‘THE PRODUCERS’
Because it is more than the Broadway musical. Or at least it should be.
By all accounts, Susan Stroman did a fabulous job with the stage version of Mel Brooks' classic 1968 comedy film. It didn't hurt that she had Nathan Lane in the part originated by Zero Mostel, the charming and slippery producer Max Bialystock, and Matthew Broderick as the milquetoast bookkeeper Leo Bloom. (Gene Wilder nailed the original.)
Having Lane and Broderick agree to reprise their roles in the film was - well, it should have been a gift. But whatever chemistry they shared on stage was bled right out of the film. They come off like a couple of vamping hams.
I can almost hear little voices inside their heads saying, "We've done this so many times on stage that we can do it in our sleep." But you can't, you know. Because the camera is a very different audience and the film frame is not the same as a stage.
That was the unsettling part. I don't think there was a moment while watching the film that I wasn't acutely aware of the lip of the stage. It felt like I was always 10 rows back. And that's not what really good movies do. They don't distance you from the action (unless they want to). They draw you in.
A movie can take place in a single room but it can take you deep inside a soul. You can travel to places known only to the hearts and minds of the characters, places you've never imagined on our own.
"Chicago" started as a musical but it went places as a movie. Same thing with "Guys and Dolls" back in 1955.
In the future, save the clinical reproductions for public television. When I watch a musical on film, I want to feel something other than mild bemusement. I can get that at work.
ALSO THIS WEEK
Katherine Heigl will make it through this week OK, even if she is top billed in a pair of really bad movies. She is young, beautiful and talented and has a role in the much-admired TV series "Grey's Anatomy" to fall back on. I have no doubt that she will go on to good roles in good movies.
Evidence this week to the contrary.
"The Ringer" (Fox, 1 star) is a Farrelly brothers production, so a certain amount of bad taste is not only anticipated, it is embraced. But indifferent acting, ineffective directing and a plodding story?
Johnny Knoxville, who has about used up his 15 minutes, is Steve Barker, a loser who ends up pretending to be a "retard" so that he can help his slime-ball uncle (a slumming Brian Cox) throw the Special Olympics. I find the idea hilarious. It is the execution that is "retarded."
Heigl is Lynn Sheridan, the Special Olympics coordinator with a heart of gold (a characteristic that she projects effortlessly). She has a soft spot for the ringer. And for purposes of plot development, she must come off as incredibly dumb in order for the audience to buy into the conceit that Barker can just walk on and compete in the Special Olympics with little more than a face tick and some bad dialogue.
The movie mixes real special-needs people with a few stand-up comics who double as actors. There's some irony in that, but why go there?
The thing is, the movie tries to do a number on Special Olympics and still maintain credentials as a sweet, loveable object in the laps of audiences. Bad move. A real Farrelly brothers film would have audiences groaning, embarrassed at how loud they are laughing at hideously un-PC humor. Instead, people are going "awww," as if they were watching the Westminster Dog Show.
The only real villain here is a boring script and pandering sweetness.
But "The Ringer" is a gem compared to "Side Effects" (Pro-active Entertainment, 0 stars), a low-budget romantic comedy about the pharmaceutical industry. Low budget is not an excuse for shoddy moviemaking. Look at the early films of Robert Rodriguez ("El Mariachi," total cost $7,000).
"Side Effects" has a good idea going for it and little else. Heigl is a young pharmaceutical sales agent who is first seduced by the vast amounts of cash to be made and then repulsed by the industry's voracious appetite for sales. When she learns that her company's newest wonder drug has some questionable, even fatal, side effects that have been suppressed, she faces a moral dilemma.
The pharmaceutical industry as morally bankrupt? Given today's headlines, I think we can buy into that. There's nothing else here. First-time director-writer Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau used to be a professional pill-pusher. She writes from experience but the rest of it is the result of vast inexperience. The dialogue is achingly trite. There are useless characters cluttering the story. The lighting, framing and audio are hopelessly uneven. The actors, with the exception of Heigl, are amateurish. It just goes on and on.
Slattery-Moschkau should have turned her life story over to professionals in exchange for a producer's credit and a voice in the creative process. It might have taken longer to get made and she would have had to fight harder for integrity, but in the end she would have a movie somebody would care about.
This is just a bitter pill to swallow.
"The White Countess" (Sony, 2 1/2 stars) Ralph Fiennes is a broken and blind ex-American diplomat in 1930s Shanghai who dreams of opening a nightclub. Natasha Richardson is a woman of the night who is supporting her whole family of expatriate Russian royals. The two collaborate on the club but stay at arm's length emotionally, until the Japanese invasion looms on the horizon. The film was the last collaboration of the geniuses of period pieces, director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant. It is a fitting ending to a long and prestigious career. The exceptional cast also includes Vanessa Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave.
"Something New" (Universal, 2 stars) A romantic comedy with an interracial twist. Sanaa Lathan plays Kenya McQueen, a successful lawyer and a black woman. She goes on a blind date with Brian Kelly (Simon Baker), a free-spirited landscaper who also happens to be white. When the two start down a more-serious road, guess whose family and friends begin to freak out? It's funny and thoughtful, with a cool supporting cast that is led by Mike Epps. Just an added sweetener: The movie was written, directed and produced by women of color.
"Winter Passing" (Fox, 2 stars) A struggling actress (Zooey Deschanel) is offered a six-figure sum to steal the love letters of her famous writer father (Ed Harris) and her late mother by an unscrupulous book editor (Amy Madigan). She returns to a house enlivened by her dad's quirky roommates (Will Ferrell and Amelia Warner). Offbeat fun from a solid cast, none of whom is a stranger to quirkiness.
Also this week: Baghdad war drama "American Soldiers"; rock 'n' roll psycho-drama "Shooting Livien"; animated family feature "Doogal"; Jackie Chan's "New Police Story"; thriller "False Prophets."
FROM THE VAULTS
"Napoleon Dynamite: Like the Best Special Edition Ever!" (Fox) They did what they should have done in the original release: lots of cool extras in this double-disc package - a Jared Hess documentary, two commentary tracks, audition tapes, a collection of Napoleon sightings on TV shows and lots more for the fans who aren't tired of the Napoleon persona.
Buena Vista (Disney) has a new rubber stamp for re-issues: "Unrated extended edition." They truck the label out on three popular action films, "Con Air," "Enemy of State" and "Crimson Tide," all from shillmaster Jerry Bruckheimer. It reeks of marketing.
"The Shaw Collection" (BBC Worldwide) Happy 150th, George Bernard Shaw. The BBC collects films based on his dazzling and witty writings: "Arms and the Man," "The Devil's Disciple," "Mrs. Warren's Profession," "Pygmalion," "Heartbreak House" and "The Millionairess." The DVD bonus extras include films of four Shaw plays: "The Man of Destiny," "You Never Can Tell," "Androcles and the Lion" and "The Apple Cart."
IT CAME FROM TV
Season one: The hit reality show "Supernanny." The 1965 "Bonanza"-meets-"Dynasty" Western drama "The Big Valley." The dreamy 1966 Marlo Thomas comedy "That Girl." And goofy romantic period piece "Here Come the Brides." Also season two of classy cop drama "Hill Street Blues."
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