Smoke directed by Wayne Wang starring Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Stockard Channing, Harold Perrineau, Jr., Forest Whitaker Rated R (mild language)
** ½ out of **** / B
Smoke is a necklace of stories: each pearl different in its own way, but all of them united by a string of thread. Directed with a sedate simplicity by The Joy Luck Club's Wayne Wang and written by novelist Paul Auster, this motion picture is not exceptional, but it is effective. I would certainly recommend many titles over this small Miramax film, but it is undeniable that there was much thought behind its creation and the writer has woven philosophy into these Big Apple tales.
The cast of acclaimed actors includes Harvey Keitel (who is always interesting), William Hurt, Stockard Channing, Ashley Judd, and Forest Whitaker. Newcomer Harold Perrineau, Jr. joins the mix and together Wang, Auster, and the cast tell these thoughtful, if not compelling, stories to get across the simple message that People affect people. The thread that unites these stories is a small cigar shop owned by Auggie Wren (Keitel), a man with a simple life, a few friends, and philosophical "life" tidbits in his numerous stories. His friend and regular customer, a writer named Paul (Hurt) is one day affected by a young man named Rashid (Perrineau) who saves his life near the cigar shop. Of course, Paul offers Rashid anything he wants in return for saving his life. Rashid decides on a lemonade, then on moving in with Paul. He has, we later learn, run away from his home from his aunt and uncle to find his father who abandoned him years ago who someone has seen alive. He is also running away from the robbers who stole five thousand dollars- the money which he now has.
Rashid finds who he believes to be his father- Cyrus, an owner of a small town gas station who has a bitter past that has left him with a fake arm. While their relationship is on the verge of being discovered, someone enters Auggie Wren's life. It is his ex-girlfriend from several years ago (Stockard Channing) who comes to the cigar shop claiming that her daughter, Felicity, who may be his is strung out on drugs in the projects with a moronic beast. He is reluctant to believe her but does not want to leave a girl who may be his daughter on drugs in the projects with a freak boyfriend when he hears that she is pregnant. Rashid's five thousand dollars will affect their lives.
As you can see, it is a tangled web of lost souls and wise men, all of them with a story to tell. They are, directly or indirectly, affected by the other "pearls" on the string, most of the time by small details. In a matter of seconds, Rashid walks into Paul's life. The money from a robbery is able to be put into good use. Smoke is a portrait of the difficulties and poignancy of life.
Here are the flaws: Smoke sometimes feels so contrived it doesn't seem worth watching. Whitaker's performance is frail- his scenes of outbursts are so mechanical, so choreographed all the passion from them are leeched out. The entire cast doesn't show anything for the big names it includes- most of the performances are acceptable, some have many moments of tenderness and wisdom, but all of them lack the "something" that makes you think - "Good acting!" Ashley Judd's turn as Felicity is short but has its emotionally-charged moments. It is too brief, though, and the character is too underdeveloped to regulate what the film could have been- wonderful.
Smoke does have a very heartwarming ending, though. It concludes this melting pot of soap operas of a few New Yorkers. The film has several gems of pleasure hidden in its soft, gentle theme and watching it is not painful or a waste of time. Rachel Portman's score is put to good use, as all of her great scores are, and creates a nice, simple atmosphere for these simple tales. What is wrong with Smoke is not its message, but the fabricated way in which it is decorated.
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