"2 Days In The Valley" (18) Savoy, Omniplex, UCIs, Dublin
A veteran television director who started out as an actor (playing Starsky's brother in Starsky And Hutch), John Herzfeld makes a belated but distinctive cinema debut with 2 Days In The Valley a dexterously plotted crime drama set over the course of an eventful 48 hours in the sweltering heat of the San Fernando Valley and involving a range of disparate characters whose fates collide.
They include a team of hitmen, the sadistic, cold blooded Lee (James Spader) and his resourceful older colleague, Dosmo (Danny Aiello) an Olympic skier (Teri Hatcher) frustrated at coming fourth in Lillehammer, and her ex husband (Peter Horton) who is alleged to have had an affair with Lee's lover (Charlize Theron); a suicidal, out of work television director (Paul Masurzky) who uses his 1982 Emmy award as a toilet roll holder, the nurse (Marsha Mason) he meets in a cemetery, and her much suffering sister (Glenne Headly) who works for a rude, selfish English art dealer (Greg Crutwell) and a pair of vice cops, one of whom (Jeff Daniels) is embittered and volatile while the other (Eric Stoltz) longs for promotion to the homicide division.
Confused? Well, you won't be, as Herzfeld's sharp screenplay establishes with deceptive ease all of these characters and their interrelationships. The drama is triggered off, no pun intended, as Lee and Dosmo prepare to murder their intended victim, and what is planned as a perfect crime leaves a few loose ends hanging to form a murky web which envelops all of the protagonists.
To reveal any more would detract from the satisfaction to be gained from observing the overlapping destinies of the various characters, which are so cleverly and skilfully engineered by Herzfeld. In an impeccable ensemble cast, it would be invidious to single out individual performances but while all of the better known actors are on fine form, it is worth drawing attention to the lesser known Greg Crutwell previously seen in Mike Leigh's Naked; Teri Hatcher, who plays Lois Lane on television and has a much juicier role here than in last week's Heaven's Prisoners; and the very striking newcomer, Charlize Theron.
. Showing with 2 Days In The Valley at the Savoy is The Condom, the short film that marks the directing debut of Dublin Film Festival programmer Martin Ma hon. Described by him as "a hygiene and morality tale for the 1990s", this is a witty, well sustained vignette involving a young couple who have just met, any hope of sexual activity is thwarted by the male's various problems with condoms. Martin Mahon's admiration for Woody Allen is evident throughout the film.
"Tin Cup" (15) Savoy, Virgin, Omniplex, UCIs, Dublin
After the debacle that was Waterworld, Kevin Costner returns to the genre in which he has been most comfortably cast, the sports movie, for Tin Cup, and while the new movie lacks the powerful emotional punch of the wonderful Field Of Dreams and the sexual charge of the vigorous Bull Durham, it's a consistently amiable entertainment which actually manages to make golf dramatically interesting in a narrative context.
Costner plays Roy McAvoy, nicknamed "Tin Cup", a very promising young golfer back, when he and his former college friend, David Simms (Don Johnson) were star players on the University of Houston team. Whereas Simms went on to become a PGA celebrity, Tin Cup is, as the movie opens, a washed up, boozy loser reduced to giving lessons on a inn down driving range in the small West Texas town of Salome.
Redemption is never too far away in such a scenario and soon enough it comes in the form of an unlikely psychologist, Dr Molly Griswold (Rene Russo) who, for reasons best known to herself, goes to Tin Cup for tuition. As he becomes besotted with her, he learns that she is having an affair with, of all people, David Simms, who has humiliated Tin Cup further by asking him to caddy for him. There's only one thing for it if Tin Cup is going to win his woman and regain his self esteem, and that, of course, is to qualify, against all the odds, for the US Open.
If this is all beginning to sound like Rocky Fore!, fear not because writer director Ron Shelton, who made the aforementioned Bull Durham, has enough wit and humour to transcend such potentially simplistic and predictable pitfalls, and at a time when so many movies run for far longer than they ought to, Tin Cup smoothly sustains its leisurely 135 minute running time. Costner is relaxed and charming as the eponymous character, while Rene Russo sparkles in a rare light role, Don Johnson rarely has been so effectively cast, and even Cheech Marin (from the dreadful Cheech & Chong) is not only bearable, but amusing for once. And director Shelton saves his ace to play in the bravura final golfing sequence.
"A Summer's Tale" (members and guests only) IFC, Dublin
Now 76, the veteran French film maker, Eric Robmer continues his inquisitive and insightful probing into young people's problems with A Summer's Tale, the third and most satisfying film to date in his proposed seasonal quartet that began with A Tale Of Springtime and A Winter's Tale. Showing in the French Film Festival tonight as part of the event's 18 film Rohmer retrospective and going on release at the IFC tomorrow, A Summer's Tale stars the rising young French actor, Melvil Poupaud, who can also be seen in the festival presentations, Three Lives and Only One Death and Diary Of A Seducer.
Poupaud gives an enigmatically understated performance in A Summer's Tale, as Gaspard, a songwriter and recent maths graduate who goes on holiday in the Breton seaside resort of Dinard, where he plans to link up with his girlfriend, Lena (Aurelia Nolin). He is befriended by Margot (Amanda Langlet), a young ethnographer working part time in a local restaurant, and as they go on long walks together day after day, the reticent Gaspard fails to notice that she is growing more and more attracted to him.
Gaspard's love life is further complicated when Solene (Gwenaelle Simon), a friend of Margot, makes a move on him and even more so when the arrogant Lena finally turns up. As he reaches the last week of his holiday, which will climax on the island of Ouessant, Gaspard finally has to force himself to face up to reality and to decide what to do about the three women in his life.
Rohmer's most engaging movie for years, A Summer's Tale is characteristically witty and wise and keenly observed in its reflections on the fickleness of young love and the nature of personal and sexual attraction. And like its summery Breton locations, the movie is sunny, warm and attractive.
"The Wind in the Willows" (General) Savoy, Virgin, Omniplex, Dublin
If only life on the riverbank could always stay the same, with leisurely picnics and boating expeditions in warm summer sunshine. The loss of innocence and threat of change, both social and temporal, are the themes that permeate Kenneth Giahame s children's classic and speak anew to successive generations of leaders. Here Terry Jones directs his own adaptation of the novel, which takes plenty of liberties with the original story, while effectively capturing its spirit.
With Toad (Terry Jones), Mole (Steve Coogan), Rat (Eric Idle) and Badger (Nicol Williamson) presented as Edwardian gentlemen with some animal characteristics, the anthropomorphic thrust of the book is retained, so that the audience identifies with well rounded characters - whose defining features correspond to animal types - rather than with actual animals.
Jones's film is full of adventures and twists, mainly precipitated by the hedonistic Toad and his succession of car crashes, and by the plotting of the Weasels, led by the villainous Chief (Antony Sher) who intends to build a dog food factory and take over Toad Hall. James Acheson's appealing production design juxtaposes the pastoral riverbank habitat with the vast factory, which threatens to make mincemeat of our heroes and pays loving attention to period detail, from steam trains to village inns. His colourful costumes are equally rich, especially Toad's Plus Fours and green greasepaint.
While the excellent, if highly theatrical performances will be appreciated by an adult audience, there's plenty here to hold children's interest. Only the sentimental, music hall style song and dance routines are ill advised, disrupting the continuity and sitting awkwardly with the dryly witty tone of Terry Jones's script.
"Dragonheart" (PG) Ambassador, Savoy, Virgin, Omniplex, UCIs, Dublin
Sean Connery provides the voice of a 30 foot long dragon in this underwhelming fantasy adventure, which mixes Arthurian legend with ersatz Robin Hoodery. Dennis Quaid plays Bowen, a 10th century knight whose young pupil prince (David Thewlis) betrays him to become a vicious tyrant. Disillusioned and cynical, Quaid becomes a dragon killer, in revenge for what he sees as one particular dragon's part in the betrayal (unwary adults thinking of taking their children should note that there's an awful lot of dreary exposition to set all this up). Having killed all but one of the dragons in the land, he meets the last of the breed, Draco, and the two strike up a friendship. Accompanied by a garrulous monk (Pete Postlethwaite), they set off on an adventure which will ultimately overthrow the king.
Perhaps Terry Gilliam and the Monty Python team could have made something of it all, but in the hands of Cohen it just falls to dust.
