CELEBRITY RATING: 5.5 / 10 --> Not good enough to recommend
For more reviews and trivia, go to http://surf.to/joblo
Woody Allen's 29th cinematic feature celebrates the blinded attention that people pay celebrities in contemporary society. Another jam-packed cast of celebs ironically pepper this picture, with Woody, the actor, sitting this one out himself. The film is shot in black & white, of which Allen self-deprecates himself in the film via one of the characters when he notes a famous, pretentious director to be the "type of asshole that shoots all of his movies in black and white!"
PLOT: This film follows the parallel lives of Lee (Branagh) and his wife Robin (Davis), after their 16-year marriage ends in divorce. Lee the writer, covers the celebrity beat, and meets various types of famous people from the really important to the wannabee importants, while Robin, attempts to seriously reconstruct her confidence, and her ability to love again. Some vignettes behind the closed doors of celebrity ensues.
CRITIQUE: Mediocre, mostly unfunny, sometimes interesting piece of cinema that doesn't really blow you away in any sense or proportion, offers very little real insight into the lives of celebrities, but does present an excellent sequence with Leonardo DiCaprio, playing the role of the unbridled, young movie actor. Over the years, I've noticed that most Woody Allen movies are predeterminedly enjoyed by those in the Woody Allen fan club or not. I mean, most people I know either hate the guy, or love the guy. I personally love the guy and his films, but his most recent crop has been less than original or interesting. Most recently, he seems to be writing his scripts in his sleep, with only the exhaustive Hollywood cast list lingering at the top of his priority template.
This film was much like DECONSTRUCTING HARRY (6/10) in that it had some really funny lines, but it mostly played out like a drama, and didn't succeed exceptionally well in either forum. I was expecting a lot of behind the scenes insight into celebrities and the public's fascination thereof, but this film just presented me with a bunch of scenes of Kenneth Branagh (doing his best Woody Allen impressions) trying to get it on with different celebrity types. Not that interesting or funny, to tell you the truth. The rest of the cast was also pretty fair, but for the exceptionally well-written and well-played scenario with Leo DiCaprio venting out on his girlfriend and an innocent hotel room, which proudly stood out like a sore thumb. The whole scene was quite funny, extremely well-written, and played out very naturally by the Cap-man himself.
All in all, the film never sold me on any insight into celebrity, barely worked on a relationship level with Branagh and Judy Davis trying to get over their divorce, but did offer several very funny lines and a pretty slick Leo DiCaprio scene. Unlike MANHATTAN, this movie also had very little in cinematography to get excited about, and even less in originality, as Allen's New York-style-humor well seems to be drying up in the 90's. I loved 1994's BULLETS OVER BROADWAY (8/10), but since then, the Woodman has done very little to impress this life-long fan. Oh well, I won't give up on you just yet, Woodrow, but I would not recommend this mediocre entry into someone else's weekend movie plans, that's for sure. For those interested, go rent BULLETS OVER BROADWAY, BANANAS (8/10) or ANNIE HALL (8.5/10) and enjoy the Woody of young, and hope that his next few films revive his creativity, and rejuvenate his capacity to wow us all over again!
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: Leonardo DiCaprio's full name is Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio. He was born in Hollywood, California. Leo received $2,500,000 for his role in TITANIC (7/10). To this day, that film has domestically grossed over $600,000,000. Leo once turned down the role of Robin in BATMAN FOREVER (6/10), and also considered starring in a movie about actor James Dean but turned down the role because he felt he wasn't experienced enough to do the film (1996). When Leo was 5 years old he was in an educational kids program called "Romper Room". He was nearly kicked off for uncontrollable behavior. His father George was a comic book dealer. In 1991-92, he played the homeless boy Luke in the TV sitcom "Growing Pains". Winona Ryder was born Winona Laura Horowitz and named after the town in which she was born, Winona Minnesota. Director David Seltzer spotted her and cast her in 1986's LUCAS (Her first film.) When telephoned to ask how she'd like to have her name appear on the credits, she suggested Ryder as her father's Mitch Ryder album was playing in the background. Winona was selected for the part of Mary Corleone in THE GODFATHER: PART III (7/10), but had to drop out of the role after catching the flu from the strain of doing the films WELCOME HOME, ROXY CARMICHAEL and MERMAIDS back to back. She said she didn't want to let everyone down by doing a substandard performance. Others have suggested that she pulled out from the part because of problems with boyfriend Johnny Depp, with whom she had been going out since she was 17. The part eventually went to director Coppola's own daughter Sophia. This is Judy Davis' fourth presence in a Woody Allen film, with previous appearances in ALICE (6/10), DECONSTRUCTING HARRY (6/10) and HUSBANDS & WIVES (7.5/10). She attended drama school with Mel Gibson. They played Romeo and Juliet together. Kenneth Branagh was born in Northern Ireland. He was originally cast as the lead in AMADEUS before the production company decided on an American cast. The role eventually went to Tom Hulce. Ken was married to actress Emma Thompson from 1989 to 1996. Producer Jean Doumanian plays Leonardo DiCaprio's agent in the limousine scene.
Review Date: November 22, 1998
Director: Woody Allen
Writer: Woody Allen
Producer: Jean Doumanian
Actors: Kenneth Branagh as Lee Simon
Judy Davis as Robin Simon
Charlize Theron as Supermodel
Winona Ryder as Nola
Leonardo DiCaprio as Brandon Darrow
Genre: Comedy
Year of Release: 1998
Visit JoBlo's Movie Emporium
http://surf.to/joblo
(c) 1998 Berge Garabedian
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