Boxoffice-September.1997
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
—<br />
••••• OUTSTANDING<br />
REVIEWS<br />
September 1997<br />
DAY AND DATE: SEPTEMBER 19<br />
WIDEAWAKE •••<br />
Starring Joseph Cross, Dana<br />
Delany, Denis Leary, Robert Loggia<br />
and Rosie O'Donnell. Directed and<br />
v/ritten by M. Night Shyamalan.<br />
Produced by Cary Woods and<br />
Cathy Konraa. A Miramax release.<br />
Comedy/drama. Rated PG for language<br />
and thematic elements.<br />
Running time: 88 min.<br />
"My grandpa and me, we always<br />
watcned out for<br />
new<br />
each other,"<br />
fifth-grader Joshua<br />
(newcomer Joseph<br />
Cross) soys by way<br />
of introducing this<br />
story about a young<br />
boy's coming of (religious)<br />
age. Raised in<br />
a contemporary but<br />
devout Catholic family,<br />
Joshua experiences<br />
a crisis of faith<br />
when dear Grandpa<br />
Beal (Robert Loggia,<br />
playing effectively<br />
against type) passes<br />
away; now could<br />
such misery happen<br />
if a supreme being<br />
exists? 'I'm going on<br />
a mission," Joshua tells best friend Dave<br />
(Timothy Reifsnyder) at the Waldron Academy<br />
for boys. "What are you going to look<br />
for?" Dave asks. Joshua's reply: "God."<br />
In a usually deft weaving of narrative<br />
and subnarrotives, writer/director M.<br />
Night Shyamalan ("Praying With Anger")<br />
takes Joshua on a journey not commonly<br />
seen in today's cinema: one into faith.<br />
Divided into three chapters (The Questions<br />
A WAKENIN(;S: Joseph Cross ami Rosie<br />
(> 'Donnell in Miramax's "Wide Awake. "<br />
The Signs and The Answers) and featuring<br />
fine character turns from Dana Delany<br />
("Exit to Eden") asjoshua's caring obstetrician<br />
mom, Denis Leary ("The Ret") as his<br />
concerned physician dad and Rosie<br />
O'Donnell (also "Exit to Eden") as a sportsloving<br />
nun, "Wide Awake" avoids most of<br />
the bathos (and his acting) that marred<br />
Shyamalan's "Praying With Anger," leaving<br />
more room for tne Filmmaker 5 dexterity<br />
with the simpler emotions. Fine family fare.<br />
"Wide Awake" still<br />
gives its theological<br />
concerns more than<br />
modest authenticity.<br />
Yet "Wide Awake"<br />
hardly delves to<br />
Rilkean levels of religious<br />
discourse, the<br />
Family's sure wealth<br />
works against the<br />
sense of crisis, and<br />
recurring appearances<br />
of an angelic<br />
little boy (Michael<br />
Craig Bigwood) are<br />
obvious in import.<br />
Yet "Wide Awake"<br />
profits from heartfelt<br />
and sensitive telling<br />
and from its structured<br />
symbolism; as<br />
Joshua interacts with people and nature,<br />
he advances toward his goal. Cross does<br />
a nice job, though the anguish delivered<br />
by Ciaran Fitzgerald in Mike Newell's<br />
"Into the West" seems beyond him (and<br />
Shyamalan); matters never get too uncoov<br />
fortable. Still, in a moviemaking world<br />
dominated by attention to secular matters,<br />
the parochial "Wide Awake" is a refreshing<br />
change of pace.<br />
Kim Williamson
Change language