Two themes move contrapuntally through this Hollywoodcentric film, which is self-important, sanctimonious and, for director Robert (Nashville, M*A*S*H) Altman, surprisingly dull.
One theme tracks a murder investigation into the street-brawl death of a screenwriter. The other theme involves satirizing the film industry's ethics and aesthetics, or lack thereof.
The murder plot is pursued in listless fashion, despite flamboyant overacting by Whoopi Goldberg as a homicide detective and a whimsical performance by country singer Lyle Lovett as another cop. The satire is innocuous, not nearly as penetrating as the stuff Dick De Bartolo turns out in Mad movie parodies. Altman's apparent shock at finding venality in Hollywood, in fact, rings false, as if he had gone into a lion house and expressed shock at finding so many carnivores.
Robbins (Jacob's Ladder) plays a studio executive who screens story ideas and who is receiving threatening postcards from a disgruntled writer.
Altman may be trying to make a point, too, by having Robbins end up courting Scacchi (Presumed Innocent), the housemate of struggling screenwriter D'Onofrio.
Throughout, Altman sprinkles battalions of real actors and directors, mostly playing themselves (see box). Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts end up in a movie within the movie, which seems to exemplify one of Altman's main satirical points—about Hollywood's obsession with big-name stars. But most of the cameos are in-jokey—such as director Alan Rudolph saying, when someone recognizes him, "Yes, it's me, and I know Harvey Keitel too" (Keitel being a frequent actor in Martin Scorsese films).
Hollywood cynicism is so rampant and unguarded that satirizing movie types is easy—like shooting weasels in a barrel. Altman, though, seems halfhearted, confining his lampooning to such overbashed targets as glitz-laden parties, car phones and movie sequels: One writer tries to sell Robbins on doing The Graduate II, in which Anne Bancroft would move in with Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross. But outside of a passing reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger's clout, Altman doesn't criticize any real person or company, heaping scorn only on anonymous offenders and thereby making himself seem as mealy-mouthed as everyone he is complaining about.
By the end the murder subplot peters out and the most enjoyment lies in trying to think of other movies that have satirized Hollywood more trenchantly, such as The Bad and the Beautiful, The Big Picture, Sunset Boulevard, any number of Daffy Duck cartoons and maybe Barton Fink. (R)
scorecard
CAN'T TELL THE PLAYER WITHOUT...
YOU'LL HAVE TO LOOK FAST TO SEE them in many cases, but among the performers in cameo and subcameo roles in The Player are: Steve Allen, Rene Auberjonois, Harry and Shari Belafonte, Karen Black, Gary Busey, Robert Carradine, Cher, John Cusack, Peter Falk, Louise Fletcher, Teri Garr, Jeff Goldblum, Elliott Gould, Joel Grey, Buck Henry, Anjelica Huston, Kathy Ireland, Sally Kellerman, Sally Kirkland, Jack Lemmon, Andie MacDowell, Malcolm McDowell, Marlee Matlin, Jayne Meadows, Martin Mull, Nick Nolte, Burt Reynolds, Julia Roberts, Mimi Rogers, Jill St. John, Susan Sarandon, Rod Steiger, Lily Tomlin, Robert Wagner and Bruce Willis.
Woody Harrelson, Wesley Snipes
This is a shaggy dog of a movie, with appealing oddball characters and a grungy verisimilitude about small-time dreams, but not much goes on. Viewers (especially basketball fans) will enjoy White Men; it doesn't, however, provide much sustenance in the food-for-thought category. Harrelson (Cheers), a charmer, portrays a playground hoop hustler. He teams with Snipes, less solemn than he was in Jungle Fever, playing a contractor who makes his real money with his jump shot.
Can these two win enough for Harrelson to pay off a debt and for Snipes to move his family to a better home? Can Harrelson and his girlfriend, Rosie (Do the Right Thing) Perez, learn to communicate? Can the 5'11" Harrelson dunk, disproving Snipes's contention that white men can't jump?
These questions don't seem to interest director-writer Ron (Bull Durham) Shelton. He barely resolves them, nor do they matter to the viewer. The real pleasures of White Men are its energetic performances and dialogue. "Listen to the woman," Snipes advises Harrelson, who replies, "If I listen to the woman, do I have to agree with her too?" (R)
Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Vanessa Redgrave
Through such movies as A Room with a View, The Bostonians and Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, the producer-director-screenwriter troika of Ismail Merchant, James Ivory and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has become synonymous with Masterpiece Theatre aesthetics, stateliness, sumptuous interiors and lavish detail. Never have the team's gifts been put to higher service than in this elegant adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel of missed connections.
Two sisters, Thompson and Bonham Carter, are living the highbrow rather than the high life in early-20th-century London, debating suffrage, attending recitals and reading serious novels. But their serene existence is upended by a rapacious family, the Wilcoxes, whom they had met before the time of the movie, a meeting that led to a brief romance between Bonham Carter and a Wilcox son. Howards End (the name refers to the Wilcoxes' country home) chronicles the friendship between Thompson and the Wilcox matriarch (a grand, and fragile, Redgrave) and, after Redgrave's death, Thompson's marriage to her barely bereaved widower (Hopkins), a man of implacable will.
Thompson, radiating intelligence, shines as a woman who marries in desperation and repents at leisure. The cameo-faced Bonham Carter (Hamlet) is convincing as an impassioned crusader for an ill-used family friend, while Hopkins makes palpable the downward spiral from bully to broken man. Ivory is too fond of scenes that end in wipes and dissolves, and of scenes that feature flowers swaying in the breeze. Excess botanical references aside, though, Howards End is a feast for the eyes as well as the soul.(PG)
- Contributors:
- Ralph Novak,
- Leah Rozen,
- Joanne Kaufman.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
