OSCAR & LUCINDA
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
There is a moment in OSCAR & LUCINDA in which Oscar Hopkins lets the direction of his life be decided by the flip of a coin. In an Anglican seminary because of a similar rock toss years earlier, his trembling hand pushes a large coin toward one of his fellow seminarians. Heads he leaves, and tails he stays. As Oscar, an emaciated Ralph Fiennes shrinks into the corner and trembles as his future is determined. Almost convulsing with fear, he finds that he will be going.
Looking boyish and unstable, Fiennes again proves the wide range of his acting talent. Oscar, an obsessive and generally successful gambler, gives his money away to the poor, not that it gets him any praise from the locals. Describing their bizarre minister as someone who "dresses like a scarecrow and looks like one too," no one understands him, least of all himself. All he knows is that he is an obsessive gambler. In a deliciously dense monologue he argues the commonality of Christianity and gambling. "We bet that there is a God," he claims is one of the fundamental tenants of his religion.
Into his life, set in England and Australia in the mid-1800s, comes a compulsive gambler, Lucinda Leplastrier, played with a certain charm by Cate Blanchett. (The show suggests at one point that there is a difference between a compulsive gambler and an obsessive one, but does not explain what that might be.) Lucinda inherits a fortune, which she uses to purchase a glass factory.
When Lucinda shows Oscar a model of a glass building, he has an inspiration. "It is like a kennel for God's angels," he declares, seeing a church when she saw merely an exhibit hall.
Like Werner Herzog's powerful film FITZCARRALDO about an opera house in the jungle, the crux of the story deals with moving the materials for a large building in a hostile and primitive setting. Oscar makes Lucinda a wager about whether he can transport all the pieces for a glass church across the Australian outback. "I dare not hope, and yet I must that through this deed I gain your trust," he explains his motivation in his letter to her.
Potentially the most interesting part of the movie, the outback excursion gets little screen time. Most of the movie is devoted to Oscar and his worries about his gambling.
I had major problems with screenwriter Laura Jones's last pictures, A THOUSAND ACRES and THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, and this one was only marginally better. Adapted from a novel by Peter Carey, the movie has trouble creating compelling characters. They are certainly interesting to watch, as are the inviting images by LITTLE WOMEN's cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson, but they have no depth. Some of the language is poetic but rarely is it involving. Quirkiness can carry a picture just so far, and at two and a quarter hours, the movie begins to wear out its welcome long before the ending credits roll. The rich and constant narration by Geoffrey Rush suggests a larger meaning than the story has.
"You will preach what you do not believe to men who do not care," Lucinda chides another of her Anglican minister admirers. Similarly, the movie tries to mesmerize us with its whimsy but doesn't seem to believe in its own material. The show does have its delights, but too often we simply don't care. With tighter editing and better character development, the movie and its enjoyment potential could have been enhanced immensely.
OSCAR & LUCINDA runs 2:14. It is rated R for violence, sex, and brief nudity and would be fine for teenagers.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews