PHILADELPHIA
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: This film has a muddled job of
directing and a muddled script. One often has the feeling
that Demme is trying to say something that isn't quite coming
across. The subject of AIDS is brought down to a shallow
courtroom melodrama. This film has little to offer beyond
Hanks' performance. Wait for AND THE BAND PLAYED ON to come
to video. Rating: 0 (-4 to +4)
Andrew Beckett (played by Tom Hanks) is a successful lawyer for a prestigious Philadelphia law firm. He is clearly something of a hotshot whom his firm has working for lucrative clients. He also is gay and discovers that he has AIDS. When the first visible signs of his disease appear he is fired over an alleged incident of incompetence. He decides to sue his former firm for wrongful dismissal. The only lawyer he can get is a flashy ambulance-chaser who is also an anti-gay bigot, Joe Miller, played by Denzel Washington. These two little-guys take on the big-guy law firm and the result is the predictable courtroom battle which becomes a major media event. Beckett and Miller must slug it out with the legal giant in a courtroom battle that Beckett may not live to see resolved.
While the story is only too straightforward, the telling is not. The script by Ron Nyswaner has the feel of a stage play adapted to the screen without sufficient consideration for the differences in the medium. The story will jump forward six weeks and then jump to a flashback to show events that took place in that time. At one point the evil law firm seems to have dug up information that only Hanks and one of his lovers would have known, but there is no explanation of how they know what they know. Yet with such a good case they make damaging admissions on the witness stand without any thought of the reaction.
There are major dramatic scenes that we would expect to see but which are omitted. We never see Beckett's immediate reaction to being told he has AIDS, yet Demme takes screen time to give us an extended montage of street scenes of Philadelphia and a helicopter ride around the rooftop statue of William Penn. Equally out of place is Hanks' extended and melodramatic description of the beautiful aria "La Mamma Morta" from the third act of Catalani's ANDREA CHENIER. It is shot from odd angles at Hanks--Demme seems to use a lot of strange camera angles in this film, bathed melodramatically in red light from an unknown source. Apparently Director Jonathan Demme needed show Beckett was a man of deep passion while at the same time not risking showing on the screen Beckett's passion for his lover Miguel, played by Antonio Banderas. In fact, there is virtually nothing in the film about Beckett's private gay life, though we get to see a lot of his biological family and the love and support he gets from his mother, played by Joanne Woodward.
Tom Hanks will probably be considered at Oscar time, though his performance owes a good deal to his makeup artist. Still his performance was at least decent. Neither Jason Robards, as the head of the law firm, nor Denzel Washington seemed to be bringing much to their roles to distinguish this performance from any of their others. Joanne Woodward is given about four scenes and may well be present only to lend her moral support to the production.
I suppose that Demme should be lauded for making a major Hollywood film on the subject of AIDS, but PHILADELPHIA pales beside LONGTIME COMPANION and this year's AND THE BAND PLAYED ON. The best of intentions clearly went at least somewhat awry. My rating would be a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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