MRS. PARKER AND THE VICIOUS CIRCLE
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1994 Ben Hoffman
It was with great anticipation that I looked forward to the screening of this film about the Algonquin Round Table of the 1920s with its extraordinary group of wit and talent. Who could forget Robert Benchley, Harold Ross, Alexander Woollcott, Edna Ferber, Deems Taylor, Will Rogers, Robert Sherwood, Heywood Broun, Neysa McMein, George S. Kaufman, Marc Connelly, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Harpo Marx, FPA, Donald Ogden Stewart ... and the many more who made that period a memorable one? Among the leaders of that superb pack was Dorothy Parker herself who was (and is) probably quoted more often than anyone but Shakespeare.
Many of the actors looked like those they were portraying which was fun to spot. But even those, like Benchley (Campbell Scott) who, tall and slender, did not resemble the more rotund Benchley, gave some of the finest performances.
Where the film loses out is that Jennifer Jason Leigh, playing Dorothy, chose to use some weird accent so that aside from sounding like the proverbial marbles in the mouth, the witty words she spoke were often lost. Having read Dorothy Parker's verse, stories and one-liners for lo these many years, I was able to recall the punch lines but I fear that most in the audience missed many of the gems.
Mrs. Parker's life should have been the most glorious because she was a unique and talented personality. Instead, her private life was a mess and this the film does explore to the end. How sad that a woman who wrote better than most of the men of that period (all famous), as well as drink them under the table, should have been such an unhappy, lonely soul.
Whatever makes the film worth seeing is due to the many witticisms that flew across the table, and the rest of the cast which includes (among many, many others), Matthew Broderick, Sam Robards, Martha Plimpton, Stephen Baldwin, Wallace Shawn, Keith Carradine, Nick Cassavetes and Peter Benchley.
Directed by Alan Rudolph.
2.5 bytes 4 Bytes = Absolutely must see. 3 Bytes = Too good to be missed. 2 Bytes = So so. 1 Byte = Save your money.
Ben Hoffman
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