Reviews
The Linguini Incident (1991)
Actors not perfect, but plot clean and costumes great
This is a movie that doesn't do us the disservice of taking itself seriously. We're able to suspend disbelief and have fun with the wacky characters without wondering how they could possibly exist. I agree with other viewers that the pacing could have used work. But the viewer who complained that one shot of a bridge doesn't prove a movie is set in New York obviously thought movies benefit from being set in New York, a point with which I don't agree.
I enjoyed Lucy's character and thought Arquette was the right person to play her. Viv, on the other hand, bothered me; Eszter Balint's slight Hungarian accent got on my nerves from the beginning. (I'm of the camp that feels an actor should either have an accent or not; if you have one, don't spend thousands of dollars training to cover up 99.5% of it, because the other .5% will still give you away.)
Much as I like David Bowie, and much as he probably sold this movie for most people browsing in the video store, he really phoned in his performance here. Much was made on the cassette box, and in the reviews, of the fact that Monte is a 'mystery man'; we don't know whether he's a liar or a gambler or any of several things he claims to be early on. Problem is, at no time is it made clear to us why we should care what he is. He's boring, morose, mumbles far too many of his lines, and only turns on that famed Bowie sexiness about twice in the whole movie (once during a makeout scene that is charming until it is cut off abruptly). I was quite happy to see his character bound into the fish tank to rescue Lucy--it was the only time I saw any kind of light in his eyes, though I suppose it might have just been sparkles from the water.
Yeah, I know, I complain...but I liked the fact that this plot was clean as a whistle, no big holes to mull over at the end, and the happy ending was sweet (if not entirely articulated, but then, by that time we could tell how things ended up and didn't need it spelled out for us). The dialogue is mostly quite clever, the costumes are fabulous (Lucy in her bejeweled Houdini-era flapper gowns is adorable), and I love what happened to the ring! So I do recommend this movie for rental.
Harrison Bergeron (1995)
An adaptation and expansion of the beloved Vonnegut short story
(some spoilers below)
_Harrison Bergeron_ is the film version of Kurt Vonnegut's short story. Set 100 years in the future, it is the story of a young man brimming with intelligence, who unfortunately is born into a society where mediocrity is mandatory. To avoid the problems of envy between human beings, the government forces everyone to wear headbands that interfere with their thought processes, to wear sandbags on their bodies to keep them from being graceful, and to watch TV shows that are completely devoid of anything funny or thought-provoking. Normalcy is the greatest aspiration of most people. But Harrison has more inside of him than anyone knows.
The brevity of the short story led me to be suspicious when I saw that there was a full-length movie made out of it. I figured it could only smack of screenwriter's license, like those animated series made out of animated movies (how are they going to come up with a whole season's worth of plotlines without violating the canon set up by the original movie?).
Fortunately, this is the movie that was living in the story the whole time, like the part of the iceberg that was lurking below the surface. The acting is good; although Sean Astin could do with a few more types of facial expressions, he does a good job as the gifted but iconoclastic kid who has grown up idolizing mediocrity, but suddenly finds himself immersed in the joys of the mind and the love of a woman.
The world sketched by the short story is filled in just the way we knew it had to be (perhaps Vonnegut had a hand in this?). We knew that if there is a law that people must be handicapped by the government so they are like their neighbors, someone had to be in charge--and that someone had to have access to evidence that there was once another way of living. We also knew those people, while intelligent, had to have their own twisted reasons for doing what they do. Lucky us--we get to see all this unfold throughout the movie.
The image I remember most from the story is that of the gorgeous ballerina, suddenly freed from her sandbagged state of mediocrity, dancing with Harrison in a joyous climax before disaster ensues. We don't see the ballerina in the film (though there is an earlier scene when a dancer's sandbags fall off accidentally), but we do get to see Harrison's inevitable end--and it hits us over the head in much the same way. The climactic scenes take place in the TV studio instead, with Harrison showing the world what they have missed in embracing mediocrity.
Dialogue is a cut above your average sci fi drama, and one exchange is too cute not to quote:
Phillipa: Have you been watching the old movies I gave you? Harrison: Yes! They're amazing. Who's that old man in _King Lear_? Phillipa: That's Lear. Harrison: No, the actor... Phillipa: Macauley Culkin. Harrison: Oh, yes.
Yes, it's the obligatory reference to the time period in which the film was produced...but it's handled with wit.
In sum, this is that rare movie that is utterly faithful to, but creatively expansive of, its literary source.