As a resident of a Polish ghetto under Nazi occupation during World War II, the reluctant hero played by Williams in Jakob the Liar finds life far from beautiful. This Holocaust drama bears more than passing resemblance to Life Is Beautiful, the recent film by Italy's Roberto Benigni. Both films use the horrors of the Holocaust as a backdrop to show off the plucky resourcefulness of their bordering-on-cute heroes as they measure themselves against unspeakable evil.
After an extended bit of throat-clearing, Jakob the Liar's basic story emerges. Williams, a former cafe owner and a widower (the Nazis shot his wife), overhears a news report on a German officer's radio indicating that the Russians are advancing toward Warsaw. When he drops this bit of encouraging information, his friends assume he is covertly listening to reports from the BBC on a contraband radio. Soon, to keep up everyone's spirits, Williams is making up ever more fanciful reports about the latest good news gleaned from the airwaves.
Jakob is lethargically directed by Hungarian-born director Peter Kassovitz (a Holocaust survivor who now lives in France); the wheels of its plot move slowly and grind noisily. Williams is far more restrained here than he was in Patch Adams, which is a good thing, but he seems of late to be mistaking campaigning for humanitarian awards for acting. And in a particularly boneheaded call, Williams and supporting players Arkin, Bob Balaban and Schreiber speak their lines in English but employ heavy Eastern European accents, which gives the whole movie the air of a backwater repertory company doing Chekhov. (PG-13)
Bottom Line: We would be lying if we said we loved it
Sarah Polley, Stephen Rea, Jean Smart, Gina Gershon
Featured attraction
When nude photos of our waifish heroine (Polley) flash onscreen during the opening credits, she tells us that the pix were taken some years ago "by the worst man I ever met, or maybe the best. I'm still not sure." By the end of this astute romantic drama, neither are we, which is a tribute to Guinevere's remarkably evenhanded approach to its characters.
Flashback to when the photos were taken: Polley is a 20-year-old who's feeling lost in a family of over-achievers. She allows herself to be seduced by an older photographer (Rea), becoming the latest in a long line of malleable young women whom he provides with both a sexual and artistic education. Is the relationship exploitative or nurturing? As acted by a top-notch cast and written and directed by Audrey Wells (who wrote The Truth About Cats & Dogs), Guinevere suggests it just may be both. Watch for a scene in which Smart, as Polley's mother, verbally rips Rea. Supporting Oscars are made of this. (R)
Bottom Line: Don't miss this wise look at a May-December romance
Loren Dean, Hope Davis, Jason Lee, Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard
Like Cheers the bar, Mumford is the kind of fictional small town where everybody knows your name. And, it would seem, whether you're seeing a therapist. When a handsome young psychologist (Dean), conveniently named Mumford, moves to Mumford, the locals line up to see him and all pronounce him a remarkably good listener. Many of them he actually helps. The only problem is that Dr. Mumford is a fraud, which "eventually comes out after he falls in love with a patient (Davis, a gifted comic actress who shows more than a touch of Carole Lombard here) who has moved back home with her parents because she is weary and depressed. Dr. Mumford takes her for long walks in the woods by way of therapy.
Lawrence Kasdan, the writer-director behind The Big Chill, Silverado, Wyatt Earp and Grand Canyon, is working in miniature here. Mumford, while amusing and pleasant enough, is a will-o'-the-wisp that drifts from the mind instantly upon your leaving the theater. All that's left is a lingering memory of polished comic turns by McDonnell, Woodard, Ted Danson, Martin Short, David Paymer and Dana Ivey as Mumfordites. (R)
Bottom Line: Mayberry RFD goes nutso
Bruce Willis, Albert Finney
In Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s pessimistic view, man is an organism whose brain has evolved more than is good for him, giving him the capacity to wage war, pollute the air and delude himself with such concepts as free will. So the novelist might grunt with bleak satisfaction to see how the species has mucked up the movie version of-Breakfast of Champions, his 1973 classic.
Willis plays Dwayne Hoover, a car salesman on the verge of a breakdown in a town called Midland, where an arts festival plans to honor Kilgore Trout, sci-fi writer and mad prophet. The two men finally meet in an explosive confrontation, but by then I was worn out by the film's atmosphere of noisy, bright-colored chaos—the world, it seems, is as insane as Hoover. Directed by Alan Rudolph {Afterglow), Breakfast feels like a ticker-tape parade in an asylum. (R)
Bottom Line: Too flaky
>AMERICAN BEAUTY Kevin Spacey gives the performance of his already brilliant career as a suburbanite who detests his job, his wife (Annette Bening, also sensational) and his life in this bracingly adult black comedy. Stylishly directed by Sam Mendes. (R)
FOR LOVE OF THE GAME Sure, the story is sappy and predictable, but Kevin Costner is a natural when it comes to portraying smart-guy baseball players. We especially like his scenes on the mound, when he talks trash to opposing batters. (PG-13)
LUCIE AUBRAC Looking chic and battling Nazis at the same time is hard to do, but glamorous Carole Bouquet makes it seem easy in an affecting romantic drama about a real-life French woman who engineered her husband's escape from jail during the war. (R)
>Toronto Film Festival
It is impossible to see all 319 movies screened during the recent 10-day Toronto International Film Festival, but one can try. By skimping on sleep and meals, I managed to squeeze in 21 films over five days. Here's the report card:
Must see: Boys Don't Cry, a blistering drama based on the true-life story of Brandon Teena, a young woman who moved to a small town in Nebraska and began living as a man. She was killed by local toughs when her true sex was revealed. Hilary Swank plays this gender bender as a guileless puppy.
Crowd pleaser: The Best Man, a high-spirited romantic comedy starring Taye Diggs and Nia Long. The director is Malcolm D. Lee, a younger cousin of Spike's.
Biggest snooze: Snow Falling on Cedars, a pretty but dramatically wan version of the bestselling novel. Ethan Hawke stars.
Proof that art imitates life: In Sweet and Low-down, which is funny but thin, director-writer Woody Allen has a 1930s jazz guitarist (Sean Penn) repeatedly justify his selfish behavior with the excuse "I am an artist."
Proof there's life after high school: Beverly Hills, 90210 veteran Jason Priestley directs an affable rockumentary, Barenaked in America, about the Canadian band Barenaked Ladies.
- Contributors:
- Tom Gliatto.
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!
