(out of ****)
_Molly_ (PG-13) *
_Music_of_the_Heart_ (PG) ***
After making her name in fluff (for better or worse) for years, Elisabeth Shue broke through with the "career-changing revelation" (as _Vogue_ put it) of her Oscar-nominated performance in 1995's _Leaving_Las_Vegas_. While her career might have changed for the better, Shue's performances changed for the worse, embarrassing herself in the likes of _The_Saint_ and _Palmetto_. John Duigan's _Molly_, with the Oscar-baiting arc of its title character, is obviously designed to show off more of Shue's acting chops. Instead, it just shows that _Leaving_Las_Vegas_ may have been a fluke.
As Molly McKay, Shue is called on to cover a wide acting spectrum. For half of the film, Shue has to act as if she had the mind of a child, for Molly is mentally challenged; for the other, after Molly receives miracle surgical treatment that awakens her mental capacities, Shue has to be an innocent yet observant and energetic naif. She fails miserably on both counts. She yelps, grunts, mumbles, jumps, screeches, and mugs to no end as Molly#1; as Molly#2, she's just as jumpy but with eyes perpetually wide and a chirpy, singsong voice. Neither portrayal resembles any actual, non-acted human behavior, whether the person is mentally challenged or not.
Shue's performance is just one of this unconvincing, uninvolving film. Dick Christie's script is a hodgepodge of elements from _Awakenings_ and _Rain_Man_, an analogy that actually makes the film seem better than it is. If you've seen either of those films, you will know every turn of the plot, right down to the ending, well before they come. But aside from not coming up with anything slightly original in the main story, Christie doesn't come up with a single satisfactory subplot. A romance between Molly's well-meaning but selfish brother Buck (Aaron Eckhart, doing a nice job--the only person who does so--in a change of pace, non-sleazy role) and Molly's doctor (Jill Hennessy) is spoken of but never shown. Come to think of it, that's the only attempt at a subplot Christie and Duigan make.
In their defense, though, _Molly_ has been trimmed down to a remarkably slim 89 minutes from the 100something-minute run time of its original cut, which played on airlines this summer before its fall theatrical release. Even so, the fact that there are only 89 of them doesn't make any of those minutes any less tedious, and 89 minutes of Shue's strained Acting display is 89 more than anyone should ever have to endure.
By contrast, _Music_of_the_Heart_ marks the annual Oscar nod bid for the oft-nominated Meryl Streep, and once again it looks like she'll make it into the Academy's top five. In this fact-based drama directed by, of all people, horror king Wes Craven, Streep delivers another strong performance as Roberta Guaspari, who, after a messy divorce, finds new meaning in life by teaching the violin to elementary school kids in the inner city neighborhood in East Harlem. Ten years later, having inspired many creative young minds and won the respect of ther peers in the intervening decade, Roberta's program is threatened by cuts in education funding.
I would not call Streep's work here her best in recent years; it doesn't nearly hold a candle to her elegantly wrenching turn in 1995's _The_Bridges_of_Madison_County_. But _Music_of_the_Heart_ is unthinkable without her (imagine what a howler the film would have been if original star Madonna had not backed out); it's her passionate performance that carries the audience through the rough patches in Pamela Gray's script. For example, scenes involving Roberta's attempt at a new romantic life don't pay off in the end, and some dialogue reeks of a writer's hand; when Roberta breaks up with her boyfriend (Aidan Quinn) at the same time she fires her home construction crew, she says to each individual crew member, "You're fired," then turns to Quinn and says, "You're fired, too."
And then there are the maudlin fixtures of films such as these: the bright student whose mother decides to pull him out of the class; the son who feels neglected by all the attention Roberta lavishes upon his students. Yet the film works; there's no denying the uplift of Guaspari's remarkable true story, and even though he doesn't completely avoid the trap of sugary sappiness, Craven sends the audience out feeling happy and inspired--which is the very reason why one would buy a ticket into _Music_of_the_Heart_.
Michael Dequina twotrey@juno.com | michael_jordan@geocities.com | jordan_host@sportsmail.com | mrbrown@iname.com Mr. Brown's Movie Site: http://welcome.to/mrbrown CinemaReview Magazine: http://www.CinemaReview.com on ICQ: #25289934 | on AOL Instant Messenger: MrBrown23
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