ROUGH MAGIC
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 6.0 Alternative Scale: **1/2 out of ****
U.S./U.K., 1995 U.S. Release Date: 5/30/97 (limited) Running Length: 1:44 MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Violence, profanity) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Bridget Fonda, Russell Crowe, Jim Broadbent, D.W. Moffett, Paul Rodriguez, Euva Anderson, Kenneth Mars Director: Clare Peploe Producers: Declan Baldwin, Laurie Parker Screenplay: William Brookfield, Robert Mundi, and Clare Peploe based on the novel MISS SHUMWAY WAVES A WAND by James Hadley Cinematography: John J. Campbell Music: Richard Hartley U.S. Distributor: The Samuel Goldwyn Company
On one level, I appreciated ROUGH MAGIC, because it's an audacious, radical movie that is virtually impossible to classify. On another level, however, I have to admit that large portions of the film simply don't work. Pushing boundaries is fine, but ROUGH MAGIC makes a few too many mistakes in its attempts to do so. As a result, the finished product seems more like a confused mismash of conflicting genres than the smooth, seamless parody/fantasy that director Clare Peploe was undoubtedly aiming for.
ROUGH MAGIC, which takes place sometime in the early 1950s, opens as an old-fashioned noir thriller (with a tinge of satire). We meet a magician's innocent assistant, Myra Shumway (Bridget Fonda), who becomes engaged to the savvy, smarmy senator, Cliff Wyatt (D.W. Moffett). Each sees advantages in the match -- Myra wants Cliff's money and he, in turn, observes that if "I marry a beautiful, virginal orphan... my approval rating soars 17 points." Unfortunately, there's trouble when Cliff accidentally kills Myra's magician mentor (Kenneth Mars). Armed with a photograph of the senator committing the dastardly deed, Myra goes on the run in Mexico, where she encounters an eccentric quack, Dr. Ansell (Jim Broadbent), who wants her to use her magical talents to defraud an old witch-woman out of her recipe for a special tonic. Myra gets away from the doctor as soon as she can, and ends up taking a long car ride with a cynical, ruggedly handsome newspaper reporter named Alex Ross (Russell Crowe). As their journey takes them deep into Mexico, the story gradually veers into the wildly absurd.
At one point, a character in this film remarks that "the line between illusion and miracle can grow very thin." In ROUGH MAGIC, such lines have been completely obliterated. During the course of the movie, we are treated to such bizarre displays as a woman laying an egg, a man turning into a sausage, and a talking dog. Meanwhile, characters are spouting the hard-bitten dialogue of dime store novels. "I've been lookin' for you since the day I was born" and "Life's simple till ya start thinking" are a couple of memorable examples.
The real flaw in ROUGH MAGIC's approach isn't that it has so much fun playing around with our expectations, but that it tries to make a serious point about spirituality. Unfortunately, whatever that point is, it never comes across clearly (unless it's that you should always pay in full when you put gas in the car). So there's a heavy dose of the supernatural to be found in ROUGH MAGIC, but the mixture of potboiler and mystical elements can be jarring.
Part of the problem is undoubtedly Bridget Fonda, who frequently seems like a fish out of water. There's no debating that Fonda is an immensely appealing actress, and, in the right role, she can be mesmerizing. Unfortunately, the part of Myra is not the right role. To begin with, Fonda plays Myra like a '90s woman, not a product of the '50s, and her whole rhythm is wrong for anything vaguely noirish (even in such an openly weird satire). She also doesn't have a good handle on the spiritual aspect of her character. To be fair, Fonda shines in ROUGH MAGIC's opening moments and during the last thirty minutes, but it's the hour in between that's the problem. It's also interesting to note that this is the third film with similar mystical/spiritual overtones in which Fonda has appeared (the other two being LITTLE BUDDHA and TOUCH).
Meanwhile, Russell Crowe (VIRTUOSITY), gives a performance that's as passable as his American accent, but he's playing a two-dimensional hero, so depth doesn't really matter. Likewise, D.W. Moffett is adequate as the villain. Perhaps the oddest character is Dr. Ansell, because we're never sure what to make of him. Sometimes, he's the sagely voice of wisdom; on other occasions, he's a falling-down drunk. Jim Broadbent, the respected British actor, portrays Ansell just well enough that we're able to accept him as more than a writer's construct.
ROUGH MAGIC seems like a good idea that failed to make a seamless transition from the concept stage to the finished product. It's an amalgamation of ingredients that do and don't work, and the overall result left me feeling strangely ambivalent and a little dissatisfied. The film finishes strongly, but something of a bad taste lingers. So, although ROUGH MAGIC has its fair share of mysticism, it's not really all that enchanting.
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin
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