A LIFE LESS ORDINARY 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1997 Timothy Voon
3 :-( :-( :-( for the mundane
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Cameron Diaz, Holly Hunter, Delroy Lindo, Ian Holm, Dan Hedaya, Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, Ian McNeice, Maury Chaykin Director: Danny Boyle Screenplay: John Hodge
This movie is an exercise on creativity, but in the midst of trying to be original it loses all objectivity on the subject matter. We have the usual scenario of a kidnapping which is your basic garden variety story line for the round the mill mystery suspense thriller. Throw in a kidnapper and victim who are destined to fall in love and get a surge of endorphins as the eroticism mounts. Next include God, the angel Gabriel, some other meddling angels and your mixture has just transformed into a volatile stink bomb of a ludicrous farce.
The kidnapper (Ewan McGregor) is a poor nice guy who doesn't know what he's doing. After being sacked he kidnaps the boss's daughter (Cameron Diaz) who is not a very nice rich girl. We are meant to envision the short, blue collar Ewan in grunge clothing, slipping within the leggy tights of tall, classy, sexy Diaz. This erotic notion starts out on a high note, but ends up with the same feeling of a trash romance novel where the let down comes soon after the first sex scene. Oh and what a let down it is. If only one can keep fantasising. Diaz's character soon takes control of the kidnapping operation and soon has Ewan's character trapped between her thighs. The movie starts to suffocate as she goes on a wild spree of extortion, crime and bank robbery. Supposedly it is meant to have a liberating feeling for this poor little rich girl. I call it being plain bratty.
Sure there are great scenes of Diaz impersonating William Tell, and the dialogue is in vogue and punchy. It sounds good, but a lot of it is cleverly disguised nonsense that is as airy as the minds that thought it up. The final scene discusses love and destiny between Diaz and McGregor. It totally escaped me. I didn't see any love in the movie, lust maybe, but definitely not love. As for destiny, well I'm glad these sad characters found each other cause I wouldn't want them destroying anybody else's life per chance. It is absolutely ludicrous that screen play writer John Hodge has presumed that this is God's way of uniting man and woman to have lasting relationships. I think a few Sunday School lessons are in order.
Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
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