HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, starring John Cameron Mitchell, who also writes and directs, is a musical comedy/drama about a transvestite singer. With a big blonde wig and eight coats of make-up, Hedwig Schmidt (Mitchell) is initially funny. But with it's thin narrative, based on Mitchell's off Broadway play, the story doesn't have much to offer save its one, recurring visual joke of Hedwig belting out songs in nondescript salad bars and coffee shops, whose patrons don't know what to make of Hedwig and his band. Few are impressed, and most just stare, which was about my reaction to the movie. To be fair, comedy is a very personal medium, and the stranger on my left laughed constantly.
In flashbacks, we learn that Hedwig, then known as Hansel, was born in Germany at the time of the building of the Berlin Wall. The product of an East German mother and a GI father, he had a trying childhood. The movie's best scene occurs when the 6-year-old Hansel (Ben Mayer-Goodman) is shown jumping up and down on his bed, acting like a rock star as he listens to the American Forces Network on the radio. When Hansel gets older, he kind of changes sex and marries a GI just like mom did.
Another subplot concerns Hedwig's troubled romance with a big rock star, Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt). Throughout the film, they cut back to crudely drawn animations in order to illustrate various points. These drawings left me as cold as the rest of the movie. Perhaps if I had liked the music, which I didn't, I could have enjoyed the film. As it is, all I can say is that Mitchell does throw his heart and soul into the production. I just wish that the result had more to offer than a promising beginning.
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH runs 1:35. It is rated R for sexual content and language and would be acceptable for older teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, August 3, 2001. In the Silicon Valley it will be playing at the Camera Cinemas. The movie was shown recently at the Camera Cinema Club (http://www.cameracinemas.com/club) of Los Gatos and San Jose.
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