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REVIEWS<br />
OSCAR AND LUCINDA • 1/2<br />
Starring Ralph Fiennes and Cate<br />
Blanchett. Directed by Gillian Armstrong.<br />
Written by Laura Jones. Produced by<br />
Robin Dalton and Timothy White. A Fox<br />
Searchlight release. Period drama. Rated<br />
R for a scene of sexuality and for brief<br />
violence. Running time: 132 min.<br />
Oscar (Ralph Fiennes) and Lucinda<br />
(Cate Blanchett) are an odd pair brought<br />
together by their compulsive love of<br />
gambling and inability to fit into society.<br />
The couple meet on board the Leviathan<br />
as she sails from England to Australia<br />
an unlikely event considering Oscar's<br />
almost paralysing fear of the ocean. Unfortunately,<br />
this is only one aspect of the<br />
plot which seems implausible. The<br />
pair's ultimate mission to transport a<br />
glass church (in pieces) across the Australian<br />
outback in the 1 800s seems more<br />
ridiculous than romantic.<br />
The lead characters, although well<br />
acted, are not sympathetic. It's hard to<br />
resist wishing that a bolt of lightning would<br />
smite Oscar during the many prayer scenes<br />
in which he catalogs his sins. Lisa Osborne<br />
AFTERGLOW ^^<br />
Starring Nick Nolle and Julie Christie.<br />
Directed and written by Alan Rudolph.<br />
Produced by Robert Altman. A Sony Classics<br />
release. Drama. Rated Rfor sexuality<br />
andsome language. Running time: 113 min.<br />
Alan Rudolph is an acquired taste, but for<br />
certain specialized audiences it's a flavor<br />
that the likes of "Choose Me," "Trouble in<br />
Mind" and "The Modems" have made almost<br />
narcotic. Even fans of the one-time<br />
Robert Altman acolyte, however, might instead<br />
be anesthetized by his latest. "Afterglow,"<br />
though bearing fine performances<br />
by Nick Nolle and Julie Christie as a husband<br />
and wife whose marriage was long ago<br />
rent asunder by the angry departure of their<br />
daughter, just doesn't bum bright the way<br />
Rudolph works usually do. The fault appears<br />
to lie in the writing; in other films<br />
(juixotic and even cutting, Rudolph' s scripting<br />
here is too underpowered to effectively<br />
deal with the large emotions he wants to put<br />
on display. The only illumination this film<br />
brings audiences is the house lights coming<br />
up after. Kim Williamson<br />
THE EDUCATION OF LITTLE TREE<br />
•••1/2<br />
Starring James Cromwell, Tantoo Cardinal<br />
and Graham Greene. Directed and<br />
written by Richard Friedenberg. Produced<br />
by Jake Eberts. A Paramount release.<br />
Drama. Rated PG for language and thematic<br />
elements including old-fashioned<br />
discipline. Running time 117 mins.<br />
This gentle movie, sensitively acted and<br />
only occasionally heavy-handed in execution,<br />
explores the struggle of a part Cherokee<br />
orphan trying to hold on to the best of<br />
his ancestry in the face of injustice, prejudice<br />
and, at times, outright cruelty. Joseph<br />
Ashton's simple quiet charm as young Lit-<br />
FLASHBACK: April 13, 1935<br />
What BOXOFFICE said about...<br />
LES MISERABLES<br />
[On Feb. 27, Columbia brings "Les Miserables"<br />
to the screen with Liam Neeson,<br />
Uma Thurman, Geoffrey Rush and Claire<br />
Danes starring for director Billie August.<br />
Here's what BOXOFFICE said about the<br />
firstfilmic adaptation ofthe classic Victor<br />
Hugo novel.]<br />
A literary classic becomes a cinematic<br />
gem. Superb cast, excellent camera work<br />
and brilliant direction make ''Les Miserables''<br />
grand entertainment from fade-in<br />
to fade-out. The screen version follows<br />
the Victor Hugo book closely with the<br />
outstanding characters convincingly<br />
etched upon the film. Fredric March does<br />
grand work in the role of VaJjean, sent to<br />
the galleys for stealing a loaf of bread. Charles Laughton as Javert, the police<br />
inspector, saturated with justice and the law, gives one of his finest portrayals. It<br />
should draw heavily from Hugo readers and will more than satisfy those unacquainted<br />
with the works of this writer. Directed by Richard Boleslavsky. Sir<br />
Cedric Hardwicke, Rochelle Hudson, Frances Drake. John Real and Florence<br />
Eldridge co-star.<br />
SELLING ANGLES:<br />
Appeal to the vast army of Hugo readers. Tie up with book shops and literary<br />
societies. You can aim it at those who might be unfamiliar with the classic by<br />
stressing its dramatic punch and power. Mass and class will go for this in a big<br />
way. Give it a smash campaign and you'll smash a few records. Fredric March<br />
and Charles Laughton are great names for your marquee. Tell your patrons they<br />
never gave a better performance. You will be telling them the truth and they In<br />
turn will tell the neighbors.<br />
CATCHLINES:<br />
Victor Hugo's Immortal Classic Reaches the Screen With All Its Dramatic<br />
Power. Don't Miss "Les Miserables."<br />
tie Tree allows for easy empathy with his<br />
joy in his free life with his grandparents and<br />
his heartache when the authorities remove<br />
him to a state institution. Both James Cromwell<br />
as his Tennessee mountain man<br />
grandpa and Tantoo Cardinal as his Cherokee<br />
grandma create finely etched portraits filled<br />
with dignity and devoid of false sentiment,<br />
and Graham Greene has a quirky loneness<br />
as a native philosopher. Bridget Byrne<br />
JACKIE BROWN iriririr<br />
Starring Pam Grier and Samuel L.<br />
Jackson. Directed and written by Quentin<br />
Tarantino. Produced by Lawrence Bender.<br />
A Miramax release. Comedy/thriller.<br />
Rated R for strong language, some violence,<br />
drug use and sexuality. Running<br />
time: 150 minutes.<br />
"Jackie Brown" is a kick, well-executed<br />
(so to speak) and well-acted. The plot is<br />
taken straight out of a '70s TV crime show,<br />
in whose aesthetic—naugahyde, boxy sedans,<br />
seedy cocktail lounges, all set in generic<br />
Southem California—the movie is<br />
steeped. Stewardess Jackie Brown (Pam<br />
Grier) is at the center of a swirl of cops and<br />
criminals scheming to lay hands on half-amillion<br />
dollars belonging to gun dealer Ordell<br />
(Samuel L. Jackson, whose screen<br />
magnetism could suck the fillings out of the<br />
audience's teeth). What raises the story above<br />
cheesy TV standards, though, is the matrix<br />
of players, whose motivations and characters<br />
are developed by dialogue (skillfully<br />
adapted by Tarantino from Elmore Leonard's<br />
book "Rum Punch") and crafted filmmaking.<br />
Quentin Tarantino continues to build on<br />
the reputation he established with "Pulp<br />
Fiction" as a filmmaker who can go bigtime<br />
without sacrificing his pungent style.<br />
"Jackie Brown" isn't the movie-length<br />
adrenaline rush "Pulp Fiction" was, but it<br />
deepens and broadens Tarantino' s storytelling.<br />
In addition to the now-expected indelible<br />
characters (Bridget Fonda as a<br />
perpetually stoned surfer girl, Robert De<br />
Niro as a shambling convict with a slow<br />
fuse, Michael Keaton as a twitchy, boyish<br />
ATE agent), "Jackie Brown" has heart.<br />
— Melissa Morrison<br />
February, 1998 (R-11) 53
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