HEART AND SOULS
A film review by Lewis C. E. Butler
Copyright 1993 Lewis C. E. Butler
Review in Short: A well played and well structured old fashioned
"feel-good" movie, owing much to the tradition of
Frank Capra. Downey is wonderful to watch, and the
entire cast is perfect. Rating: +2
I can't begin to tell you how much I hate the phrase "feel-good" when used as an adjective, but I am at a loss to find another phrase that would be better suited for this movie. Here we have a film that is much like IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE or MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON. It's an old fashioned movie with a fairly simple story to tell and a childish innocence in the way it tells it.
I suspect the movie is a remake of an older film, though I don't know this for a fact. Many elements of the story seem rather outdated in this day and age. For example, the small-time hood who's really a pretty nice guy and wants to give back something he stole to the kid he stole it from.
Actually, there are many things about this movie that sound like they would be quite annoying. It is easy to hear a plot summary and think, "Oh PUL-EASE!" but in point of fact, the movie carries itself quite well.
Robert Downey, Jr., plays a man whose imaginary childhood friends come back to him when he's about thirty years old. It seems that they are actually the ghosts of four people killed at the time of Downey's birth who were "attached" to him in some way.
The four are played by Charles Grodin, Alfre Woodard, Kyra Sedgwick, and Tom Sizemore. Each is very good, with Sizemore being the only one who is slightly weak. Elizabeth Shue (ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING) playes Downey's girlfriend.
Downey gets to be "possessed" by each of the four, and it is just hilarious watching him. He has a true comic gift.
I do have some questions about the movie though. It takes place in 1989, is this a movie that was made several years ago and only now released? Elisabeth Shue does look a little older than in ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING, but I wouldn't swear to it.
The movie opens nationwide this Friday, I believe.
-- kreme@nyx.cs.du.edu [303/722-2009] Vox
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