Art House
Malena
Rated R
2001, MiramaxCinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore confirms his talent for tugging at an audience's heartstrings with this Italian tweak on The Summer of '42. But Malena suffers when Tornatore switches its childlike depiction of a boy's horniness for grim melodrama. The result is a story that feels like it belongs in two different, mediocre films.
Granted, Monica Bellucci is stunning as the film's title character, a World War II widow adored by the entire male population of a small town. Still, it would help if Bellucci could offer a variance on the blank stare. Less successful is Guiseppe Sulfaro as the fawning boy Renato. It's understandable how he can be awestruck by the sight of Malena, but does he have to be so annoying in the process?
Like all of Tornatore's films, Malena is beautiful to watch. Veteran composer Ennio Morricone complements the lush visuals with a compelling score. But the film's heavy-handed climax makes Malena's fate seem unbelievable. In this case, Tornatore should have stuck with cute nostalgia. (Grade: D)
It Came From Hollywood
Thirteen Days
Rated PG-13
2001, New Line
Star Kevin Costner is the worst part about director Roger Donaldson's earnest re-creation of the events of the 1962 October missile crisis. Compared to co-stars Bruce Greenwood (playing President John F. Kennedy) and Steven Culp (playing Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy), Costner's over-the-top Boston accent as White House advisor Kenny O'Donnell looks clumsy and out of place.
It's impressive how Greenwood makes JFK seem human and compassionate in Thirteen Days. Culp is equal to the task with his compelling portrayal. But Costner's New England twang cracks the dramatic veneer. His clumsy performance confirms something we've known for years: Costner needs to stick to nice-guy roles in romantic comedies. (Grade: C)
It Came From Hollywood
Proof of Life
Rated R
2000, Warners
Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan try hard to spark some sexual tension in director Taylor Hackford's disappointing hostage drama. Their lackluster collaboration is especially surprising because Proof of Life offers plenty of soap-opera potential. When Peter Bowman (David Morse) is kidnapped by anti-government guerrillas in South America, his wife, Alicia (Ryan), hires Terry Thorne (Crowe), a professional negotiator, to obtain his release. Along the way, Thorne and Alicia get up close and personal.
The tabloids had a field day with the real-life romance between Crowe and Ryan. It's always disappointing when the movies pale next to real-life dramatics. Its jungle heroics aside, Proof of Life fails to deliver on the perceived romance between its celebrity leads. (Grade: C)
It Came From Hollywood
Down to Earth
Rated PG-13
2001, Paramount
Comedian Chris Rock once bragged in an interview that he's never seen Warren Beatty's 1978 romance Heaven Can Wait. This helps explain how American Pie co-creators Chris and Paul Weitz's one-joke update on Beatty's film fails to have much impact. Rock plays Lance Barton, a Brooklyn bicycle messenger with show-biz aspirations who dies and returns to Earth as a white millionaire.
Rock receives the brunt of Down to Earth's laughless storytelling. The sad truth is that it takes an awful film to make the normally funny Rock seem dumb. By distancing itself from Heaven Can Wait, Down to Earth walks in the footsteps of TV's The Jeffersons -- while Barton's white-man body earns him a penthouse apartment in the sky, he can't buy a good joke to save his life. (Grade: F)
