Friday, January 22, 1999
Screenscene
"Playing By Heart"
Starring Sean Connery and Angelina Jolie
Directed by Willard Carroll
Ensemble films have the difficult task of weaving together
several different stories and characters into one cohesive and
compelling piece. Fortunately, "Playing by Heart" achieves this
without the fanfare and distraction that usually bog down ensemble
works.
Director and writer Willard Carroll has created a beautifully
understated film about the nature of love and human relationships,
set in modern day Los Angeles. Carroll presents a softer, more
appealing side of the city than most films. He treats the location
as purely secondary to the film so it can devote its attention to
the lives of its 11 principal characters of varied generations.
The character’s stories include the comfortable and healthy
40-year marriage of Hannah (Gena Rowlands) and Paul (Sean Connery)
that is faced with sudden problems that force them to evaluate
their relationship more deeply. On the other end of the age
spectrum Joan (Angelina Jolie) and Keenan (Ryan Phillippe) meet in
the L.A. club scene in which the intensely extroverted Joan is
desperately searching for love, but the more stoic Keenan is closed
to the idea of dating, preferring to dance alone. The other
characters and couples range the spectrum of age and attitudes,
together creating a tapestry of the beauty, sadness, hopefulness
and insanity of love.
The beauty of the film lies in the complex, yet never maudlin or
melodramatic characters and the stellar cast that pulls it all
together. Instead of setting up overly contrived sequences for his
characters, Carroll decides to let the actors infuse the humanity
into their roles by creating simple, natural scenes and
situations.
His strength and intelligence as a director lies in his ability
to keep the focus on the characters; the background – whether it be
a kitchen or a dance club – never threatens to override the
acting.
The cast has no weak links, which is a rarity in a large
ensemble drama such as this. Gena Rowlands and Sean Connery are
brilliant, not because their performances are dramatically show
stopping, but because they are perfectly believable as a married
couple of 40 years. The beauty of their acting is that it looks so
natural, you never think that they are acting.
Ellen Burstyn and Jay Mohr, as Mildred and Mark, give two
amazing, restrained performances as a mother and her son who is
dying of AIDS. Their scenes take place in the final days of his
life, in his hospital bed, and they strip the situation down to
such a raw and beautiful honesty and communion that they completely
avoid the overdone melodrama that usually overtakes Hollywood
deathbed scenes.
Carroll’s script is witty and natural, and you feel that there
is actually a reason that he chose to write an ensemble film about
love. While most ensemble movies seem to exist solely to cram as
many famous people into one film as possible, Carroll has a wide
range of characters so he can touch upon the many faces of love and
people’s widely varied reactions to love.
Carroll may not break completely new ground in this movie, but
he captures the small, human details of love through such simple
storytelling and compellingly realistic, and sometimes neurotic,
characters that he gives a fresh and thoughtful spin on the age old
theme of love.
Ricky Herzog
Rating: 8
"Still Crazy"
Starring Stephen Rea and Billy Connolly
Directed by Brian Gibson
All good things must come to an end, but sometimes they can win
a second chance. For the washed up, strapped for cash ex-bandmates
of fictional British supergroup Strange Fruit, one last opportunity
to reunite their group to its former glory days may be the only
hope they have left. Broken up after a freak accident at an outdoor
concert 20 years earlier, the Fruits have fallen on hard times.
The years have not been kind to Strange Fruit, with at least one
member dead, another presumed so, and the rest stuck in dead-end
jobs that pale in comparison with their former stage glory. Only
lead singer Ray Simms, captured with frightening reality by Bill
Nighy, is still performing, but his career is on the skids. Ray’s
flightily arrogant performances are some of the film’s highlights,
as he tries desperately to convince himself that he’s still famous.
Looking like the David Bowie who didn’t quite make it, Ray still
drags out the ridiculous glam clothes and eye makeup, but can’t
regain his old vocal power.
Touring the continent in a rickety bus guided by former roadie
Hughie (Billy Connolly), they relive all the problems they had the
first time around, only magnified by age. Tempers still flare, jams
don’t jell, and illegal substances creep their way into rehearsals.
They find that their full caliber arena shows don’t translate into
cramped punk clubs, and struggle to feel young, despite their
obvious disconnection from the contemporary music scene.
"Still Crazy" has been frequently compared with last year’s
British hit "The Full Monty," but this is an unfair comparison.
While both share a distinctly un-American sensibility when it comes
to humor, "Still Crazy" is a far different film. While character
development is still the main focus, the story line is much more
concerned with both the past history of the musicians together and
their present day interactions. Deftly written so technical details
of the tour don’t overwhelm the audience, the music scenes are both
enjoyable to watch and listen to. Had the Fruits been a real band,
they may not have risen to Led Zeppelin fame, but they could have
made some grooving classic rock. Though they play the same songs
throughout the film, they never become tiresome. By the dramatic
conclusion, "The Flame Still Burns," their signature number, feels
like a rock staple, timeless and powerful.
Another major strength of "Still Crazy" is its sly parody of
rock cliches. As the Fruits mull over whether to get back together,
they suddenly hear their own music wafting through the air, as if
divine intervention is mandating that they should reunite. It seems
out of place, a corny metaphysical moment in what has previously
been a fairly straightforward comedy. Just as they begin to
celebrate this bit of luck, they learn the source of the tunes – a
stereo, hidden from sight. This is the beauty of this film; it
refuses to take itself too seriously.
Brent Hopkins
Rating: 9Miramax Films
Sean Connery and Gena Rowlands star in Willard Carroll’s
"Playing By Heart."
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