FILM new releases
Spell it out: Sandra Bullock in Practical Magic
Practical Magic (12) 107 mins arr
When their father dies and their mother follows with a broken heart, Sally and Gillian Owens (Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman) are raised by their dotty aunts (Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest). All grown up, Gillian takes to the road to lead a wild life. Meanwhile, Sally falls in love with a local lad and has two daughters. However, the much desired ‘normal life’ eludes Sally. Instead, the Owens are ostracised by their small town community for practising white magic, a craft passed down through the family, woman to woman, generation to generation. Worse still, an ancient curse spells death for any man with whom an Owens woman falls in love. Based on Alice Hoffman’s best—selling novel, Practical Magic revolves around two paradigms: 'sisterhood' and 'man trouble’. When Sally loses her beloved
to the curse, Gillian helps her overcome grief and depresSion. Later, Sally rescues Gillian from an abusive boyfriend, but the sisters accidentally kill him and complicate matters by performing a resurrection swiftly followed by another murder. Thereafter, the pair are haunted by the dead man’s malign ghost while being investigated by handsome law enforcer Aidan Qumn.
Unevenly paced, Practical Magic betrays the problems inherent in transferring prose to screen. The majority of the plot unfolds during the rather convoluted first half, while the second rushes its resolutions — kind of like having the climax at the beginning. Still, the cast do a respectable job, and Channing and Wiest in particular deliver performances to die for.
(Miles Fielder) General release from Fri 22 Jan. See preview
Class Trip (La Classe De Neige)
(15) 97 mins air it i:
Young Nicolas (Clement Van Den Bergh) is given to morbid thoughts. A product of suffocatingly possessive parents and of too many nights poring over accidents on the TV news, he can’t seem to clear from his mind the most horrific of incidents.
Perhaps a class trip into the mountains might help. But instead of clambering on the school bus, Nicolas is dropped off at the retreat by his insistent father (FrancOis Roy). With his outsider status confirmed, it’s a further excuse for Nicolas to remain inside his head.
Claude Miller's movie, a finely etched pOrtrait of angst which internalises the
50 THE “ST 21 Jan—4 Feb 1999
Boys in the hoods: a scene from Class Trip
usual rite of passage, creates a stunningly evocative and sensmve atmosphere. In one scene, Nicolas wanders out into the snow late at night. Miller combines the lull of the falling flakes With sudden menace when the boy realises he's locked himself out of the building.
Sensitivity shot through With a hint of foreboding has always been central to Miller's work, but on this occasion his subtle insights into the boy's mind are mitigated by heavy-handed Exposmon come the conclusion. It's as if he didn't realise JUSi how far into Nicolas’s head he'd managed to get. There’s a slippery character study inside this tale, but a shaky framework containing it.
(Tony McKibbin) I Glasgow Film Theatre and Edinburgh Fi/mhouse from Fri 22 Jan. See preview.
Ver Bad Things
(18) 00 mins an”: *
'Take away the moral and ethical implications of everything . . . and what have you got left?’ preaches a demonic Christian Slater to his reluctant accomplices. The answer is Very Bad Things, an outrageously grim and gruesome black comedy about the extremes of nuptial hysteria and male bonding.
Cameron Diaz is marrying Jon Favreau (from Swingers) and nothing, but nothing, is going to upset her plans for the perfect wedding. That is, until Favreau hits Las Vegas for his stag night with long-time buddies L ‘ Slater (“EVer beuer). amagOmStic Bother of the bride: Cameron Diaz in Jewish brothers Daniel Stern and Very Bad‘l'hings Jeremy Piven, and diffident mechanic Leland Orser.
Their inevitable debauchery is cut short when they accidentally kill a hooker, after which they are plunged into a Shallow Grave state of affairs. With the admonishments of Diaz fresh in their minds, they quickly discover that it's all downhill from there.
An outstanding debut by actor-turned-writer/director Peter Berg, Very Bad Things pushes Cynicism to new limits through a series of ever-worsening plot developments and some brilliant ensemble acting. It‘s a bit like a severe road accident — you might not want to look, but you can't help yourself — and while not for the faint-hearted, it’s ultimately quite moral in its conclusion.
(John MacKenzie) I Selected release from Fri 29 jan.
Two Girls And A Guy
(18) 86 mins ‘k‘kir
In writer/director James Toback's talky comedy, aspiring actor Blake (Robert Downey Jr) and the women he has been two-timing for months — beautiful, smart Carla (Heather Graham) and sassy, street-wise Lou (Natasha Gregson Wagner) — clash over love, sex and fidelity in the 903. Having discovered Blake's infidelity by chance, the women break into his New York loft and confront him head-on. Blake unleashes a torrent of obfuscating words, but cannot escape their angry, two-pronged attack.
Much of the humour derives from seeing Blake squirm under their sustained verbal assault, but it is a testament to Downey’s superb acting that he elicits some pity for the philandering Blake, who has a residual charm and an emotional vulnerability. The women, meanwhile, are not Without anarchic desires of their own, as subsequent confessions reveal.
The underlying question is: what is the purpose and value of monogamy, which is so prized in theory yet so often abused in practise? Yet for all its verbal fireworks and sexual candour, Toback’s script offers few insights. Like Blake himself, his film is overly theatrical and never quite as clever or perceptive as it would like to be. (Nigel Floyd)
I Selected release from Fri 29 Jan. See preview
Stepmom
(12) 124 mins ink
Successful fashion photographer Isabel (Julia Roberts) moves in with her boyfriend, divorced lawyer Luke (Ed Harris) and his two young children. The children resent their new ’stepmom’ as does Luke's ex-Wife, supermum Jackie (Susan Sarandon). After numerous trials and tribulations, the mums and kids sort things out between one another. Just in time too, because Jackie is forced to announce her secret battle with cancer when her illness becomes terminal.
This is family dysfunction, Hollywood‘styie. Divorce, career pressure and cancer aSide, the characters lead blessed, middle-class lives. Other, less 'respectable' causes of family breakdown — infidelity, poverty, etc — have no place in this glossy world. Perhaps it’s unfair to expect such realist concerns from a mainstream American mowe, but the gross over-simplification of complex emotional crises makes it difficult to sympathise With the characters.
A not-qurte savmg grace are the fine performances all round, particularly the adult leads. Even spewing schmaltz, Sarandon remains as impressive as ever, while Roberts‘ breezy/vulnerable persona makes her an ideal casting ch0ice and Harris provides some convincing paternal backbone.
With Stepmom, director Chris Columbus (Mrs Doubtfire, Home Alone) has crafted a four star movie for sentimentalists. Everyone else Will be left squirming uncomfortably in their seats. (Miles Fielder)
I General release from Fri 29 Jan.
Family fortunes: Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon in Stepmom