Boxoffice-Febuary.1998

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MRS. DALLOWAY ^•^
Starring Vanessa Redgrave. Directed by
Marleen Gorris. Written by Eileen Atkins.
Produced by Lisa Katselas Pare and Stephen
Bayly. A First Look release. Drama.
Rated PG-13 for emotional elements and
brief nudity. Running time: 97 min.
After the strident sentimentality and
warmed-over feminism of her Oscar-winning
film "Antonia's Line," director
Marleen Gorris turns to the richer and more
sublime work of Virginia Woolf in this
inconsistent yet ultimately satisfying adaptation
of her 1925 novel, Mrs. Dalloway."
The story is set in 1923, with Clarissa
Dalloway (Vanessa Redgrave, in a luminous
performance) throwing a party in her
elegant London home. She's married to
Richard Dalloway (John Standing), a rather
stodgy member of Parliament who gave her
the stability she craved. But she was once
in love with Peter Walsh, a man whose
passion was so strong for her that it frightened
her away. By usmg flashbacks, Gorris
illustrates how, and why, the younger Clarissa
("The Devil's Own's" Natascha
McElhone) made those decisions.
The incessant flashbacks give the film an
erratic tone, but in the final party sequence
the movie truly comes together. Kevin
Courrier
CHINESE BOX ••
Gong Li and
Starring Jeremy Irons,
Maggie Cheung. Directed by Wayne
Wang. Written by Jean-Claude Carriere
and Larry Gross. Produced by Lydia Dean
Pitcher and Jean-Louis Piel. A Trimark
release. Drama. Running time: 110 min.
The first major film to be based on the
British handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese
squanders its political capital and offers
up a tepid love story in its place. At the
center of a triangle of sorts are John (Jeremy
Irons), a jaded British photojoumalist who
has been in love with society butterfly Vivian
("Temptress Moon's" Gong Li) for
years. She's never reciprocated, but he
keeps hoping she will. Meanwhile, as the
deadline for the changeover looms large, he
becomes obsessed with a scarred street vendor
("Irma Vep's" Maggie Cheung) and
decides to film her sordidnfe story. Oh, yes,
he's also been informed that he's dying and
will probably live only till the political
changeover in Hong Kong.
That symbolic nod towards a disappearing
British way of life is pretty obvious, but
then this latest from Wayne Wang ("Smoke")
is hardly a subtle film in any way.
Irons gives a wan imitation of the similar
and more successful part he played in
"Stealing Beauty." The beautiful Gong Li
is handicapped by having to perform in
English; her customary fire and passion are
missing here. Cheung, too, is wasted in the
film. Only in the performance of Ruben
Blades, who's a hoot as a cynical photographer
given to strumming sad, misogynistic
ballads about love on his guitar,
does one get a glimpse of the lively movie
"Chinese Box" could have been. Shlomo
Schwartzberg
SI (R-IO) BOXOFFICE
REVIEWS
DANGEROUS BEAUTY •^^
Starring Catherine McCormack. Directed
by Marshall Herskovitz. Written by
Jeanine Dominy. Produced by Ed Zwick,
Marhsall Herskovitz, Sarah Caplan,
Arnon Milchan and Michael Nathanson.
A Warner release. Drama. RatedRfor some
scenes of strong sexuality, and for nudity
and language. Running time: 112 min.
As adapted by Jeanine Dominy from a
Margaret Rosenthal novel, "Dangerous
Beauty," even if set five centuries ago in a
foreign land never leaves behind a 20thcentury
sensibility about the unrighteous
suppression of women. Because of that, the
New Regency production should appeal
mainly to the distaff demo.
In the clarion-call lead as a Venice beauty
who, made expert in the ways of bedroom
sensuality, satisfies the needs of the men of
the ruling class and thus becomes part of the
aristocracy, McCormack is effectively sympathetic
and strong, making her courtesan
intelligent, almost scholarly; emotional, yet
dispassionate when demanded; and fervent
in her beliefs. Meanwhile, director Marshall
Herskovitz does an admirable job with
his other players and makes the period setting
authentic without being offputting for contemporary
moviegoers. Kim Williamson
THE GINGERBREAD MAN irir
Starring Kenneth liranagh, Embeth
Davidtz and Robert Duvall. Directed by
Robert Altman. Written by John Grisham.
Produced by Jeremy Tanenbaum. A Polygram
release. Thriller. Rated R for some
sexuality, violence and language. Running
time: 120 min.
A successful Southern lawyer (Kenneth
Branagh) takes on as a pro-bono client a
white-trashy young woman (Embeth
Davidtz) whose crazed-with-religion father
(Robert Duvall, perfectly underplaying a
character that even Boo would have offed)
is tormenting her, she says. From the moment
lawyer and lass meet, the audience
feels it's a setup, and whatever intrigue and
terror the story might have built is permanently
undercut. One just waits for the
strands to get tied. Or, in this case, untied;
John Grisham's story (which he adapted
from his own novel) has enough holes to
sink a liner. Director Robert Altman—aside
from his odd choice of project—does fine
work, both with his camera and with his
troupe. It's all for naught, though, as
Grisham has the last word with an inane
conclusion. Kim Williamson
WAG THE DOG ••1/2
Starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De
Niro. Directed by Barry I^vinson. Written
by Hilary Henkin and David Mamet. Produced
by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro
and Barry I^vinson. A New Line release.
Satire. Rated Rfor language.
It's official. Director Barry Levinson can
now lay claim to being the very la.st person
in America who still hasn't gotten over the
Persian Gulf War. He's mad. Oh boy is he
mad. And he's going to tell us all about it,
in a zany political satire that ultimately ends
up as one of this underrated director's more
minor works.
The set-up is promising: A Clintonesque
president is accused of sexual misconduct
with an underaged Campfire Girl. It's the
eve of an election he'll win if the news
doesn't get out, so who you gonna call?
Robert De Niro, as it turns out, as a scalawag
political operator expert in diverting
the public's attention with fabricated crises
of one sort or another. The looming scandal
is a big one—so big De Niro needs outside
help from an eccentric but gifted Hollywood
producer (Dustin Hoffman) and a
presidential aide (Anne Heche) whose ethics
are as situational as his own. Their conclusion:
time to manufacture a U.S. war in the
Balkans, using state-of-the-art computer
imaging to sway public opinion. What are
meant to be hilarious complications ensue.
Only they aren't hilarious enough. Both
tonally and at the level of performance,
"Wag the Dog" is a farce that is determinedly
unwilling to be farcical; only Hoffman
has the smarts and/or chutzpah to
torque up his performance to a level of
giddy buriesque suitable to what should
have been his surroundings. Ray Greene
THE BOXER •••
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Emily Watson,
Brian Cox, Ken Stott and Gerard
McSorley. Directed by Jim Sheridan.
Written by Jim Sheridan and Terry
George. Produced by Arthur Lappin. A
Universal release. Drama. Not yet rated.
Running time: 112 min.
As up-to-the-minute as today's newspaper
headlines, "The Boxer" is a thoughtful
though emotionally rather dry film about
the current attempts to bring peace to Northem
Ireland. Director Jim Sheridan and writing
partner Terry George, who previously
teamed on "In the Name of the Father,
work again with Daniel Day-Lewis,
fiercely believable as Danny Flynn. an ex-
IRA member whose pacifism makes him a
marked man to die-hard extremists among
his former cohorts.
As a fitting
(if rather baldly presented)
metaphor for the peace process, Sheridan
and George have given pugilist Danny his
own nonsectarian boxing club, with which
he hopes to uplift Belfast youngsters while
bringing Catholics and Protestants together.
The club soon becomes a literal
flashpoint for trouble, incurring the wrath
of an IRA firebrand (Gerald McSorely ) who
can't let go of the idea that only violence
will bring the British to their knees.
The conflict between opposing IRA
points of view is vividly dramatized, without
reducing either to simplistic rhetoric or
caricature. "The Boxer' examines the
moral dilemmas standing in the way of
peace for those who have spent most of their
lives fighting for independence and .socioeconomic
equality. The interdependence of
personal and political issues is deftly
drawn, but the film is so carefully cool and
measured that it lacks the fiery passion of
its own characters. Joseph McBride
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