Oscar and Lucinda . Newcity Chicago . 01-26-98

Oscar and Lucinda

DIRECTED BY: Gillian Armstrong

REVIEWED: 01-26-98

Fate, chance and gambling are at the center of Gillian Armstrong's elegant, moving adaptation of Peter Carey's richly detailed, Booker Prize-winning novel. Perhaps one of the best-looking movies eligible for this year's many movie industry awards, "Oscar and Lucinda," like "The Boxer," seems fated to be overlooked in the mad rush to commend "Titanic" for its craft and commercial cunning. It's a sad situation. Ralph Fiennes plays the nineteenth-century ancestor of a present-day narrator who is embellishing the tale of how one Oscar Hopkins came together to influence the narrator's lineage, as well as to share with Lucinda Leplastrier (Cate Blanchett) a few common interests, which include a love for gambling, a dream of building a glass church in the wilds of Australia north of Sydney, and a desire for each other they somehow repeatedly fail to consummate. Fiennes seems at first a red-haired scarecrow, but his shyness is less the story than the acute sensitivity he brings to his driven character, escaping from his devout childhood, and later, from being an Anglican minister. The loping digressions of the story are better enjoyed than described, and Armstrong is in control throughout. Her collaborators do mesmeric work as well: Thomas Newman's haunting score is both romantic and driven; Geoffrey Simpson's cinematography may be his best in a career filled with strong work; and costumes by Janet Patterson, on a par with her work for Jane Campion on "The Piano" and "The Portrait of a Lady." Panavision.

--Ray Pride

Full Length Reviews
Oscar and Lucinda
Oscar and Lucinda
Oscar and Lucinda
Oscar and Lucinda

Capsule Reviews
Oscar and Lucinda
Oscar and Lucinda

Other Films by Gillian Armstrong
Little Women

Film Vault Suggested Links
Little Women
Fifty Four
Gone With the Wind

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