BEING HUMAN
A Film Review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1994 James Berardinelli
Rating (0 to 10): 3.9
Date Released: 5/6/94 Running Length: 2:00 Rated: PG (Sexual situations, violence, language)
Starring: Robin Williams, Kelly Hunter, John Turturro, Anna Galiena, Vincent D'Onofrio, Hector Elizando, Lorraine Bracco, Lindsay Crouse Director: Bill Forsyth Producers: Robert F. Colesberry and David Putnam Screenplay: Bill Forsyth Music: Michael Gibbs Released by Warner Brothers
Robin Williams is a prehistoric caveman named Hector who loses his wife and children to a group of seafaring marauders. Robin Williams, again named Hector, is a slave to a tunic-wearing John Turturro during Roman times. Hector is also a medieval wanderer who takes up with a beautful widow (Anna Galiena), a 16th-century Portuguese nobleman who is marooned on the African coast, and an angst-riddled modern day divorced father trying to get to know his kids.
All-in-all, Hector is a lot of people. Too bad his overall story is essentially pointless. Not only are the five different eras poorly connected, but the individual stories are dull and fragmented, crying out for a unification and closure that BEING HUMAN never supplies. When it's all over, the most likely reaction will be "Who cares?"
Having one actor play five different characters through the mil- lennia would lead the viewer to expect a tale involving karma and fate. However, the links between the various Hectors are tenuous, and with the exception of the first and last episodes (where the main character loses, then finds, his children), the only connections are Williams, the sea, priests searching for the meaning of symbols, and an odd obsession with footgear.
Seeing Robin Williams' name on a theater marquee immediately creates expectations of a certain humor - even when a serious role is anticipated. Unfortunately, in this case, the actor is kept strictly reigned in and the resultant comedy - what little of it there is - is muted and awkward.
Theresa Russell's flippant narrative is exceptionally annoying - a running series of trite comments that try to be both profound and witty, yet end up being neither. I generally don't like voiceovers, but rarely have I found one this intrusive.
The modern-day segment is the most successful, chiefly because the characters are the easiest to identify with. The caveman story, with Williams looking too much like the hermit from the beginning of MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS, is almost laughable with its monosyllabic conversations and difficult-to-fathom plot. The other three parts fall in between, both in terms of time period and quality.
The cast is solid, giving it a game try even when the script verges on the embarrassing. As a vehicle for Williams "the serious actor", BEING HUMAN is a dud. While the excesses of TOYS are undesirable, giving a performer of Williams' temperament so little freedom quenches his fire.
For all of its existential posturing, BEING HUMAN ends up being a rather shallow motion picture. As for the film's scope...well, the costumes are nice. Unfortunately, we end up stuck in five places that aren't very interesting with characters we never get to know or care about. Robin Williams may have gone from two personalities in MRS. DOUBTFIRE to five here, but the results prove the old saying that sometimes less is more.
- James Berardinelli (blake7@cc.bellcore.com)
.
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