It's a treat to see Kirk Douglas back on the screen, feisty as ever, in "Diamonds". Absent from movies since 1994, the 82-year-old star has recovered sufficiently from a stroke and helicopter accident to triumph in a role that seems very much designed for him.
Indeed, Harry Agensky, an aging ex-boxer and stroke victim himself, is such a perfect fit for Douglas that the filmmakers were even able to use scenes from "The Champion", the boxing film Douglas made 50 years ago, to show his character the "Polish Prince" in his prime.
Unfortunately, Douglas' accomplishment is the only reason to see this maudlin tale. Writer Allan Aaron Katz's story is disappointingly undernourished and cliched. And production values under John Asher's direction barely rise to the level of a MOW.
The film, getting an Oscar-qualifying run prior to wide release in January, has limited boxoffice prospects. Indeed Academy voters might make up most of the audience as Douglas' fellow Academy members may wish to pay tribute to his terrific career with a fourth nomination.
This generational comedy takes the form of a road trip undertaken by the son (Dan Aykroyd) and grandson (Corbin Allred) of the Polish Prince, now a disabled and lonely widower. The divorced, middle-aged man and his estranged son decide on a whim to humor The Old Man's determination to hunt down some "magic diamonds" he claims were hidden in the walls of a Reno house belonging to a gangster named Duff the Muff.
Frightened of winding up in an old-age home, he needs these diamonds to fulfill his dream of living on a spacious ranch near his home in Canada. Although convinced these jewels are the product of an addled mind, his male relatives nevertheless see the trip from Canada to Nevada as a final chance at familial bonding.
But the trip is slight on dramatic incidents and long on dialogue full of recriminations over past slights and abuses. Moviegoers have been down that road far too many times for a writer to get away with another excursion devoid of any new insights.
Eventually, the trio winds up in one of those Nevada bordellos that exist only in movies, where the madam (a radiant Lauren Bacall) is kind and hip and the "girls" are all sweethearts who long for the boy they left behind and never glance at the clock while cheerfully entertaining the Agensky clan.
The punch line to all this is pretty punchless. But more troubling is how the film ignores what might have been interesting. "Diamonds" never delves into how a man such as Harry triumphs over such daunting physical adversity. Nor is there any true investigation of how the generation gaps among the Agenskys occurred or how the three are able to narrow them. A trip to a whorehouse is a pretty pathetic remedy.
DIAMONDS
Miramax Films
Miramax Films, Total Film Group and Cinerenta
Producer: Patricia T. Green
Director: John Asher
Writer: Allan Aaron Katz
Executive producer: Gerald Green
Co-executive producers: Rainer Bienger, Andrew Somper
Director of photography: Paul Elliott
Production designer: Vance Lorenzini
Music: Joel Goldsmith
Costume designer: Vicki Sanchez
Editor: C. Timothy O'Meara
Color/stereo
Cast:
Harry: Kirk Douglas
Lance: Dan Aykroyd
Michael: Corbin Allred
Sin-Dee: Lauren Bacall
Sugar: Jenny McCarthy
Moses: Kurt Fuller
Tiffany: Mariah O'Brien
Running time -- 97 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Indeed, Harry Agensky, an aging ex-boxer and stroke victim himself, is such a perfect fit for Douglas that the filmmakers were even able to use scenes from "The Champion", the boxing film Douglas made 50 years ago, to show his character the "Polish Prince" in his prime.
Unfortunately, Douglas' accomplishment is the only reason to see this maudlin tale. Writer Allan Aaron Katz's story is disappointingly undernourished and cliched. And production values under John Asher's direction barely rise to the level of a MOW.
The film, getting an Oscar-qualifying run prior to wide release in January, has limited boxoffice prospects. Indeed Academy voters might make up most of the audience as Douglas' fellow Academy members may wish to pay tribute to his terrific career with a fourth nomination.
This generational comedy takes the form of a road trip undertaken by the son (Dan Aykroyd) and grandson (Corbin Allred) of the Polish Prince, now a disabled and lonely widower. The divorced, middle-aged man and his estranged son decide on a whim to humor The Old Man's determination to hunt down some "magic diamonds" he claims were hidden in the walls of a Reno house belonging to a gangster named Duff the Muff.
Frightened of winding up in an old-age home, he needs these diamonds to fulfill his dream of living on a spacious ranch near his home in Canada. Although convinced these jewels are the product of an addled mind, his male relatives nevertheless see the trip from Canada to Nevada as a final chance at familial bonding.
But the trip is slight on dramatic incidents and long on dialogue full of recriminations over past slights and abuses. Moviegoers have been down that road far too many times for a writer to get away with another excursion devoid of any new insights.
Eventually, the trio winds up in one of those Nevada bordellos that exist only in movies, where the madam (a radiant Lauren Bacall) is kind and hip and the "girls" are all sweethearts who long for the boy they left behind and never glance at the clock while cheerfully entertaining the Agensky clan.
The punch line to all this is pretty punchless. But more troubling is how the film ignores what might have been interesting. "Diamonds" never delves into how a man such as Harry triumphs over such daunting physical adversity. Nor is there any true investigation of how the generation gaps among the Agenskys occurred or how the three are able to narrow them. A trip to a whorehouse is a pretty pathetic remedy.
DIAMONDS
Miramax Films
Miramax Films, Total Film Group and Cinerenta
Producer: Patricia T. Green
Director: John Asher
Writer: Allan Aaron Katz
Executive producer: Gerald Green
Co-executive producers: Rainer Bienger, Andrew Somper
Director of photography: Paul Elliott
Production designer: Vance Lorenzini
Music: Joel Goldsmith
Costume designer: Vicki Sanchez
Editor: C. Timothy O'Meara
Color/stereo
Cast:
Harry: Kirk Douglas
Lance: Dan Aykroyd
Michael: Corbin Allred
Sin-Dee: Lauren Bacall
Sugar: Jenny McCarthy
Moses: Kurt Fuller
Tiffany: Mariah O'Brien
Running time -- 97 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 12/9/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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