'Harry,' 'Betty' goose fest
Not many standouts among the pix screened so far
The competition was given an early spark by "Harry, He's Here to Help," a deliciously insidious Hitchcockian suspenser by the little-known French director Dominik Moll; "Harry' marks his his second film.
Also very well received by most critics, albeit with some minority dissent, was Neil LaBute's third picture, the darkly comic take on shifting reality, "Nurse Betty," which features a sterling lead performance by Renee Zellweger.
The Coen brothers' Depression-era comedy-drama "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" went down very easily overall, even if it was judged one of the team's more ephemeral works. The Iranian entry, 20-year-old Samira Makhmalbaf's "Blackboards," was considerably more challenging, a demanding, grim but rewarding drama of itinerant teachers' vain attempt to bring education to the nation's dangerous border area.
Jiang Wen's black-and-white Chinese World War II drama "Devils on the Doorstep" impressed a fair share of crix, particularly among the French, but many felt that, at nearly three hours, its effectiveness could be greatly aided by the services of a Warner Bros. film editor from the '40s.
Liv Ullmann's similarly lengthy "Faithless," a penetrating study of the consequences of infidelity, was a bracingly intense surprise, highlighted by a very personal script by Ingmar Bergman and a tour de force performance by Lena Enore.
At its first screening Sunday, Edward Yang's Taiwanese entry, "A One and a Two," also three hours long, was well received.
On the downside, Ken Loach's "Bread and Roses," a superficial, underscripted look at striking janitors in Los Angeles, was timely and little else. James Ivory's Henry James adaptation, "The Golden Bowl," proved to be the very definition of stuffy and stiff literary filmmaking, with a listless pace and no emotional undercurrent. And the Brazilian entry, Ruy Guerra's narrative-deprived "Turbulence," was considered a writeoff.
Out of competition, Roland Joffe's opening nighter, the period piece "Vatel," was another title for which it was difficult to find critical support. Stephen Hopkins' suspenser "Under Suspicion" was also an underachiever. David A. Stewart's gender-bending actioner "Honest" was fun for some and disposable for others, and "Mission to Mars" made its Euro debut in the Official Selection as well.
Little has emerged decisively from other fest categories thus far.
In the International Critics Week, Jung Ji-woo's "Happy End" was embraced as another strong title from South Korea, while in the Directors Fortnight, Karim Dridi's semi-docu "Cuba Feliz" could carve out a career due to heavy international interest in Cuban music.
