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A couple of weeks ago it was Spider-man 2 swinging from New York’s skyscrapers with his ‘weby’ threads like a modern-day Tarzan. Now it’s Catwoman slithering on the dangerous walls of the city, virtually living on the edge and jumping around but always landing on her four feet. The feline antics fail to impress. It is likely to be a virtual visual feast for those not particular about the narrative or the content of the film. Patience Philips (Halle Berry) is a meek people-pleaser, good at her job of graphics designer but unable to stand up to her mean, bullying boss George Hedare (Lambert Wilson) who describes her as "the unremarkable life of an unremarkable woman." The Hedare company is producing an always-stay-young product which does not only hide the effects of ageing but also reverses them. When caught in the wrong place at the worst possible time Hedare’s icy supermodel wife Laurel (Sharon Stone) decides to do away with her. It is then that she finds herself in deep waters but undergoes a dramatic change — she becomes a catwoman. First it is hard for Patience to adapt herself to this new personality, loping around the city at night and doing as much damage as good. There is another problem. Her cop boyfriend Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt) is quite confused by her double life and, of course, spends the rest of the film sorting it out. For starters director Pitoff is quite weak in the opening shots mainly because the screenplay lacks a cumulative build-up. Then the catwoman’s exploits are far from absorbing. Hedare is a wimp throwing his weight around and because he’s looking for greener pastures in younger models his over-40s wife wants to confront him. Not surprisingly they get into a catfight, karate-style, which is unlikely to raise more than a few eyebrows. As for Stone, she isn’t a shadow of her sexy self in Basic Instinct or Sliver. She looks as matronly as Julie Andrews, especially with her bob cut. Halle Berry, on the contrary, has enough of oomph and her No 10 figure just oozes out of her attire. May be we could have seen more of her feline movements but she’s the only saving grace. The others are cardboard thin characters and all the fun and games are even less credible than Spider-man 2. How it ends is typical Hollywood-style, leaving room for a sequel but thanks, no thanks, for all its technical wizardry Catwoman is not my kind of film. I’d rather see Michelle Pfeiffer in her brief catwoman role in Batman Returns. |
