Boxoffice-January.2000

THE END OF THE AFFAIR ••••
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Julianne
Moore and Stephen Rea. Written and
direeted by \eil Jordan. Produced by
Stephen Woolley. A Columbia release.
Romantic Drama. Rated R for scenes of
strong sexuality. Running time: 99 min.
For those who believe they don't
make 'em like they used to. Neil Jordan
happily proves they can and do with his
evocative tale of jealousy and obsession.
"The End of the Affair." A sort of flipside
of the cherished romantic chestnut
"Brief Encounter" (David Lean's 1945
directorial debut). "Affair." set in postwar
London, follows Maurice Bendrix
(Ralph Fiennes), a cynical young novelist
who can't quite escape the drama of
his own imagination even when confronted
by a more fantastic reality.
Haunted by a passionate war-time
affair that ended mysteriously. Bendrix
offers a strange service to old friend
Henry Miles (Stephen Rea in an uncharacteristic
stuffed-shirt role) who suspects
his wife Sarah (Julianne Moore) of infidelity.
Realizing Henry's gentleman
ethics will never allow him to make
inquiries, the less morally encumbered
Bendrix hires a detective (Ian Hart in a
deliciously earnest supporting role), who
gradually turns up more than either man
wants to know about the unexpectedly
enigmatic Sarah.
Adapting faithfully from the Graham
Greene novel, Jordan expertly weaves
suspicion and doubt through the gradual
revelations that explain Bendrix's fixation
on Sarah and Henry. A prisoner of
his obsessions and fevered imagination,
Bendrix can only gauge love by the jealousy
it inspires, and his own faithlessness
destines him for the sort of peculiar
twist of fate for which Greene's thoughtprovoking
tales are noted.
Fiennes' Bendrix glowers and lusts
with an attractive, tortured maliciousness
reminiscent of his uber-romantic victim.
Count Almasy of "The English Patient."
The picture belongs to Moore, however,
who goes British faultlessly, giving a stunning,
low-key. textured performance as a
woman torn, but capable of the great selflessness
of real love. Luisa F. Ribeiro
TOY STORY 2
••••
Voiced by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen.
Directed by John Lasseter. Written by
Andrew Stanton, Rita Hsiao, Doug
Chamberlin and Chris Webb. Produced
llclenc Plotkin and Karen Robert
Jackson. A Buena Vista release.
Animated. Rated G Running time: 85 min'
Hey fellas, somebody got it wrong.
64 (R-3) BOXOFFICE
REVIEW
Sequels are not supposed to be betler than
the original. But not only is "TS2" superior
to the first outing, it is better than most
movies released this year. It works on almost
every level. It's funny, it's great to look at
it's even moving. In short, it's wonderful
entertainment and not just for kids.
The guys, gals and assorted oddities
from part one are joined by some excellent
additions as Woody (voiced by Tom
Hanks) discovers that not only was his
character a TV star but he is valuable, too.
and has a corral-full of new friends. The
key to the whole thing is great performances—ensemble
acting at its very best.
The fact that the players provide voices for
brilliantly animated characters is almost
incidental. It would still work with stick
figures or possibly even a blank screen.
Hanks and Tim Allen work off each other
like the pros they are, and there is not a
single weak link in the rest of the starstudded
cast.
That is not to take anything away from
the visual magic. Director John Lasseter
has set the bar for animation art to a rarefied
level. It still has the basic look of the
original — just better. Reflective surfaces
have a whole new subtlety, and the more
authentic-looking greenery obviously
profited from the experience gained on "A
Bug's Life".
Some of the biggest laughs come from
send-ups of familiar movies. Other grins
Adrien Brody, Ben Foster and Orlando
Jones. Directed and written by Barry
Levinson. Produced by Barry Lcvinson and
Paula Weinstein. A Warner Bros, release.
ComedylDrama. Rated R for crude language
and sex-related material. Running
time: 128 min.
Barry Levinson returns to his roots
once again to explore what it was like to
grow up in Baltimore in the mid-'50s. The
result is a charming film, infused and emotionally
heightened by the imagination of
memory, which captures the struggle
between embracing one's own uniqueness
and reaching out for the whole wide world.
The Jewish community in which two
brothers—high-schooler Ben and college
student Val
are raised is isolated from within
and without by its own traditions and others'
prejudice. Within lies not just specific
culture but the individuality of a family in no
way stereotypical. While mother and grandmother
keep custom alive, father steps
beyond his fading burlesque business into
illegal gambling, a racket which is undergoing
its own cultural diffusion.
As the boys concern themselves with
growing up and finding love beyond that
of family, the family remains the essential
foundation, however shaken, of life's
blessings. Fear of the different may be
always foolish and often cruel—as this
film constantly reveals—but the sense of
being loved breeds the hope and confidence
that problems and prejudices can
be surmounted.
Both Adrien Brody as Val and Ben
Foster as Ben are endearing, convincing
and sweetly attractive as the decent
young men trying to make sense of a
melting pot society which keeps freezing
up on them. Joe Mantegna and Bebe
Neuwirth have their own particular
emotional glamour as the parents, but
their characters, viewed more from without
than within, are never as compelling
as those of their sons and the young
women, particularly Johnson's Rebekah.
whom the boys aspire to love.
The film contains much humor,
which it often handles better than its
more serious nature. The issues of race,
class and religion which the film confronts
are eloquently woven into that
humor, but sometimes seem a little
heavy-handed when overtly voiced or
acted out. Bridget Byrne
••
are garnered by the limbo-dancing Barbies END OF DAYS
who are unable to bend at the knee, and Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger,
you will love Wheezy the penguin doing his Gabriel Byrne, Robin Tunney and Kevin
big-band version of "You've Got a Friend Pollak. Directed by Peter Hyams.
In Me" with voice courtesy of Robert Written by Andrew W. Marlowe.
Goulet. Mike Kerrigan
Produced by Armyan Bernstein and Bill
Borden. A Universal release. Thriller.
LIBERTY HEIGHTS ***1/2
Rated R for intense violence, gore, language
and an intense sex scene. Starring Joe Mantegna, Bebe ISeuwirth,
Running
time: 118 min.
Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Jericho
Cane, a semi-suicidal ex-cop/high-tech
security specialist with a drinking problem
and a lapsed faith. There are four
action movie cliches in that sentence
alone, not even including his bombastically
significant name. At the end of the
Millennium, the Catholic Church (just
once couldn't it be the Jehovah's
Witnesses?) foretells a prophecy: He who
has no name will rise, take the form of a
man and mate with The Chosen One.
who will bear his son and bring time to
an end. This overly familiar plot is actually
"End of Days'" strength; the movie
is so full of hackneyed ideas, imagery
and dialogue that it's unintentionally
quite funny. Added to those few occasions
when it's intentionally funny and
that comes out to a lot of laughs.
Director Peter Hyams ("The Relic")
handles the action sequences well
enough, but if you've seen one explosion
and CGI demon, you've seen them all.
— Tim Cogshell