dad.
Howie already has, and he's an unsettling surrogate, an urbane, middle-aged pederast named Big John. That premise and the notoriety of an NC-17 rating set up Michael Cuesta's film as something shameful, but that's far from the case. Cuesta and a pair of dynamic central performances make L.I.E. one of the year's better art house offerings.
This isn't just some pervert and innocent victim. Howie (Paul Franklin Dano) and Big John (award-worthy Brian Cox) are two sides of the same outsider coin, both more complex than their outward relationship suggests. Howie is a bright child, able to recognize Chagall and quote Whitman, but he's also a smash-and-grab burglar for no reason other than boredom. And perhaps the chance to hang around a cute male accomplice.
Big John recognizes that attraction after he catches the boys burglarizing his home. The emotionally intricate screenplay for L.I.E. -- abbreviating the Long Island Expressway where Howie's mom died -- makes both Howie and Big John not quite saints or sinners but opposite ends of unfulfilled potential. We're strangely compelled to pull for both of them.
Not that Cuesta celebrates pedophilia, as Larry Clark's films occasionally seem to do. There's nothing more graphic than a caress in L.I.E., and distaste for Big John's habit is ever present. Cox adds dimension to the older man beyond predator cliches; Big John's caring, gregarious personality is more than a lure. We pity the criminal, fascinated by his guile and somehow respectful of the mind behind it.
Dano is Cox's equal, turning Howie into an equally complex personality. The screenplay by Cuesta, his brother Gerald and Stephen M. Ryder constantly layers the action with telling asides. The subplot about Howie's father in a construction scandal is distracting, and the ending seems too pat for comfort, but L.I.E. is a worthy warning about people like Big John who harm children with the best selfish intentions and parents who allow it.
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Opens Friday at Channelside Cinemas in Tampa. A-
An Italian confection
[Photo: First Look Pictures]
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Bread and Tulips (PG-13) (112 min.) -- Licia Maglietta strikes a blow for bored housewives in general and 40-ish female actors in particular in this cotton candy romantic comedy. We know neglected women can find love in the movies. Silvio Soldini's movie proves maturity and a few character lines shouldn't hinder it.
Maglietta is very good playing Rosalba, on a bus vacation with her family when the film begins and losing interest with each mile. She gets left behind at a rest stop, leaving her free to take her own direction. She heads to Venice and rents a room from a quietly charming restaurateur (Bruno Ganz). Soon, a detective hired by her husband comes looking for Maglietta.
Bread and Tulips is lightweight and agreeable, and Maglietta is a wonderful new (old?) face. The mood is predictable, but the Italian locales make everything seem fresher than it deserves. Audiences who don't mind English subtitles can do far worse at theaters these days.
Opens Friday at Tampa Theatre. B
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