Entertaining
summer fare
By
Ervell E. Menezes
THE other night, quite by
accident, I came across a film (on Star Movies) called Imaginary
Crimes. It was the 11.30 p.m. movie. I gave it a try
and it proved to be quite a fine movie, much better than
some of the pot-boilers we see on the screen these days.
Its about a conman, forever dreaming of riches
around the corner, struggling to bring up his two
daughters after their mother dies.
Harvey Keitel, often
seen in cameo roles, plays the lead and does a fine job
of it. But the story is a nostalgic reminiscence, seen
from the viewpoint of a teenager and embryonic writer in
which love conquers all. Falruzka Balk, who plays that
teenage daughter too is excellent. Shades of Vittorio de
Sicas The Children Are Watching Us can be seen
in the way it brings out the troubled lives of
innocent kids not knowing how to underplay their
fathers misdeeds as they go through life in its
early stages.
Based on a novel by Sheila Ballantyne, it
is a seemingly ordinary tale but narrated quite
extraordinarily with director Anthony Drazan having to
leave a good deal of the incidents off-screen. Yet this
1994 production is something worth seeing because of its
utter frankness as it dissects the minds of unknowing
kids in despair.
Jack Frost is a
happy childrens film woven around Frosty the
Snowman and as is the habit of Hollywood these days it
indulges in the anything-is-possible genre. Jack Frost
(Michael Keaton) is a hard-working musician on the road
most of the time. It means he has little time for his
wife Gabby (Kelly Preston) or son Charlie (Joseph Cross).
But just when he decides to put his family first, on
Christmas day, he meets with a fatal accident what next?
Youve guessed it.
Jack Frost comes back as the Snowman. Well, the story is
far-fetched but then thats forgivable in
childrens films. Also, theres a good moral.
It shows how one must spend time with ones family
and all that. Its precisely about that Christmas
spirit of peace and goodwill. Bon homie too. Of forgive
and forget. In India it is set for release during the
summer vacation. Good thing, because there days these are
hardly and films for kids. Poor things, they keep looking
for adult entertainers.
Message in a Bottle is
a love story. It deals with the ideal love which could
well be the impossible dream. Yes, matches (read
marriages) they say, are made in heaven. But they surely
are lived on earth. And thats where things go
wrong. If Erich Segal in the early 1970s novel Love
Story (also made into a film) taught us that love
means never having to say youre sorry, Message
in a Bottle gives us the exact opposite message
that love is a litany of sorrys.
When Theresa Osborne
(Robin Wright Penn) on vacation and running on the beach,
comes across the bottle she reads the message in it.
Addressed to one Katherine, it is a tribute to a
mans dead wife and the writer is sorry he
didnt tell her so many of her virtues when she was
alive. It is signed G.
Theresa is a divorcee
and a journalist. Her heart at once goes out to this G
character. Being a journalist with all the world a likely
story, she decides to trace G who turns out to be Garret
Blake (Kevin Costner), a sailboat builder living in North
Carolina. Since the death of his wife, Garret has lead a
solitary existence, save for a relationship with his
fun-loving father Dodge (Paul Newman) who is trying his
best to get his son to put behind those obsessive
memories about his dead wife.
Enter, Theresa. It is
like a whiff of fresh air. But the frailty of these
women. She goes all the way to North Carolina to meet him
but still plays hard-to-get. May be its the fear of
another involvement. Director Luis Mandoki handles the
subject sensitively. The in-law trouble over her
paintings provides variety and the story generally
balances on a knife-edge. When Garret discovers she has
found the bottle with the message and is probing it, he
threatens to end the affair.
Actually the story moves
along well, except for some melodramatic moments. Then
the final twist gives it more steam.
Robin Wright Penn is
brilliant as the woman unsure of her emotions and her
varying moods are realistically portrayed. Shades of
Candice Bergan in Live for Life or Anouk Aimee in A
Man and a Woman. The angst is loud and clear. So is
the dilemma. Kevin cosner sort of suffers by contrast and
old "blue eyes" Paul Newman has the best lines
and Caleb Deschanels cinematography is
breath-taking. All in all, a good entertainer despite its
130-odd-minutes length.
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