THE IMPOSTERS
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Fox Searchlight Pictures/Cold Press Production Director: Stanley Tucci Writer: Stanley Tucci Cast: Oliver Platt, Stanley Tucci, Alfred Molina, Lily Taylor, Tony Shalhoub, Teagle F. Bougere, Steve Buscemi, Isabella Rosselini, Richard Jenkins, Billy Connolly, Dana Ivey, Hope Davis
The great English librettist W.S. Gilbert once said that things are seldom what they seem. Writer-director Stanley Tucci seconds the concept with "The Imposters"--a free- flowing, farcical account of the adventures of two hapless, starving actors who must play different roles just to survive. Presumably inspired by the Marx Brothers' greatest comedy, "A Night at the Opera," "The Imposters" is a pale parody of counterfeit characters, a film which looks wildly improvised rather than deeply thought out but a picture in which the cast seem to be having the time of their lives. Stanley Tucci now makes his presence felt as director, writer, and co-producer as well as one of our funniest actors. In a picture being released at about the same time as this one, "The Alarmist," he is at his satirical best as a con artist who steals from the very houses he services. In "The Imposters," however, he performs in the role of a merely timid, out-of-work actor who alternates between schemes to scrounge up some food and a desperate flight from a silly man whose anger he has provoked. He is teamed up with Oliver Platt, as his good friend and similarly unemployed actor, with whom he plots his narrow escape until the two ultimately emerge as heroes. "The Imposters" is not a coherent picture but more a dim series of vignettes, each involving a passenger or two on a luxury cruise to Paris, each entourage bearing its own agenda. Like Arthur (Oliver Platt) and Maurice (Stanley Tucci), the passengers on the ship are often other than what they seem, some ardent revolutionaries plotting terrorism, others depressed to the point of suicide, and still others seemingly normal but actually deposed monarchs. As in "A Night at the Opera," the action takes place in pre-World War Two times, an age before transatlantic airlines took a large chunk from the business of long-distance cruising.
The difference between illusion and reality is portrayed early on as Maurice and Arthur, apparently strangers who are sipping espresso in a restaurant by a lake, become involved in a violent argument. Soon after one appears to stab the other to death while surrounded by a crowd of gaping spectators, we become privy to their game. They are rehearsing scenes from a play to keep their on their toes for future auditions, and they do not hesitate to use their thespian charms to finagle food from unsuspecting merchants. The funniest scene, in fact, comes not after they have boarded a cruise ship to escape from a stage actor they've enraged but early on as they botch a plan to lift a few boxes of pastries from a gullible baker (David Lipman).
Having insulted performer Jeremy Burtom (Alfred Molina) who does a substandard job in portraying "Hamlet," they are pursued by the thesp who will stop at nothing short of killing the two offenders. Stowing away on a ship bound from New York harbor to Paris, they soon disguise themselves as stewards who run into a series of escapades involving a motley group of passengers. They eavsdrop on an attempt by head steward Meistrich to pursue his love for his female counterpart Lily (Lili Taylor). Hiding under a bed, Maurice overhears a plot by the first mate (Tony Shalhoub) to blow up the boat and its "bourgeois" passengers. They sit in on an awful vocal concert by entertainer Happy Frank (Steve Buscemi) who, having just been divorced is intent on suicide. Disguised as a married couple with Maurice dressed in drag, they are aggressively pursued by a bisexual Scot named Sparks (Billy Connolly).
In "A Night at the Opera," every scene worked, but in "The Imposters," only a few spectacles catch fire. A shipboard romance between the depressive Emily (Hope Davis) and the suicidal Happy Franks is both funny and touching, while the carrying out of the First Mate's revolutionary plan is just plain silly. Best of all is Campbell Scott as the precise Teuton frustrated by his inability to get anywhere with Lily--who is in love with the handsome young cohort of actor Jeremy Burtom, Marco (Matt McGrath). On the whole, though, "The Imposters" looks more like a rough sketch for a series of vaudevillian skits than a well-planned conception.
Rated R. Running time: 102 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998
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