Freeze Frames: The Monitor Movie Guide
Here are the week's reviews of both the latest releases and current films, rated according to the key below (''o'' for forget it). The capsule reviews are by Monitor film critic David Sterritt; the one liners from a panel of at lease three other Monitor reviewers. Movies containing violence (V), sexual situations (S), nudity (N), and profanity (P) are noted.
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o Forget it
* Only if it's free
** Maybe a matinee
*** Worth full price
**** Wait in line
New Releases
BREATHING ROOM (R)
* That's what the discontented lovers need while they figure out whether to stay together or take off to separate lives. Likable performances can't compensate for the hackneyed plot and corny dialogue that dog Jon Sherman's comedy from start to finish. S V P
THE FUNERAL (R)
** The killing of a small-time gangster spurs his Italian-American family to bloody revenge. Abel Ferrara's movies are often prone to excesses like the highly explicit sex and "Godfather"-type violence on display here, but the melodrama has serious ideas about subjects as complex as the struggle between free will and evil impulses in a changing society. Christopher Walken, Isabella Rossellini, Chris Penn, and Annabella Sciorra head the cast. Ken Kelsch's moody cinematography deserves an Oscar and then some. S V N P
THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS (R)
** Reissue of Vittorio De Sica's radiantly filmed story about a wealthy Jewish family that sees its comfortable life about to be swallowed by the Holocaust and its horrors. Hailed in 1971 as a triumphant comeback for Italy's popular "neorealist" movement, the Academy Award-winning drama looks beautiful but mannered on its 25th anniversary, wrapping its cry against fascism in a haze of nostalgia for class privileges of yore. Dominique Sanda and Helmut Berger star. N
MAD DOG TIME (R)
* Rivalry, jealousy, and mayhem erupt when a crazy criminal returns to his old haunts after a stint in a mental institution. Larry Bishop's pitch-dark comedy has a few moments of imaginative storytelling, but most of the way it's a sad waste of a celebrity-studded cast including Jeff Goldblum, Gabriel Byrne, Ellen Barkin, Diane Lane, Richard Dreyfuss, and Burt Reynolds, plus cameos by Richard Pryor, Michael J. Pollard, and Joey Bishop, the filmmaker's father. S V P N
MERCY (Not rated)
*** Gripping melodrama about a young black woman who engineers the kidnapping of a child in order to spite a rich white executive who seduced and abandoned her. Engrossing and well acted, although the ending is weak and the little-girl character isn't convincingly developed. Directed by Richard Shepard. P V S
MOTHER NIGHT (R)
*** Nick Nolte gives the most thoughtful and moving performance of his career as an American author recruited by the US government for a double-agent job that calls on him to subvert the Nazi cause by appearing to support it faithfully. Based on Kurt Vonnegut's inventive novel, Keith Gordon's drama explores complex ethical issues with quick intelligence and wry humor. Contains nudity and sexuality. S N V
*** Powerful, stirring, thought-provoking.
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (NOT RATED)
**** Reissue of Alfred Hitchcock's rollicking 1959 thriller with Cary Grant as an advertising executive on the run from spies and G-men with a gorgeous double agent by his side. Eva Marie Saint and Leo G. Carroll head the stellar supporting cast. V
RANSOM (R)
** Mel Gibson plays a wealthy businessman whose nine-year-old son is kidnapped by a rogue cop who's less interested in lining his pockets than humbling what he sees as an arrogant aristocrat. Gary Sinise is chilling as the villain, and the screenplay by Richard Price and Alexander Ignon shows some interest in class hostility and other social issues, although this doesn't extend far enough to allow the women of the story a chance to shine in their male-dominated surroundings. Contains much hard-hitting violence, including views of the suffering endured by the young kidnap victim. Ron Howard directed. V P
