THE WEEKEND A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
"Are you being mysterious or exclusive?" John (Jared Harris) asks his houseguest Robert (James Duval). "Enigmatic," Robert replies. The problem with writer/director Brian Skeet's THE WEEKEND is that, to the extent that it is an enigma, it is not one worth solving. A slow, ponderous and pretentious film, it has a treacly score that fills every crevice of the set with melancholic solo piano and violin music. The actors move in something approximating slow motion, which only adds to the film's soporific effect.
Set at a large country estate on the anniversary of the death of John's half-brother, Tony (D.B. Sweeney), the film provides very little for the actors to do other that deliver the speeches that go for dialog in the movie. ("You silence the artist and you silence the most articulate voice the people have," Robert says, quoting Oscar Wilde.) With the film's setting by a vast river, Ron Fortunato's stunning cinematography is the only consistently enjoyable part of the production.
John and his wife, Marian (Deborah Unger), have Tony's ex-lover Lyle (David Conrad) and Lyle's current flame, Robert, staying with them for the anniversary weekend. We have frequent flashbacks which show Tony posturing and looking like a Greek god. Lyle, an art critic and the author of "Neo This, Neo That", likes to read books such as "Art and Anarchy" while having his toes nibbled on by Tony, as dreamy music fills the air.
In a parallel story that is joined midway through the movie, Laura (Gena Rowlands), is having a visit from her daughter, Nina (Brooke Shields), and Nina's boyfriend, Thierry (Gary Dourdan), a married man who is a pigeon trainer on Nina's current film. Laura is a woman who has gone through 4 husbands and 11 lovers. Currently in love only with her Italian villa, she is writing a book about her last husband. "If we expect nothing from our children and they expect nothing of us, no one will be disappointed," she tells us as sort of her philosophy of life.
In a bit of unintentional humor, the movie's most unrealistic scene occurs at a dinner when the two families get together for the first time. After Nina explains that she is only attracted to men that are either gay or married, John suddenly leaves the dinner table to take a stroll in the moonlight. Does Marian object when Nina, wearing her usual revealing gown, volunteers to go after him and see what is wrong? Of course not. How many wives out there would be willing to let Brooke Shields go off into the woods looking for their husband?
"Biographies can make the most thrilling lives seem banal," author Laura says in a bit of self-deprecating criticism. And movies, like THE WEEKEND, can make potentially interesting topics dreadfully dull.
THE WEEKEND runs a long 1:37. It is not rated but would be an R for brief nudity, some sexuality and language and would be acceptable for teenagers.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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