SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
"Furniture is temporary; education is forever," Murray Abramowitz lectures his kids in writer and director Tamara Jenkins's tale of modern nomads living in poverty in the shadows of great wealth.
As Murray, Alan Arkin delivers a heartfelt and bittersweet performance as a working father whose two talents in life are mooching off his older brother and (just barely) scraping by. He wakes the kids in the dead of night every few months so they can steal away without paying the rent at one cheap apartment in order to pull the same scam later at a new one. (Many will write this off as a plot device, but since I have one close relative whose family got by with a similar ruse in the Great Depression, I could identify with their plight.) The Abramowitzs live in squat, ugly, stucco boxes with ironic names like the "Casa Bella" apartments.
Murray wants only the best for his children with his favorite treat being steak for breakfast so that the meat will strengthen them. When the kids want to move to some place cheaper, like Torrance, he vociferously tells them no. "We're staying in Beverly Hills for the good schools and the good address," he explains resolutely. Even if they have to live in what goes for slum housing on the outskirts of the stars' homes, they are in the right ZIP code and school district.
It would have been easier to have had Murray be unemployed, but the smart script gives Murray a job -- user car salesmen -- without the skills to make much money from it. Arkin is quite convincing as a dad who adores his family but is a failure as a breadwinner. He's ashamed of having to grovel and cheat, but he does whatever is necessary for his family and himself. In a telling scene, he has a chance to send his three kids back to his ex-wife, but, as a senior citizen, he admits that his children provide him his raison d'être.
His only daughter, Vivian, is the film's central character. Played with spunk by the big, expressive-eyed Natasha Lyonne, teenage Vivian exudes pathos as a girl bursting, rather reluctantly, into adolescence. Set in the summer of 1976, the movie focuses on Vivian's suspected "deformity."
"What seems to be the problem?" asks the tony Beverly Hills doctor whom a friend had recommend she see to fix her problem. "Breasts!" she retorts disgustedly. The poor girl is aghast to find that she has developed full-fledged breasts. She's sure that they are so large that people will laugh at her so breast reduction surgery might be just the answer.
Marisa Tomei plays Rita, the 29-year-old daughter of Murray's older brother. She is a free spirit who likes flashing her breasts in order to hitch rides. Rita, who just left rehab, temporarily joins Murray's family in another one of Murray's schemes to extort money from his brother. While there, she and Vivian hit it off. The best scenes of them involve Rita's vibrator, which they use to put on a dance routine a la SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER in their shared bedroom. Vivian, in a delicate, funny, and slightly erotic scene, finds even better uses for the vibrator when Rita isn't there.
The comedy rarely subsides, and yet the picture is more touching than funny. Director Jenkins has a deft touch in blending in plenty of humor to keep us interested while she weaves a poignant tale of a struggling family who manage to always keep their heads up and their bags packed.
SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS runs 1:31. It is rated R for sex, nudity, profanity and drug content, and would be fine for older teenagers.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: www.InternetReviews.com
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