ALFIE - Jude Law and a great supporting female cast make Alfie worth the bother. He’s a cynical womanizer and makes no bones about it. He showers the women he beds but never weds with platitudes that soon run thin to their ears. He has no ethics and is called to task when he betrays his best friend, a fellow limo driver played by Omar Epps. This serious turn lacks the bite of the original “Alfie.” It’s a sign of the times. In the Sixties neither the U.S. not the U.K,. where the Caine’s “Alfie” took place, had legalized abortion as we do today. The sexual revolution was not yet in full swing and the Summer of Love was a year away. Consequently the moral consequences of this “Alfie”s are diluted. The cultural landscape has been changed by women’s lib and more importantly Roe VS Wade. Consequently Jude’s guilty stance as Alfie doesn’t hold a candle to Michael Caine’s guilt ridden breakdown. He played a true cad bedding anyone vulnerable enough to fall for a good line regardless of their age. Jude’s Alfie is just selfish as are several of the ladies, especially Susan Sarandon’s character as a gold digging socialite who leaves Alfie with some sobering thoughts about his future. The rest give sterling performance that complements Law’s. Marisa Tomei is a single Mother who doesn’t want her son to have a casual male role model; Jane Krakowski is the girl Alfie never got back but wished he had; Sienna Miller is the party animal who secretly longs for domestication. and Nia Long is the one he wished he could have left alone.

BIRTH - Sorry Nicole (Kidman), I love you dearly. You’ve been one of my favorite actresses ever since I discovered “Flirting” in the video store umteen years ago, but “Birth” seems to be one of the most pointless films I’ve seen in quite some time. Senselessly arty, it belongs to the Antonioni school of filmmaking relying more on shadow and light to evoke turbulent undercurrents of emotion.

A man dies, a baby boy is born. Cut to the future. The Boy - Sean - now ten, finds his way to Nicole’s and claims to be her dead husband, much to his parents’ dismay. A lot of sturm and drang ensues until Nicole starts to believe! But the boy begins to have his own doubts when he’s thrown a curve by another woman from the dead man’s life. He - Sean - doesn’t remember her from his ‘past’ life. Two thoughts occurred to me. First: the dead husband may have wanted to eradicate the memory of the other woman. Reason: it has something to do with loves letters. Second: the dead man may have wanted some kind of revenge because Sean - the boy - tells Nicole she shouldn’t marry the new man in her life. The movie starts with a party announcing her engagement.

On paper “Birth” might have looked good but writer/director Johnathan Glazer keeps things moving at the pace of a one legged snail. I suppose he’s was trying to make the audience experience Nicole’s somnambulistic state of mind. It worked for most of the people sitting around me in the theater. Many appeared to be in a deep sleep.

THE GRUDGE - This is neither the best nor the worst of horror movies. Their are a few chills here and there but the movie has no logic. It has something to do with a horrendous crime and the revenge of a dead boy whose spirit inhabits the house where the murder of his mother occurred. According to the pre-press releases, it’s a remake of a Japanese hit called “Ju-On” (transaltion: “The Grudge”) and made by the same director. Takashi Shimuzu. Somehow remakes of foreign movies made by the same directors for U.S. audiences always lose something in the transition. “The Vanishing” from a few years ago with Jeff Bridges and Keifer Sutherland is a case in point. The original Dutch film was more frightening because of the killer’s clinical mind. The ending was more satisfying than the one concocted for the remake.

Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Jason Behr are a couple of the victims of “The Grudge” who, in typical fasion, are knocked off one by one. Bill Pullman has the best scenes dying early and coming back in Gellar’s visions to reconstruct the events leading up to the horrific murder that sets the curse in motion

HEAD IN THE CLOUDS - This has the look and feel of a great movie but the script is all wrong and Charlize Theron doesn’t fill the bill as Gilda (a paean to Rita Hayworth?) Besse. Her looks, like the sheen on the movie, is all surface gloss without much substance. You can’t blame her. She gives it her all but it’s not enough. As a free spirited child of the twenties her beauty is only matched by her libido. She’s plays an heiress - the kind that can afford to live a morally corrupt life, break her lover’s hearts and create a career for herself debt free. There’s even some S & M thrown in for good measure just to show how perverse Gilda can be. She becomes a renowned fashion photographer who shares her dual sexuality with her roomie - Penelope Cruz as a one time dancer turned stripper who longs to be a nurse. She’s also an expatriate of Spain and eventually ends up in the Spanish Civil War along with the one man -Stuart Townsend - Gilda really loves. The movie actually unfolds through his eyes as he goes globe trotting across Europe until he ends up fighting the Nazis. And when he discovers Gilda is living the high life with the occupying forces…. The end result is a bad half - good half kind of movie. Once the Nazis movie in writer/director John Duigan gives a hint at how good “Head in the Clouds” could have been.

P.S. - More like a Spring Fall affair than a May December romance, Laura Linney plays Helen Schulman, a late thirties divorcee who seduces, much to his surprise and glee, an applicant to an Art Program at Columbia University where she works. It’s very unsettling and seems somewhat implausible until we find out why she plunges headlong into his pants and he into her. ( I won’t give anything away even if other reviewers have). Needless to say, they have a torrid affair. This arouses the protective instincts of her ex-husband (Gabrielle Byrne), who has some dark secrets of his own, and the jealousy of an old girlfriend (Marcia Gay Harden) who can never resist meddling in Helen’s love life. Laura Linney displays an emotional truth throughout even when the situations she finds herself in don’t fly. Topher Grace also stands out as Scott Feinstadt the Arts applicant with a Cheshire Cat grin that says about as much about what’s going on his brain than anything he says. There is one shortcoming in “P.S.” that stands out like a sore thumb. The ethics of Ms Schulman’s seduction are never addressed given her position within the University and the power she wields in the admission process.

SAINTS AND SOLDIERS - A strong cast of unknowns, and the steady hand of novice director Ryan Little elevate this low budget factual WWII film about a makeshift squad made up of stragglers who escape the execution of their Nazi in the Ardennes Forest. The movie is at its best and most suspenseful when Little lets the action speak for itself. The mission - to deliver an intelligence report from a British paratrooper stranded with them behind enemy lines. Unfortunately, the dialogue occasionally sounds forced and out of character. The most fully realized character is Deke - as in Deacon - Based on an incident known as the Malmedy Massacre.

UNDERTOW - Some outstanding performances and hair raising scenes put “Undertow” above sea level in this Cain and Abel tale of revenge and bloodlust. Josh Lucas is downright scary as the murderous uncle, out of jail, and out to get some valuable gold coins left to his brother (Dermot Mulroney) by their father. He’ll lie cheat and kill to get them but his nephew (Jamie Bell) is too smart to let himself and his brother get caught. They take off through the Georgia backwoods making their way toward the coast with Uncle Deel in hot pursuit. Jamie Bell (“Billy Elliot”) has the Southern accent and cadences down pat. The atmosphere is supplied by writer/director David Gordon Green. It has the elements of a thriller and then some. It starts off slow and easy and then reaches for the jugular. One of the best of the low budget indies.

Copyright 2004