Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by clarkjohnsen (R) on July 21, 2004 at 10:41:26

It stars Kim Basinger and Jeff Bridges (America's greatest neglected actor), yet opened on only three screens in Boston, probably likewise elsewhere. But at a 4:00 show the theatre was one-third full, a hopeful sign that this wonderful movie will break out.

Now: I recommend that you do as I do -- Once I decide I want to see a film I read no further reviews; instead I clip them for enjoyment (and criticism) afterwards. You don't need to know plot points and will more easily enjoy the artists' efforts in a fresh and unencumbered state.

That said (as they say), here's a dollop of review. A 16-year-old Exeter student is apprenticed for the summer to a successful writer on rural, seaside Long Island. Perhaps predictably, the film lands us on the mysterious threshold between real life and fiction. For one result the tender boy learns more than he wants to know about grownups. For another, we can laugh our asses off at some of the shenanigans. Meanwhile, Ted and Marion Cole are not a happy couple and gradually we learn there is a Story. Ted (Jeff Bridges), however, "may be the most complex husband and father, not to mention artist, ever to grace an American movie." (Boston Herald) Or, "Bridges plays in a deceptively shaggy role that's one of the most simultaneously attractive and repugnant of his long career." (Boston Globe) Kim Basinger "quietly embodies [Marion] and ennobles her without once letting her off the hook." (Globe)

Do not miss this movie. It's Academy Award material all 'round and the special effects are gorgeous (there are none).

Oh, the Story. I'll give this much away: At the end you are told it, but (as with the young man's experience) it's probably more than you wanted to know.

And also there is a real door in the floor. Its presence is carefully foreshadowed, see if you see it. I didn't.

clark