MRS. PARKER AND THE VICIOUS CIRCLE
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Dorothy Parker wrote witty, cynical
poems and stories and spoke extemporaneously some
of the funniest epigrams this side of Oscar Wilde.
She was one of the central figures of the famous
Algonquin Round Table literary circle. Finally a
film has been made which explodes the myth that it
might be interesting to know a little more about
Dorothy Parker. Rating: 0 (-4 to +4)
The Algonquin Round Table was a unique literary circle. Through the 1920s a group of the brightest, wittiest, and elitist of the Manhattan's artistic types met every day in the Rose Room of the Algonquin Hotel on 44th Street. There they ate lunch, traded barbs, and gossiped. Woe betide the unprepared newcomer who tried to join the prestigious group. He became an immediate target for the rapier- sarcasm of some of the cleverest literary minds this country ever produced. The Round Table circled around its two brightest stars, Alexander Woollcott and Dorothy Parker. Both were merciless critics as well as authors. Other notable members were Robert Benchley, Marc Connelly, Edna Ferber, George S. Kaufman, Robert Sherwood, and many others. MRS. PARKER AND THE VICIOUS CIRCLE is the story of Parker's life, particularly during the years of the Round Table.
Our story begins in Hollywood of 1945 with Parker (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) married to Alan Campbell (Peter Gallagher) and writing films for which she has no respect. She begins thinking about the old days and the film flashes from monochrome to color. As her rumination opens Parker is not yet the angry literary critic she was to become. She was just the very cross theater critic for Vanity Fair, though she already displayed a cynical and biting wit. She is fired for writing reviews that were too negative. Her husband (Andrew McCarthy) has returned from the war. In his weakened state as a drunk and a morphine addict he is no match to trade insults with his distinguished. Dorothy has lost her taste for him as she would lose it for just about everything else in life, everything but her close circle of friends.
These friends meet for lunch daily in the Algonquin and soon form the tight literary clique that would become the Round Table. The put- downs would come fast and furious. One might pat another's bald head and say something like "It feels just like my wife's behind." The bald man would feel his own head and say "Why, so it does." We follow Parker through a torrid love affair--as passionate as Parker would ever feel about anything--with newspaperman Charles MacArthur (Matthew Broderick). But the great love of Parker's life is critic and comedian Robert Benchley (Campbell Scott), who carefully remains only a platonic friend. In fact, he probably deserves awards for remaining that close to a woman who seems to have a double entendre for a personality. Parker seems to have a real affection for dogs and none whatsoever for people. Even so, she always seemed to have a current man and a current dog. Eventually there would be just the dog.
Leigh studied what few recordings there are of Parker's voice to imitate exactly the irritating, affected elocution that Parker herself used--a near relative of the speaking style Leigh used in THE HUDSUCKER PROXY. The acting is quite good, but it is less then pleasant to share a room with this person for over two hours. Campbell Scott is a little more pleasant to watch as Robert Benchley though he is a too thin to look like Benchley in the old comedy shorts.
The script by director Alan Rudolph and Randy Sue Coburn jumps around in time with a latterday Parker offering bleak little humorous poems as commentary on the action--or lack thereof--of the film. The film works as a detailed portrait of someone whom you would not want to meet in real life. This is sort of a literary SID AND NANCY which tells you more than you want to know about a person about whom there is less than meets the eye. The other members of the Round Table are of more interest, of course. I would rate it a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper
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