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Directed by: Lee Tamahori Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin, Harold Perrineau, Elle MacPherson A "lost in the wilderness" movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin sounds pretty questionable, and honestly I probably wouldn't have been interested in this movie until I heard it was written by David Mamet ("Glengarry Glen Ross") and so figured there would be good dialog and acting to be had. This isn't a perfect movie, but is such an interesting combination of elements that its ambitious quirkiness mostly makes up for its flaws. Hopkins plays billionaire Charles Morse, a gentlemanly font of (mostly theoretical) knowledge who is married to a model named Mickey (Elle MacPherson). He accompanies her on a photo shoot in the northern wilderness in hopes of finding adventure. I won't spoil the story by saying what kind of adventure he finds, other than to say a good portion of the movie finds Hopkins and Baldwin (playing fashion photographer Robert Green) lost in the wilderness, trying to find their way back to civilization. It was interesting seeing how David Mamet - who is well-known as a playwright - adapted to a movie that's very different from the dynamics of a stage production. The results were a mixed bag. The beginning of the movie is espescially good, focusing on character exposition and social interaction in a way that gives Mamet a chance to strut his stuff -- the combination of Mamet's great writing and Hopkins excellently dry delivery is just wonderful. When the movie shifts gears into more of an adventure mode, the results are a little more mixed. In places the action sequences are just gripping, when the protagonists are going face to face with the forces of nature. In other places the wilderness/survival storyline seems unbelievable or somewhat hokey. When Hopkins' character is being witty and resourceful, he's mostly a pleasure to watch -- when things get bad, his attempts to talk tough can be close to cringe inducing. You do get to hear Anthony Hopkins say "motherfucker", but it's done so gratuitously that the line mostly falls flat. There's enough else going on in the movie, with the interaction between the two main characters, that the weak points don't bring it down too much. Director Lee Tamahori (who I'm only familiar with by way of "Once Were Warriors", a smaller-scale and very different film) does a pretty good job here -- some of the action scenes are great, and the movie is full of beautiful scenery, though there are places (espescially in the latter half of the movie) where things drag a bit. I also didn't much like the orchestral score, full of overly-dramatic and intrusive swells and fanfares to hammer home whatever action was going on (but that's Hollywood action movies for you). This movie really wowed me for the first half; as it moved towards the final act, it lost some momentum, but nonetheless made for an interesting and entertaining time. RATING: 3.5 PROS: clever, witty, and thoughtful for an adventure movie, with well-acted leads CONS: action elements and pacing are uneven in places, overbearing musical score ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119051/ h_double fucked around with this message at 07:55 on Apr 16, 2005 |
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Apr 16, 2005 05:55
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I was disappointed by this movie. After watching Glengarry Glen Ross, I had high expectations for David Mamet, and this movie fell short for me. As you said, the beginning of the movie is fantastic, setting up each of the characters as only Mamet could do, but the "action" moments of the movie were far too predicatble. 3/5
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Apr 16, 2005 21:31
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