Psycho

What happens when you take a classic film and remake it shot for shot, only minimally update the script, leaving much of the now-dated dialogue intact? What happens? You end up making a film that leaves your audience wishing they had stayed home and rented the original.

Gus Van Sant's faithful homage to Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 "Psycho" isn't a bad film, but an unnecessary one. It is one director's indulgent and selfish endeavor to walk in his hero's shoes which seems better suited as a film school project rather than as a mainstream feature film.

This color-ized "Psycho" is so uninteresting that I began trying to remember what made Hitchcock's version so fascinating. Perhaps one is less judgmental of older films, forgiving them for their slow pace and hokey humor? Maybe the story of a demented momma's boy losing control isn't so shocking in the day of the Menendez brothers and O.J?

But even if that is true, it doesn't make the original "Psycho" any less brilliant. Is the audience laughing during the movie because the dialogue is hip and current or because the characters talk as though they are still living in the '50's? By sticking to Hitch's leisurely pacing and by not updating the language to today's ear, Van Sant's version mocks the original instead of imitating it. It is distracting and undercuts the observer's "suspension of disbelief." If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

But if you dare, then why not be daring?

If you are going to update a film, update it. What's the point otherwise?

Van Sant's much hyped secrecy during "Psycho's" closed set production induced feverish curiosity about what he was hiding up his sleeve. The disappointment comes when you realize that his sleeve was empty and all the secrecy was nothing but a smart publicity tactic.

Grade: I for incomplete. (No grade earned.)


Elizabeth

Think period costume drama via primetime TV soap opera and you get some idea of "Elizabeth's" entertaining temperament. The luminous Cate Blanchett is thrilling as England's Virgin Queen. With support from the equally enchanting Joseph Fiennes (brother to Ralph,) and enjoyably villainous Christopher Eccleston, Blanchett delivers a nuanced portrayal of the complicated Queen that is at once fragile and domineering. With gorgeous costumes beautifully filmed in the murky shadows of castles, this film's art direction nearly drips off the screen. While it may take a few liberties with history as we know it, the script keeps the action flowing while painting the characters just a few strokes shy of melodrama. Merchant-Ivory this is not and that is refreshing.

Grade: A for Astute film-making


Celebrity

Kenneth Branagh, respected actor and director of Shakespeare on film, is relegated to playing "the Woody Allen role" in Allen's obligatory film-a-year production for 1998, "Celebrity." Henry V, Hamlet, Woody. Natural progression, right? At least it's a little easier to believe that the women in this film would be more attracted to him than the real Woody, although only slightly easier. Branagh plays a man who dumps his neurotic wife (returning Allen alumni, Judy Davis) during a mid-life crisis to sew the wild oats he never sewed. The plot focuses on the divorced couples' differing adventures while being middle-aged and single in a world where the power and influence of celebrity can alter one's views and one's direction. While less mean-spirited than last year's "Deconstructing Harry," there is plenty here to offend. Allen's female characters range from a hooker giving blow-job lessons (Bebe Neuwirth with a banana) to the movie-star giving the real thing (Melanie Griffith with Branagh.) Fortunately though, "Celebrity" does contain enough substantial insight and observations on the world's continuing obsession with fame and the famous to keep things interesting. There seems to be a backlash against Woody since his tabloid feeding break-up with Mia Farrow. This event seems to have affected the tone of his last two films, turning them into angry quasi-political/personal statements. I hope the warm-hearted Woody, felt in "Bullets Over Broadway," "Mighty Aphrodite" and "Everyone Says I Love You," isn't gone for good.

Grade: C for Could have been worse.


Life Is Beautiful

I used to view Robert Benigni as a goofy, Italian Peter Sellers-type. After all, he did do some "Return of the Pink Panther" flick, right? I had only seen his work via movie trailers, none of which provoked me to see any of his films. I wasn't prepared for what was in-store when I chose to see his latest work, "Life Is Beautiful."

I had heard the press from Cannes. Winning awards and critical praise, this became a film that I had to see. And so should you.

Primarily a light-hearted romantic comedy for the first half, "Life" features some brilliant physical comedy shtick. Benigni's Chaplin-esque character meets and then pursues a charming school teacher, played by his real-life wife, Nicoletta Braschi. After getting the girl, the film jumps ahead several years and now the happy couple have an adorable son. All's well with the world, right? Not so.

It's W.W.II and Hitler has begun rounding up the Jews. Benigni and family end up in a concentration camp and the second half of the film centers on the father's attempts to keep the horrors of this reality from his son. He gets the child to believe that it is all an elaborate game and that the one with the most points at the end will win. The charming and romantic first half makes the bittersweet and heartbreaking second all the more affecting. The ability of Benigni to take such a horrifying historical event and to find beauty in it is pure genius. Who would have thought that a movie of this nature could be so life affirming. "Life Is Beautiful" is beautiful.

Grade: A for A must see.


Coming Soon: Views on "Babe, Pig in the City" "American History X" "Little Voice" "Central Station"

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