GRACE OF MY HEART
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros
(Gramercy)
Directed by Allison Anders
Written by Allison Anders
Cast Illeana Douglas, John Turturro, Matt Dillon, Eric
Stoltz, Bruce Davison, Patsy Kensit, Jennifer Leigh
Warren, Bridget Fonda
MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for language)
Running Time 115 minutes
Reviewed at The Colony Twin, Raleigh, NC (21SEP96)
==
Illeana Douglas (TO DIE FOR) gives a command performance as Denise Waverly, a singer-songwriter trying to launch a musical career in the late '50's, when such combinations were unheard of. After an aspiring producer (John Turturro) pitches the prospect of putting her words in other people's mouths, she's soon churning out the hits in Broadway's fabled Brill Building. Director Allison Anders (GAS FOOD LODGING and one of the more-dreadful segments of FOUR ROOMS) piles on the drama. Her slick, surface-level approach also keeps us from getting close to the characters, even the one played by the marvelous Ms. Douglas. (You name the fate and it happens to Denise Waverly. And then she writes a song about it.) What really reeks, though, is a sound recording that you can't believe is real for a minute. Each singer seems dubbed and each song sounds like a track from a freshly pressed compact disc. Just terrible. Sure, Phil Spector might appreciate this "wall of clean noise," but, for the sensitive ear, it's a distraction that's all but unlistenable. Not good in a movie about music.
Grade: C+
--
Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC
legeros@pagesz.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w)
Visit me in MOVIE HELL
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews