MYSTERY
CRITIC'S CHOICE
Upon hearing that the badly beaten body of a 19-year-old missing girl has been positively identified, a veteran detective at the crime scene looks over at the victim's father, who's anxiously awaiting news, and mutters, "He's in for a world of hurt." So is nearly everyone in this outstanding drama, which hauntingly reveals how pain is too often part of living, violence has ruinous consequences, and some cuts go too deep ever to heal. Looking for an eloquently complex film aimed squarely at grown-ups? Mystic River is it.
In a working-class neighborhood in Boston, the lives of three old friends—Jimmy (Penn), an ex-con now running a corner store; Sean (Bacon), a police detective; and Dave (Robbins), an underachiever—intersect after Jimmy's daughter is murdered. Sean's resultant investigation dredges up dark memories of the pivotal moment in their childhood when Dave was coerced into climbing into a car with two adult male strangers while Jimmy and Sean stood by helplessly. What happened that day haunts and influences the trio forever.
With River, Clint Eastwood has directed his finest film, aided greatly by screenwriter Brian Helgeland's deft adaptation of Dennis Lehane's 2001 novel. Eastwood's notorious no-muss, no-fuss style shows in the rough look of a few exterior scenes, but there's no faulting the performances he elicits from a powerhouse cast. Penn is a brilliant mix of anguish and intensity, Bacon is knife-sharp as a cool professional afraid to let himself feel, and Robbins, possibly the best of all, is shattering as a broken man fast disintegrating. Also excellent are Harden as Dave's conscience-plagued wife, Linney as Jimmy's too loving spouse (her penultimate scene is a knockout) and Fishburne as Sean's savvy partner. (R)
Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Mike White
COMEDY
Not since John Belushi graced movie screens more than two decades ago have there been eyebrows as comedically expressive as the pair punctuating the expanse of forehead belonging to Black, the hefty and heftily talented star of this joyful family film. Black's brows reach a zen zenith in School of Rock when he coaxes them into doing a mini version of the wave, each brow repeatedly rising and then falling, one after the other.
The comparison to Belushi is apt. Black (see page 75) shares with the Animal House star a full-tilt approach to comic acting: If a little is good, a lot is better. In both their cases that's generally true. Here Black rocks out as Dewey Finn, a wailing wannabe who, after being kicked out of his band, gets himself hired under false pretenses as a substitute teacher at an elite prep school, a job for which he is in no way qualified. He's soon instructing his 11-year-old students on the finer points of a Led Zeppelin guitar solo and recruiting them into a rock band with himself as lead vocalist. He hopes to win $20,000 at a local Battle of the Bands contest. But in carrying out this scheme, Finn matures—becoming more caring and responsible—and so do his kids. And did I mention that the school's uptight bespectacled principal (the always wonderful Cusack) loses her inhibitions when Finn coaxes her into downing a beer and listening to Fleetwood Mac?
With the exuberant School of Rock, director Richard Linklater (Tape) has succeeded in making that rarest of movies: one that children and parents can enjoy equally. (PG-13)
Denzel Washington, Eva Mendes, Sanaa Lathan, Dean Cain
THRILLER
This is one of those suspense films in which the audience is always at least a step ahead of the hero. Which means that despite a strong cast and a colorful Florida setting, Out of Time's tale of a police chief framed for murder is disappointingly familiar stuff. If it weren't for the draw of Washington in the lead, this one could turn up any night on the USA Network.
Matt Whitlock (Washington) is the amiable top cop in Banyan Key, a backwater tropical town. When the married woman (Lathan) with whom he had secretly been having an affair and her abusive husband (Cain, see page 79) both turn up dead and their house is burned down, Whitlock figures it won't take long before suspicions turn his way. It doesn't help that the homicide detective on the case, who's based in nearby Miami, is his soon-to-be ex-wife (Mendes). Can our hero find out what's really going on before his onetime spouse (who's possibly still fond of him) figures out he's Suspect No. 1?
Washington reteams here with director Carl Franklin, with whom he last worked on 1995's underrated Devil in a Blue Dress. It's a star turn for the actor, who serves up a winning smile, action stunts and a lazy sexual magnetism. But he's going through the motions; the script offers few challenges and little on which to build a character. Mendes and Lathan are hot, hot, hot, but that doesn't do much when the movie is naught. (PG-13)
Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth, Lisa Kudrow
DRAMA
John Holmes (Kilmer) was a leading porn star whose popularity owed much to an impressive anatomical gift. After his screen career waned, he drifted downward into drugs and in 1981 was arrested for involvement in the murders of four people in a drug dealer's home on Wonderland Avenue in L.A. (Holmes, who was acquitted of the crimes, died of AIDS in 1988.)
In telling Holmes's story from both his viewpoint and those of his teenage girlfriend (Bosworth), his estranged wife (Kudrow) and various cops and criminals, director and cowriter James Cox has made a garish film that plays like a poor man's Boogie Nights. Only when Kudrow appears does the film briefly seem more than a flashy filmmaking exercise. Stripped of makeup, the Friends star movingly plays a sour but wiser woman who knows that Holmes is bad news. A tremulous Bosworth (Blue Crush) shows promise, but Kilmer did his frantic drug-addict thing better in last year's superior The Salton Sea. (R)
Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Williams
COMEDY-DRAMA
Finbar McBride (Dinklage), a railroad buff, isn't looking for new friends when he moves into an abandoned train depot he has inherited in rural New Jersey. A dwarf, he has always kept to himself and prefers it that way. But in this lovely, heartwarming and often funny film, winner of the audience award at last winter's Sundance Film Festival, several lonely neighbors (Clarkson, Cannavale and Williams) keep knocking on his door.
Like a train meandering along on the scenic route, The Station Agent takes its time setting up its characters and telling its story. First-time director-writer Tom McCarthy displays a knowing eye for the revealing detail and a winning way with actors. Dinklage (see page 115) is a soulful leading man but also shows sneaky skills with a laugh line. Clarkson, playing an artist still mourning a dead child, creates an achingly raw portrait of grief. And Cannavale (TVs Third Watch) is hilarious as a loquacious food-cart owner who parks his vehicle smack in front of McBride's depot. (R)
- Contributors:
- Leah Rozen.
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!
