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Volume 70 Edition 1
 Splice17 Feb 1999
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Cube [ Top ]If you feel that suspense and a plot that has not been cliched are hard to find these days, then perhaps Cube is for you. Vincenzo Natali does a pretty damn fine job in his debut as director. This low budget film from Canada was completed in less than a month and yet has none of the usual signs of low-budgetedness.Six strangers are grouped together seemingly at random. They wake up to find they have been whisked from their lives, and placed in a maze of interconnecting cubes, all of which are part of a larger cube. Some cubes are safe, others violently perilous, but which? Despite the limitations that you might expect from a low budget scifi film, the characterisation is intense. Cube reveals much about the nature and skills of each character, especially under pressure. The freaky special effects only help to enhance the paranoia-inspiring storyline. Many questions are asked... are they answered? For all you SciFi-ers, Cube is not to be missed. by Cadi Lee and Alan Simpson Shakespeare In Love [ Top ]Little is known about the personal life of Shakespeare, but this did not stop the makers of Shakespeare in Love, led by acclaimed director John Madden (Mrs Brown), from having a highly inventive and irreverent guess.Shakespeare in Love is the story of the frustrated playwright Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes). Suffering from a debilitating case of writer's block and under pressure to finish his new comedy, "Romeo & Ethel The Pirate's Daughter", Shakespeare embarks on a search to regain his muse. Relief comes in the form of the beautiful Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) whose burning desire to act sees her masquerading as a boy to win the role of Romeo. Shakespeare and Viola fall passionately in love and "Romeo and Juliet" is created. As art imitates life however, a tragic conclusion is inevitable and Shakespeare's career is at stake. As a former member of Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company, the charismatic Fiennes has the perfect credentials to play Shakespeare, while Paltrow again proves she is more than just decorative. The talented supporting cast includes Ben Affleck, Geoffrey Rush and a sassy Judi Dench. The witty script co-written by playwright Tom Stoppard (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead), lavish recreation of Elizabethan England and a mix of brawls, romance and tragedy may not be enough, however, to ensure wide accessibility. The film is laden with references to Shakespeare's plays and other playwrights - unlikely to hold your attention if you find Shakespeare and costume drama about as exciting as dental treatment, but hilariously funny for the initiated. Shakespeare in Love makes the world of Shakespeare come alive in a totally unique, modern way (even if it does preach to the converted) and was the deserving winner of three Golden Globes. Natalie Book Hideous Kinky [ Top ]Based on the memoirs of English author, Esther Freud, Hideous Kinky is the story of a mother and her two daughters who leave dreary London in the early seventies for a more fulfilling existence in Morocco. Directed by Gillies MacKinnon, the film stars Kate Winslet as Julia, the spiritual yet devoted mother of eight year old Bea (Bella Riza) and six year old Lucy (Carrie Mullan). French Moroccan actor Said Taghmaoui (who incidently co-wrote La Haine, a brilliant film exploring the plight of North African youths living in the ghettos of Paris) is cast as Moroccan Bilal, a love interest for Julia.Daughters by her side, a beautiful young English woman goes to Morocco with the intention of meeting a Sufi and achieving the 'annihilation of the ego'. Whilst in Morocco she falls in love with the charming vagabond, Bilal, and her life is altered forever. Sounds romantic and almost surreal, right? Unfortunately not even the much celebrated Kate Winslet nor the magnificent depiction of Moroccan landscapes and cultural artefacts can rescue this film. Hideous Kinky is essentially bound by loose ends which somehow never manage to tie up. Not that having a fully resolved plot is necessary for a film's credibility, only, Hideous Kinky lacks all sense of association or put simply, continuity. Nice in concept but ordinary in practice - give this one a miss. Meg Kirk A Simply Plan [ Top ]Following the success of his debut novel A Simple Plan, Scott B. Smith chose to transform the best-seller into a screenplay. Producers James Jacks and Adam Schroeder, and director Sam Raimi saw in the screenplay of A Simple Plan an understated brilliance. Combined with a supreme cast, the complexity of A Simple Plan is certainly impressive.Set in a small, sleepy town in the American Midwest, A Simple Plan takes effect when three men; the responsible Hank (Bill Paxton), his unemployed and seemingly pathetic brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jacob's deadbeat mate Lou (Brent Briscoe) stumble across over $4 million of 'dirty money' on the site of a small airplane wreck. Their eventual decision to keep the money results in a series of deceptions and a constant fear of being caught. Sarah (Bridget Fonda), as the wife of Hank and mother of his child, is also party to this conspiracy. A remarkably blunt social comment offered in this film is how relatively harmless people are corrupted by what wealth is sure to offer their presumably inadequate lives. Most disturbing in A Simple Plan however is the inevitable severity of greed's impact; the devastation wreaked upon innocent town-folk. Billy Bob Thornton's sterling portrayal of Jacob is consistent with his reputation. Bill Paxton, whose fame is attributed largely to limiting roles in the blockbusters Titanic and Twister, also makes his mark as Hank. At times when one feels that the suspension of belief has gone that tad too far and the plot becomes predictable, the credibility of the actors' performances gives this film a truly authentic feel. I must recommend A Simple Plan as essentially the greatest irony of what was to be and what became - a backyard conspiracy of the most catastrophic kind. It is dark, at times uncomfortably familiar though complimented by an often refreshing dry sense of humour. Destined to be a great motion pic in 1999. Meg Kirk Polish Wedding [ Top ]In Polish Wedding, debut director Theresa Connelly draws on her own upbringing to create the Pzoniaks, a Polish family making ends meet in an industrial neighbourhood of Hamtramck, Michigan. The family is run by Jadzia (Lena Olin), the dominant mother who balances her family duties with visits to her lover. Her husband, Bolek (Gabrielle Byrne), represents the honest working class father. Their only daughter is Hala, played to flirtatious perfection by Claire Danes.From the breakfast table to their day-time occupations and back home again, the monotony and routine nature of the Pzoniaks daily lives becomes very evident. But it is night that provides the excitement. As the evenings come both Jadzia and Hala emerge, more often than not in search of a bit of passion on the side. Jadzia's infidelity provides a backdrop to Hala's development as a young woman, as both confront the questions of life and motherhood. Like any portrayal of a family situation the fine line is making the characters interesting enough to warrant the intrusion into their lives, while also being real enough so that an audience can relate to them. For the most of the film Connelly walks eloquently along this line, the Pzoniaks possessing a sense of the ordinary, as well as radiating an undeniable charm. Connelly is able to combine this sense of beauty with sensuality and the confusion that is so rife in the lives of the characters. As the film progresses there is a tendency to stray to the Hollywood style of story telling. Nonetheless, a Polish Wedding is a pleasant piece of viewing. Matt Fork |
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