Still Breathing (PG-13) *** (out of ****)
A plot contrivance of mammoth proportions threatens to sink the romantic comedy _Still_Breathing_ just as it makes its first attempts to get off the ground. San Antonio, Texas street performer Fletcher McBracken (Brendan Fraser) somehow, someway sees a vision of one Roz Willoughby (Joanna Going) narrowly escaping a mugging attempt on a Hollywood street. Convinced that Roz is his soulmate--apparently, his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and so on had envisioned their eventual wives before ever meeting them--Fletcher flies to the left coast to find her.
This rather hard-to-swallow bit of magical realism, ironically enough, sets the stage for some very effective magic of a different sort--that of assured writing and direction, courtesy of first-timer James F. Robinson. It is revealed that Roz is far from the angel that Fletcher thinks she is; in fact, she is a con artist who teases and fleeces wealthy men, and she hooks up with Fletcher believing him to be a rich Texan mark set up by a friend (Ann Magnuson). While Roz's less-than-pure, emotionally detached nature is not the most original plot complication in and of itself, a complication stemming from this trait adds a fresh wrinkle to the formula. In most contemporary romantic comedies, the lovers fail to realize they are perfectly matched until the last reel. Here, Fletcher and even Roz recognize their unique compatibility fairly early on. So it is not a question as to whether Fletcher is the right guy for Roz--it's whether or not Roz, who has long renounced true love and emotion in favor of admittedly empty riches, is willing to allow herself such happiness.
Roz's emotional predicament is brought to vivid, sometimes heartbreaking life by the luminous Going, of whom I've been a big fan since her television days (am I the only one who fondly remembers her work on the 1990 revival of _Dark_Shadows_?). She also shares a natural rapport with Fraser, who is her perfect screen complement. He has much less of a character to work with--Fletcher is simply a nice, somewhat naive romantic--but he fills in the blanks with an appealing dose of charisma and self-deprecating humor. Fraser's effortlessly charming performance makes it easy to see how Fletcher can win over a hard cynic like Roz.
For all its freshness, _Still_Breathing_ ends up exactly where one would expect. But as with many journeys, the trip is more important than the ultimate destination, and the one taken by Roz and Fletcher is sweet, moving, and with an irresistible magic all its own.
Michael Dequina
mrbrown@ucla.edu | michael_jordan@geocities.com
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