English infusionsTea With Mussolini, dir. Franco Zeffirelli.You tend to forget that Zeffirelli has beenan anglophile for most of his lavishdirectorial career. From the early Taming ofThe Shrew( 196 7) through Romeo and Juliet(1968) to Jane Eyre (1996), he has minedEnglish writers-and to fine effect. Theyhave, after all, consistently turned in topdrawer,infinitely adaptable material anddon't get into a lather about copyright.For this channing but disappointing film,Zeffirelli has been loyal- h aving JohnMortimer write the screenplay with himbutnot wise. Mortimer does satiric surfacesrobustlyamusing, as in his Rumpole series.But for this loosely fictionalised account ofZeffirelli's own wartime boyhood and hisadoption by the ladies of the Englishcommunity in Florence during the fascistperiod, you need more than witty punchlinesand the patina of English eccentricity. ButZeffirelli is too fond and Mortimer toohearty to making anything more taxing thanan entertainment out of potentially richmaterial. Shakespeare does help them outthough: in one scene the young Luca/Zeffirelli is sent into exile in Germany toget the schooling his opportunist fatherthinks will benefit him. The ladies cushionthe child's departure by doing a chorus ofHenry V's St Crispian's speech: 'He that outlivesthis day, and comes safe home/Willstand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd ... 'The cinematography is delicate andhazy, doing justice enough to Tuscany tomake you understand why this odd littleband of time-warped English women mighthave risked themselvesto stay andhelp preserve it fromGerman explosivesand the juggernautof allied victory.The acting is alternatelychiselled andoutrageous: MaggieSmith (left) and JoanPlowright playladies, (Plowrightvery convincingly),while Cher and JudiDeneb let themselvesgo royally.The Italian actorsperform like stockItalian characters ina pre-war English Bmovie-oddly embarrassing in a film froma director who ought to know better.-Morag FraserKubrick veneerEyes Wide Shut, dir. Stanley Kubrick. I wentthere ready to like the film, to ditchreservations about the relentless publicitycampaign and its glossy stars, because itwas, after all, a Kubrick. Kubrick- whogave us Dr Strangelove, The Shining, AClockwork Orange,2001: A Space Odyssey,Full Metal Jacl
fe llow working as a tout ou tside a stripjoint. His luck is about to change. Pandooffers Jimmy a simple job. The job turnssour and Jimmy looks like he's in line totake an unpleasant camping trip with Pando,a large gun and no waffle-maker.Enter Alex (Rose Byrne), an angel withperoxide hair just arrived fro m the country.Her dairymaid blush sham es the nastinessof King Cross. She offers Jimmy a chance towork in a m stic trade som ewhere up north.I thought she was going to as k Jimmy towork on her dairy and m ake real money.But no, Jimmy has to shoot a few cops first,but the love ofa good woman seem s to ensurehe'll remain a good bloke-just as long as hecan find a paddle for his barbed-wire canoe.Two Hands has a couple of genuinebelly laughs; armed robbers who plan holdupsand childcare in the same conversationoffer the best laughs.The casualness w ith which people areblown away, drowned and mn over probablydoes make this a hip film. Even so, TwoHands might have som e real m eaning;som etimes we're made to wonder if placeshold mem ories of past wrongs.Maybe it will be flawed heroes likeJimmy who'll right the wrongs embeddedin the bush and benea th the city asphalt.Then again, Two Hands might ju st beanother film about nothing. It's worth goingand pending 103 minutes m aking yourmind up.-Paul SinclairExtraordinaryJoeMy Name is foe, dir. Ken Loach. There'ssomething incredibly beautiful about theplainness of this film. It covers fa miliarterritory for director Ken Loach, focusingon a community battered by mass longtermunemployment, dmgs and poverty.Despite the potential for blea kness andmisery, Loach offers us something m oredifficult to understand and to show: thepossibility of hope amid hopeless conditions.The Joe of the title (a wonderfulperformance by Pet er Mulle n ) is anunemployed alcoholic, with nothing toshow for his 37 years, and no prospectseither. All he has going for him is 11 straightmonths off the booze, the local unemployedworkers' soccer club which he coaches (whohave only won a ingle gam e, ever), and hisfri end Shanks, who took him to hi first AAmeeting. He m eets Sarah, a local communityhealth worker, and despite the gap in theirsocial class (sh e has a job you see), theybegin a tentative but hopeful rom ance.Each of them, in their own way, iscommitted to the battered community theylive in. They fi rst cross paths attempting tohelp Liain , an ex- junkie and dmg- dealertrying, like Joe, to stay straight. Unfortunately,Liain 's wife is still using, and hasracked up impos ible debts with the localdealers in doing so. The dealers, of course,will have their du e, on e way or another. Inhis attempts to protect Liam, Joe gets drawninextricably into an increasingly impossibleand desperate situation, where his desire todo the right thing by everyone around himbackfires tragically.This is a familiar plot- the good mancornered by fate is a classic formula fortragedy. What makes this story so affecting,however, is the simplicity of its telling. It'sas if, in offering us these chara cters' storiesin such an unadorned, straightforwardm anner, Loach is affirming his fa ith in thevalue and significance of their experiencejust as it is. Perhaps m ore importantly, bygiving it to us directly, he also gives usnowhere to hide from the rawness and theraggedness of that experience.-Allan James ThomasPlay to the endPlaying by Heart (dir. Willard Carroll ). It'sworth staying to the end of Playing byHeart to see how the seemingly separatestrands of the story all com e together. N otthat you 'll be bored in the m eantime. Formost of the film, we follow fiv e distinctrelationships. While each of them is vibrantand engaging, it's hard to find any point ofconnection between them, except for thefact that they all take place in Los Angeles.Indeed, you begin to su spect that thi issom ething like New York Stories, exceptthat these narratives mn concurrent! y ratherthan sequentially.You wonder if perh aps Willard Carroll,who wrote the film as well as directed it,has created a loose stmcture to fit theem otional claustrophobia he is exploring.But then, in the final 20 minutes, the strandscome together so easily and simply that theresult is delightful. Each strand of thenarrative has been strong. The final fit iswell nigh unbreakable.Paul (Sea n Connery) and Hannah (GenaRowlands) have been m arried fo r 40 years.They live in com fort. But Paul has beendiagnosed with a terminal disease and thereare som e issues which have been unresolvedin their marriage for 25 years. Meanwhile,Joan (Angelina Jolie) is cmising clubs andruns into the surly, withdrawn Keenan(Ryan Philippe).Meanwhile, Gracie (Madeleine Stowe)is having an affair with Roger (AnthonyEd wards). Mildred (Ellen Burs tyn ) is waitingby the bed side of her dying son, Mark (JayMohr). Meredith (Gillian Anderson ) is doingher best to fend off the attentions of Trent(Jon Stewart). Such stories are the bread andbutter of living in a western city. They aret old w ith humour and wit. Carroll'sdirection uses the talen t of his big-nameactors without allowing them to dominatethe large cast. This film surprises you byshowing how much these characters haveinvested in each other. Take your cynicalfriends. It will do them good.-Michael McGirr SfBubble and squeakBedrooms and Hallways, dir. Rose Troche.'Wild Men' weekends, the sexual fantasiesof London real-estate agents, screwball poppsychology and sharp domestic wit makesthis romp round London relationshipsenormou sly en gaging. Bedrooms andHallways is lightweight cinematic delight.The plot twists fa ncifully around thegorgeous gay Leo (Kevin McKidd), who ispersuaded to attend a N ew Age m en's groupby his open-minded but straight businesspartner. Som ewhere between the 'honestystone' and the group sauna Leo admits tofinding a fellow m ember of the grou pattractive-a revelation that unleashes afl ood of confused sexual sh en an iga ns,reassessm ents and aggressions. Everythingit seem s is up fo r grabs- literally.With the m en's group in a shambles andgay Leo in love with straight Brendan (JamesPurefoy), enter Sally (Jennifer Ehle), Leo'shigh-sch ool sweetheart and s t raigh tBrendan's ex-long- term girlfriend. What todo? Whom to turn to? Which team to batfor?Yes, this is soap, in fac t it's a bubblebath, but I enjoyed it fro m start to last.Hugo Weaving is ma terful as a gentlymenacing real-estate agent in lust with thesartorially outrageous Darren, while Si m onCallow and Harri e t Walter put inmischievously over-the- top performancesas the N ew Age group leaders. In fact, allthe film's players, big and small, are ripper.London itself puts in a handsom e, if heavilydisguised, performance- endless sunshineand pots of red geraniums add charminglyto the soapy fantasy of it all.- Siobhan JacksonV O LUME 9 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 49
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