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CURRENT RELEASES
ALONG CAME A SPIDER Mystery/crime thrillers are arguably the hardest types of films to review: Do you analyze them primarily for their entertainment value, or do you critique them for how well their plots hold together in terms of all the narrative twists and last-minute character revelations we've come to expect from the genre? As a diehard film noir aficionado who fondly recalls the brilliant plotting of classic crime flicks, I tend to be strict when it comes to gaping plotholes, so those folks who don't mind that one plus one equals three may want to raise my rating for Along Came a Spider a notch or so. This follow-up to 1997's Kiss the Girls finds Morgan Freeman reprising his role as detective Alex Cross; this time, the lawman known for his ability to psychologically deconstruct any psychopath is forced to square off against one (Michael Wincott) who's responsible for the kidnapping of a senator's daughter (Mika Boorem). The clever criminal asserts that he wants to emulate the Charles Lindbergh-Bruno Hauptmann incident by instigating a new crime of the century; Cross teams up with a Secret Service agent (Monica Potter) in order to stop him. Anchored by a typically strong Freeman performance -- he's the most quietly comforting actor since Spencer Tracy -- and containing a whopping plot twist at the end, the picture moves at an efficient clip and will certainly keep patrons involved. But analyze the plot points for even one fraction of a second, and the whole film proves as flimsy as a tissue in a tornado -- an unavoidable letdown to anyone who expects their mysteries to contain even half a brain (there are more inconsistencies in this picture than there are tears at a wedding). The lovely Potter is miscast in a key role (unless the Secret Service recently opened a Victoria's Secret division), while director Lee Tamahori has yet to live up to the promise of his stunning New Zealand piece Once Were Warriors.
BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY Bridget Jones's Diary, based on the international bestselling novel by Helen Fielding, may be a romantic comedy, but it's hardly the twittering type that usually stars the likes of Meg Ryan or Diane Keaton (or, in the case of Hanging Up, both). It features the same tartness as the sleeper hit Four Weddings and a Funeral (not too surprising, since both films share a screenwriter and a pair of producers), but more importantly, it features a leading actress who steadfastly refuses to turn her character into a standard, nose-crinkling, Cheeto-munching movie lonelyheart. Renee Zellweger, gypped out of an Oscar nomination for last fall's Nurse Betty, gained 20 pounds and an English accent to land this part, and while the casting of a Yank as a Brit caused plenty of wailing on the other side of the Atlantic (hey, it's only fair: We cast the British Vivien Leigh as the quintessentially American Scarlett O'Hara), it's hard to imagine anybody complaining after catching Zellweger's excellent performance as an insecure single woman whose affections are torn between her rascally boss (a playful Hugh Grant) and an upright, uptight barrister (Colin Firth, saddled with the more predictable part). Certainly, Zellweger's Bridget goes through the romantic comedy paces every now and then, but while the script may occasionally indulge in conventional behavior, Zellweger never plays it as such; instead, she plucks her character's quirks and mannerisms straight out of real life, and in doing so makes her character all the more enchanting. Zellweger's Bridget Jones feels like a movie original -- reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn's Holly Golightly or Diane Keaton's Annie Hall -- and while it's unlikely the picture will enjoy the same level of success as its literary source, it's nice to know that single cineasts everywhere have a new, neurotic heroine to champion.
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