Movie Madness!

THE CRUCIBLE

After being ripped off by more sensational interpretations in The Conqueror Worm, Mark of the Devil, and a very special episode of Bewitched, Arthur Miller's famous dramatization of the Salem witch trials makes its way to the big screen. The cast, led by Winona Ryder and Daniel Day-Lewis, takes on their roles with gusto. However, this story of the power of black mass hysteria sparked by repressed desire in olde New England is so much a part of American folklore that the tale seems to unfold by rote. There is no suspense to be found, only a few interesting details, and a decently produced documentary on the subject could do as well. Day-Lewis is a fine actor, but is typecast as yet another long-suffering martyr - but it's a refreshing surprise to find Ryder playing a psycho. She becomes the center of the film, even though her part is smaller than others'. Generally, this is one of those films that impresses you for the first half, but then you lose patience with it and hope that it wraps up soon - then it continues for a good half hour too long.

THE EVENING STAR

We've all seen sequels to action and horror films that were direct copies of the original - why should the sequel to a classic soaper like Terms of Endearment be any different? Shirley MacLaine is back again after thirteen years, once again playing annoying but lovable aging Texas belle Aurora. This time she's dealing with several flawed suitors, spoiled and worrisome offspring, and a visit from devilish astronaut Jack Nicholson, occasionally stopping to look over family photographs with a sigh as a piano gently plays on the soundtrack. There's more marriage, breakups, domestic problems, problems with domestics, births, Horrible Unnamed Diseases, funny arguments, and deathbed scenes - enough to make this another instant Chick Movie classic. Rates very high on the old Sob-O-Meter, so keep your handkerchiefs handy, It's a good thing Aurora's rich - just think of the problems these folks would have if they had to work.

JERRY MAGUIRE

This overcrowded holiday season is full of movies trying to raise a little laugh, a little tear, and a general warm feeling in your soul. Most of them have been dismal failures, giving decent enough pop entertainment value, but so obviously trying to force their sentimentality upon you that you end up resenting the effort. Here, writer/director Cameron Crowe gives us a film that tries for the same goals, and succeeds tremendously, due mainly to the great intelligence of his script, the talent and star power of Tom Cruise, and a shining lead performance by relative newcomer Renee Zellweger (Love and a .45). Cruise plays a slick sports agent who loses his job and his fiancé when he finds his conscience, and then desperately tries to hold on to his last remaining client (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) and new love found with widowed mother Zellweger. Personal fave Bonnie Hunt is on hand as the Disapproving Sister who runs a support group for divorced women. It may seem shocking to find such a smart story set in the world of pro sports, but this could have been written using any profession. It's the candor with which it's handled that makes the difference. This is mainly a film about honesty and integrity, so any attempt to cheaply manipulate the audience would stick out like a sore kneecap. Crowe (Say Anything...) adds to his reputation for making light drama with brains.

MICHAEL

Angels visiting Earth for satirical purposes (to coin a contradiction) is old stuff in the movie and TV business. But an Old Testament warrior angel, more akin to the carousing gods of Asgard than to the timid Clarence of It's A Wonderful Life, is an intriguing idea ripe with potential. Hiring John Travolta to play the surprisingly earthy angel (there's another one), with William Hurt, Andie MacDowell and Robert Pastorelli as tabloid reporters sent to bring him back from Maureen Stapleton's Kansas motel to their Chicago publisher Bob Hoskins, all seems like money in the bank. Unfortunately, no one takes advantage of the opportunity at hand. The trio of reporters are much too concerned with their own pursuits to do their jobs - mainly, interview a mythical being on a mysterious mission to Earth. Nora Ephron's direction is only capable, not helping much. The film doesn't want to get too religious, or too supernatural, and so it doesn't accomplish anything. Travolta is meant to instill some magic to the proceedings, but he mostly just hangs out while his companions see him only as a meal ticket. MacDowell's country gal accent comes and goes. Adding to her embarrassment (and ours) is the fact that she has ambitions to be a country/western singer - you don't want to be in the theater to witness her song about pie. Stapleton and Hoskins, and everyone else in the supporting cast, are on hand merely as disposable characters. Worst of all, there's a cute little dog along for the ride, who is somehow integral to the plot, but whose main purpose is to provide some shamelessly contrived heart-tugging. One of the year's great disappointments.

MOTHER

In all of his films, writer/director Albert Brooks plays a man with a grand, romantic idea straight out of pop psychology who runs into conflict with a bluntly realistic world. This time he's a science fiction author who's just gone through his second divorce. Thinking that his problems with women stem from his relationship with his mother (Debbie Reynolds, who sparkles in her first movie role in decades), he decides to try an experiment by moving back in with her. Where a lesser filmmaker might have seen this as an opportunity for endless nagging mother routines, Brooks mission here is to show that the mother is most troubling to the child - that, though possessing normal human obsessions and eccentricities, Reynold's quirks become exaggerated in his own mind (and vice-versa). As counterpoint, Rob Morrow plays the younger brother whose relationship with mother is seemingly normal - that is, until Brooks' experiment uncovers his own neurosis. Though not as wickedly satirical as his previous films (Real Life, Modern Romance and Lost in America), Mother is just as engaging and surprising. Brooks makes films unlike anyone else's, except perhaps Woody Allen. I wish he was as prolific - we need more.

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