Etc.
Section B • Page 5
The University Daily Kansan
Thursday, March 1, 2001
Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts star with James Gandolfini in the movie The Mexican, which opens in theaters tomorrow. Contributed photo
Film has stars, lacks glow
By Christy Lemire
The Associated Press
The star power of The Mexican is blinding: Brad Pitt! Julia Roberts! James Gandolfi!
All three actors couldn't be much hotter now; Roberts is up for a best actress Oscar for "Erin Brockovich." The much anticipated third season of *The Sopranos*, for which Gandolfini has won a best actor Emmy, starts Sunday night. Pitt is... well, Brad Pitt.
Don't get your hopes up, though.
The Mexican is sporadically entertaining. It works when Gandolfi is on screen; when he leaves, he takes the movie with him.
And if you're expecting romantic sparks between the astonishingly attractive Roberts and Pitt, forget it. They're rarely on screen at the same time, and when they are, all they do is bicker. It makes you wish they had no scenes together at all.
Pitt plays a bumbling clod named Jerry who, inexplicably, gets assignments from a Los Angeles mob boss. Jerry must trek to Mexico to retrieve a valuable antique pistol known as "The Mexican," or he'll be killed. He's also getting pressure from his girlfriend, Samantha (Roberts), to leave his life of crime and move with her to Las Vegas (for a much more wholesome life, presumably).
After a seriously annoying argument, Jerry heads south of the border and Samantha heads to Vegas alone. But on her way, a hitman named Lerov (Gandolfini) takes her hostage.
just to make sure Jerry doesn't try to
rake the pistol for his own purposes
From here, director Gore Bervinbis, who made his feature debut with *Mouse Hunt*, intercurs between two road movies, one of which—the one with Pitt—is downright boring.
We watch him hop from one dusty Mexican town to the next, avoiding various bad guys while trying to hang onto the gun. When we check in on Roberts and Gandolfini, though, it's fascinating to watch these two compelling actors bounce off each other.
As their characters drive to Vegas and stop at roadside diners, they become friends.
Samantha is painfully neurotic and loves to pick apart her relationship with Jerry using sprinklings of psychobabble, and Leroy indulges her need for therapy.
Leroy could be Tony Soprano's cousin—a tough-talking, chain-smoking thug who can shoot a man dead without batting an eye. But, like Tony, Leroy has a sensitive side. Deep down, all he really wants is a hug.
The movie wraps up with some convoluted twists and double-crosses and mumbo-jumbo about fate and intersections and curses.
But every once in a while The Mexican gives people what they want: Robert's megawatt smile. Pitt with his shirt off and a little bit of Tony Soprano.
The Mexican is rated R for violence and language. Running time: 123 minutes.
Fidelity on hold in foreign film
By Anthony Breznican
The Associated Press
Darlene wants a home, affection and good sex. Unfortunately, no one man in the desolate Brazilian Northeast can satisfy each of her needs.
So she fulfills them with three men — the gruff Osias, the gentle Zezhino and the handsome Ciro — to their grudging acceptance.
The Portuguese-language film begins with Darlene (Brazilian television star Regina Case) deciding she is ready to settle down after wandering for three years with an ilegitimate child.
One day, her 70-year-old neighbor Osias (Lima Duarte) surprises her with a marriage proposal. If she says yes, she can have his home.
But once they're married, he reneges — and shows he'd rather listen to his precious radio than even look at Darlene. He's also displeased that she can't cook a decent meal when she gets back from a day of field labor.
Seeking companionship, Darlene betriends Osias' simple-minded, cousin, Zezhin
Portuguese-language film Me You Them, which opens tomorrow, tells the story of a woman who loves three men, each to fulfill a different purpose. Contributed photo
(Stenio Garcia), who lives with Osias' sister.
(Stenio Garcia), who lives with Olasi's sister. Zezhinio treats Darlene like a princess. Although he's also an old man, he tries to help Darlene with her many chores.
While washing clothes one day, Darlene and Zezhino begin a passionate affair.
When Zezhino gets kicked out of his home, Osias invites him to live with him and Darlene.
Zezhino is a better cook than Darlene and serves almost as a personal valet to Osias, who brags that he now has two wives, unaware that Darlene really has two husbands.
He doesn't learn of her affair until after she becomes pregnant with his cousin's baby and by then is too used to Zezhino's services to throw him out.
Meanwhile, Darlene remains restless. Another affair develops with the young, virile Ciro, a migrant worker Darlene meets at a dance.
Ciro (Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos) has no money and little personality, but he's got other assets Darlene has her eye on.
Osias, already a cuckold, decides to vex Zezhino by inviting Ciro to share their home.
Darlene finds herself under one roof with three men and a different child from each.
Me You Them doesn't try to look at the morality of polygamy; instead, it's used as a tool to explore the emotional compromises of the men, who put up with each other rather than lose Darlene altogether.
The Caveman's Valentine thrills
By Anthony Breznican
The Associated Press
They say a broken clock is correct at least two times a day, which is more than can be said of Romulus Ledbetter, the insane, ranting vagrant in the detective mystery The Caveman's Valentine.
Samuel L. Jackson plays Romulus, whose paranoid schizophrenia envelopes him in a world of delusion, confusion and misconception.
Torturing him is the idea that a megalomaniac bent on world domination spies on him from atop a skyscraper and sends neon death-rays to permeate his skull.
He also thinks his busted television broadcasts crimes in progress, and that a flock of men with moth wings lives inside his head.
Locals mockingly refer to Romulus as "Caveman" because he sleeps under a rocky enclave in a Manhattan park. He also looks like the part with his hat of
matted fur, wail-weight dreadlocks and animal-intense eyes.
In any other detective story, Romulus would be a colorful side character, but The Caveman's Valentine boldly chooses him as its hero.
Author George Dawes Green, who adapted The Caveman's Valentine from his Edgar Award-winning novel, makes great use of elements pioneered by Dashiil Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Their stories made Humphrey Bogart a star in the 1940s with movies like The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon.
But imagine Bogart's streetwise investigator if he couldn't trust his own senses. That's the handicap Romulus works under, an interesting twist that elevates this thriller to the ranks of its greatest predecessors.
Romulus himself is something of a mystery. He was a classically trained pianist and composer at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York who retained his artistry despite his
mental illness.
We learn that fellow classmates considered him a genius in his prime, but Romulus abandoned his career and family (not to mention his rational mind) when the pressure to prove his talents became too great.
This adds credibility to the idea that a deranged homeless man would become an amateur sleuth after finding a fellow transient frozen to death on a snowy morning after Valentine's Day. He believes the man was murdered.
Romulus could never prove his own worth, but he remains driven to at least prove something — especially to his estranged daughter (Aunjanue Ellis), who is now a New York police officer.
He hears a rumor that the frozen man was a former model killed because he tried to blackmail a Robert Mapplethorpe-like photographer named David Leppenraub (the icy character actor Colm Feore.)
The trouble is that Romulus'
Samuel L Jackson plays Romulus in The Caveman's Valentine, which opens tomorrow. Contributed photo
murder scenario fits too well with his other ridiculous conspiracy theories, so no one believes him.
But like that broken clock, this time Romulus may be right.
DO YOU PLAY IN A BAND?
Come to the 9th Annual Swedestock Friday May 11
We are looking for all types of music. To audition, send a CD or tape and press kit by March 20th to June Coleman-Hull c/o Bethany
College 421 N. First Street Lindsborg, KS
67454. Questions..Call 785-227-3380 (8162).
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