UNSTRUNG HEROES
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1995 Ben Hoffman
Acting in Woody Allen films and her friendship with him have influenced and enhanced her many talents. UNSTRUNG HEROES is not a Woody Allen type movie nor story. It is totally Keaton. However, the perfection and intelligence she displays in making the film are something Allen has always attempted and usually succeeded in accomplishing. There the resemblance ends.
UNSTRUNG HEROES is a gripping tragic-comedy. The tragedy is that Selma Lidz (Andie MacDowell) early on in the film becomes ill with what appears to be a malignant brain tumor. Selma is the wife of Sid (John Turturro). They have two children, Steven (Nathan Watt) and his younger sister Sandy (Kendra Krull).
Sid, the father of the family, is an eccentric inventor who has yet to come up with something salable. He is very bright but he talks to his children (Danny is twelve and his sister is seven) as if they were adults. Nevertheless, Danny, who has a high I.Q., understands much of what Dad is spouting. This is a wonderful loving family that is suddenly hit hard when the housemaid angrily blurts out that "You know your mother is dying!"
Others in the family are Dad's brothers, even more eccentric than Dad. There is Danny (Michael Richards) and Arthur (Maury Chaykin. They provide the much needed comedy breaks. Uncle Danny wants Steven to be called Franz so he would be Franz Lidz (which happens to be the real name of the author of the book on which the film is based) Uncle Arthur and Uncle Danny live together. There are hundreds of stacks of newspapers which they expect, one day, to read. Because Steven cannot bear to watch his mother's illness he gets permission to live with the two uncles for the summer.
The film has Oscar written all over it. Its direction is so well balanced, its photography of the 1960s and all the attention paid to every detail, with a great cast doing fine work make this a great film such as few others that have been released this year.
4 bytes
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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