Boxoffice-March.1988

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THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH
HEARNE
Starring Maggie Smith, Boh Hoskins and Wcmty Hitter
Produced by Peter Nelsim and Richard Johnson Directed by
Jack Clayton Written by Peter NeUion
An Island Pictures release Drimm mud R Runnina lime
no min. Screening date: 12/2/8~
Vaguely similar to "Ironwcfd," in that it utam two
grrat actors in a hopflrss anil dritrrssing tali;
is vastly more satislying.
$86, 1 7.
ibis one
/"no urrks in lui> thi-atn-s:
Maggie Smith stars in "The Lonely Passion of Judith
Heame" as a spinsteiish piano teacher who has apparently
allowed the world to walk all over her since hirth As the him
opens, she is moving into a boarding house in Dublin that is
filled with a host of vile, mean-spirited tenants, and she
immediately becomes the source of cruel entertainment for
them all — the prying landlady; her fat slob of a son, the
sluttish housekeeper, and the landlady's brother. Mr Madden
Madden (Bob Hoskins) gets the false impression that
Judith has money, so he begins courting her until he finds
out that she is practically broke. Judith, who apparently has
never been in love before, allows herself to fall madly in love
with Madden, and when he callously jilts her she goes to
pieces. She becomes a drunk, loses her faith in God. and
ends up in a sanitarium After Madden tracks her down there
and jilts her for a second time, we are finally left with the
impression that Judith is finally strong enough to survive
such disappointments A more somber happy ending you'll
never find
Beautifully written and acted, "The Lonely Passion ot
Judith Heame" is still something of an ordeal simply
because it is so depressing The story is basically an exercise
in verbal and spiritual abuse as everyone, up to and including
her priest, dumps on Judith, while she is too weak and timid
to fight back
Still, both Smith and Hoskins have become critical darlings
of late fboth were nominated for Oscars last year) and
their presence, together with the overall quality of the film,
should make this a natural for sophisticated arthouse regulars
But "The Feel Good Movie of the Year," this isn't
The film is rated R for sexual situations —Tom Matthews
'
(the dimiliulivr shosli h.isrr in the "Pollcigrist i:, :
Michael Lemer as a mother and son who live in a creepy
house that is filled with pigeons and snails The mother is
crazy and she gets her jollies by hypnotizing her son and
ordering him to go out and kill people Then, as mementoes,
she has him bring home their eyes.
This is all creepy and very disgusting, but after about 20
minutes — when we were about to write this off as just
another slasher film — it is revealed that wc are watching a
film within a film We cut to two teenaged girls (Talia Paul
and Clara Pastor) who are sitting in a movie theatre, watching
the movie about the eyeball killer One of the girls is
terrified by the film and becomes convinced that there is a
real killer within the movie theatre, and this quickly turns
out to be true
Meanwhile, the slasher movie on the screen continues,
and in time Michael Lemer himself goes into a movie theatre
and starts cutting peoples eyes out. So we've got a movie
about a killer loose inside a movie theatre, which is playing a
movie about a killer loose inside a movie theatre. Is any of
this making sense?
"
In short. "Anguish is comprised of two paralleled stories
that are so similar that at times we — the real movie
audience — can't tell which stor>' we're watching: the one
involving the teenaged girls, or the one that's playing on the
screen in front of them In a mind-boggling finale, the "real"
killer takes one of the teenaged girls and holds her at gunpoint
on the stage, as Michael Lemer does the same thing in
the film that is playing on the screen behind the "real"
killer Trying to watch both stories build to a frantic pitch
simultaneously is dizzying, but it's maddeningly fun
Director Bigas Luna has made a movie that is like the
greatest student film ever made, in which style takes complete
precedence over substance Providing himself with one
of the greatest editing challenges in recent memory, he hiphops
ably between the two stories, ultimately blurring the
line between the two completely It's an unsettling feat
which must be experienced to be appreciated, but it makes
for a genuinely spooky film — especially for people who
spend a lot of time alone in movie theatres
NOTE In the spirit of William Castle. "Anguish" comes
with a warning stating that the film contains subliminal messages
and hypnotic tricks that might cause an audience
member's mind to separate itself from his or her body We
believe this to be clever hype We did, however, have such an
experience during "Leonard Part 6
The film is rated R for violence. Tom Matthews
—
ANGUISH
starring /.dda Rubcnstein, Michael Umcr, Talia Paul and
Clara Pastor
Produced by Pepon Cnromina
Written and directed by Bigas
l.una
A Spectrafilm release Thriller, rated R Running time 91
min Review date 12/17/87
"Anguish' is an uncomfortably effective exercise in
audience manipulation The film stars Zrlda Ruben.nlrin
March. I'JXH k-24