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Film Clips
JUNE 8, 1998:
 HOPE FLOATS. After Birdee Pruitt's (Sandra Bullock) husband
leaves her for her best friend on national TV, Birdee goes into
a deep depression. She spends most of the day sleeping, waking
only to have whiny fits. This goes on for 90 minutes while her
childhood sweetheart (played by muscled man-flesh love-god Harry
Connick Jr.) makes long speeches about the American dream and
tries to get Birdee to quit pouting and have sex with him. This
incredibly slow and largely plotless film was supposed to be Bullock's
"reward" for agreeing to make Speed II, but why
anyone would think this maudlin tripe would make an amusing movie
is beyond me. If watching moss grow while embarrassingly trite
dialogue plays in the background is your idea of fun, don't miss
Hope Floats. --DiGiovanna
A PERFECT MURDER. Gwyneth Paltrow plays the impossibly
beautiful young wife of evil, aged investment banker Michael Douglas
in this remake of Dial M For Murder. When Douglas realizes
Paltrow is having an affair with a young artist (played by smoky-hot
Viggo Mortensen), he hatches an elaborate plot for revenge. The
suspense film is one of the more difficult genres to pull off,
but director Andrew Davis, cinematographer Dariusz Wolski and
composer James Newton Howard synergistically combine to drop all
the elements into place. Wolski, best known for inventing the
neo-gothic style of cinematography seen in The Crow and
Dark City, uses a much more subtle approach here, courageously
shooting empty rooms and static scenes to create a threatening
atmosphere and keep the viewer off-balance. The film is also notable
for the Arabic-speaking police detective who's portrayed as smart,
efficient and sympathetic, a rare departure from the normally
stereotyped representation of Muslim peoples in Hollywood movies.
The only flaws in this nerve-wracking outing are Michael Douglas'
exaggerated performance and a slight loss of momentum in the final
confrontation. Still, this is precision filmmaking that will leave
you reaching for the nitroglycerin tablets. --DiGiovanna
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