A PYROMANIAC'S LOVE STORY
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1995 Ben Hoffman
It is usually a dead give away that a film with a cutsey name is going to be a dud. Then I looked at the cast and was pleasantly surprised to see it contained, not only William Baldwin, but several great actors: Michael Lerner, Joan Plowright and Armin Mueller-Stahl. It did not help. The movie, despite being a kind of fairy tale, was a bore and for the following reasons:
1) It had one theme: when people are in love they will do anything for their lover. But you do not make every scene in the film based on that one idea. This film did just that over and over again.
2) It was silly, unexciting and predictable. When Linzer's (Armin Mueller-Stahl) Bakery burns, his pastry boy Sergio (John Leguizamo) thinks his boss did it for the insurance. John loves Hattie (Sadie Frost) and when the father of the arsonist offers John $25,000 to take the rap, he accepts because after a probable probation, he will have enough money to marry and travel with Hattie. Pretty dumb.
3) Every few minutes, someone else says "He (she) did not start the fire; I did it." Why are they saying it? Because they love the person who last confessed and is now in jail and they are willing to sacrifice themselves.
4) Most of the famous actors mentioned above have smallish roles in the film.
The only good thing that can be said about the film is that nobody is harmed ... except, of course, the audience who were enticed into seeing the film by the "big names" in the cast. In a word, "borrring."
Directed by Joshua Brand.
1 Byte 4 Bytes = Superb 3 Bytes = Too good to be missed. 2 Bytes = So so. 1 Byte = Save your money.
Ben Hoffman
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