chaplinj@hotmail.com

I gave this film a strong 7 and that was mostly for Allen's great script. The ensemble is mostly terrific, as in most of Allen's movies. Montegna seemed out of place for some reason. Another of his type-casted phone in performances. Had this script been even a small bit weaker, this film would have be awful due to it's lead. Farrow is the product of celebrities, that is how she became one herself, it was never due to any talent or acting ability. She has been extremely lucky to get amazing material to work with, thus many confuse the material for her ability to act. Had this part been given to a good (or even great) actress, this would have been one of those masterpieces that everyone speaks of often. Instead, her lack of ability or any natural talent brings the whole production to a much lower level. My advice, watch this with the closed captioning on your television or DVD player turned on, it's a much better movie when you can concentrate on the brilliance of Allen's script without having to be subjected to Farrow's, her acting (and I use that term loosely for what she does) is rudimentary at it's best and verges straight into horrendousness. She once again gets a gift of great writing and manages to turn it into garbage, just as she's done in Allen's other works in which she starred, September, The Purple Rose Of Cairo, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Husbands and Wives (et al). When casting was being decided her name should have been on the list right after Lassie and Flipper, they could have done just as well.

Biographies are not always complete facts. They're accounts and documentation derived from sources other than the actual subject. Therefore, I do not know how much of this was fact and how much based on conjecture and theory or simple supposition for dramatic effect. In any event, it really didn't tell much about the man himself, it was more about the commie witch hunt in the middle of the last century, another thing this country has to still try to hide and live down. I should have paid closer attention to the movie description before renting it, as I am not a fan of movies that are filled with such ignorance, especially when it involves crimes that government entities get away with. Dramatising only takes away from the real horror of the events so I wasn't impressed with this film. After the 400 pound man sits on his 20th (or so) story window ledge and hops off and ends up 200-300 feet out in the street, I knew at that point the producers weren't much interested in reality so it made me questioned everything through the rest of the movie.

Well meant production from the magical Merchant/Ivory/Jhabvala team. This one was made before they hit their stride, however. The first mistake was casting Christopher Reeve in the lead. He always looks like he's acting, there's nothing natural about it. His performance here is in par with cheap 70's pornography acting. He is supposedly classically trained as an actor, but I guess anyone who pays for and attends acting classes can say the same. Some have it and some don't, he doesn't. The costumes, art direction and sets are all lavish and appealing. The dialog is far too updated to make one believe that it's taking place in another century, it's almost like a high school production in that aspect. Redgrave and Marchand both give good performances, nothing remarkable at all, but acceptable. The rest of the cast is a mish-mash of mostly b-listers. Scriptwriter Jhabvala has proved herself time and again to be quite the artist, but the script here is flat. Perhaps the book it was based on is this dull and unconvincing. I was left simply unaffected by any message they were trying to convey about the period. I'm a fanatic when it comes to Merchant/Ivory pictures, but this one just didn't cut it. It seems they were more in their element with their amazing and opulent European productions. The quality of their American films seems to be quite cheap in production in comparison. I'm simply left wondering what a masterpiece this could have been had it been set in and filmed in England. If you're an Ivory/Merchant fan, stick with their better titles "A Room With A View" & "Sense And Sensibility", they both surpass this effort by leagues.