Director:
Denys Arcand
Cast:
Frank Langella, Jessica Paré, Charles Berling, Jessica Paré,
Camilla Rutherford, Dan Aykroyd, Robert Lepage, Thomas Gibson
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Rating: (1 to 5
stars)
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Review:
Near the middle of the film, a reporter asks Canadian UN
ambassador Blaine de Castillon(Frank Langella) about the
environment in "Colorado and the rest of the northEAST."
This is part of the problem. This film has no idea what it's doing
and therefore doesn't do it well. Satire, to be done well, has to
be two things: intelligent and funny. This is neither.
This is the story of Tina Menzhal(Jessica Paré), a young
beauty from Cornwall, Ontario who's discovered on a hockey rink
and soon becomes a supermodel, leaving a number lives in ruins in
her wake.
Tina isn't stupid by any means, she just becomes a bit of a
sociopath as she climbs her way up the ladder of fame and fortune.
She begins by shacking up with photographer Philippe
Gascon(Charles Berling), who sends her to Paris for what seems to
be five minutes, which is long enough to meet her pal Toni(Camilla
Rutherford), a bitter, burnt out creep even when we first meet
her. She goes downhill too....
So our heroine goes back to Canada where she starts up
relationships with restaurateur Barry Levine(Dan Aykroyd), who
follows our heroine to New York and photographer Bruce
Taylor(Robert Lepage), who photographs her every move.. She then
betrays her agent by signing with the big agency WTC, led by Renny
Ohayon(Thomas Gibson), who's a slimy as they come....this thing
actually had potential.
Unfortunately, it falls flat. One of the problems is point of
view. Director Arcand, who's famous for his "Jesus of
Montreal" has decided not to really have one. Some parts are
done as regular, straightforward movie while long stretches are
done as a mockumentery, using phony footage from various TV shows
and Taylor's constant following of the characters with a camera.
We don't know whether there's an "I" character with
Taylor, or someone else is doing a documentary or what. It really
breaks up the storytelling.
Unlike the sketch comedy that Canada has been famous for, a
feature to work needs at least one likable character in one of the
lead roles so that there's someone for the viewer to identify
with. I mean even Freddy Kruger was likable in a perverse way. But
not here. Tina begins as a winning personality, but soon she, by
her actions, becomes a vacuous sociopath who drifts from man to
man, not realizing that she's destroying them. Arcand does his
best to destroy them further with an attempted comic effect that
just doesn't work. Chortling at the pain of innocent people
[Levine's wife, who's been left for Tina, for instance], just
isn't cool.
It seems that by producing a vacuous movie, Arcand is trying to
show the vacuousness of fame in the world of the terminal 20th
century. That may be so, but even with some really good
performances by pretty much everybody [Akroyd and Langella are
particularly so], one can't get past the fact that this is a
really dumb film which is of no interest of anybody.
Eric Lurio
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