The Miracle Mile
Movies
The Green Mile
(Warner Bros.). The critics render a
split verdict on Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont's
three-hour adaptation of Stephen King's serial novel. The film chronicles the
time served on death row by a massive, simple, and saintly black man (Michael
Duncan) convicted of molesting and murdering two young girls, as well as his
relationship with his white jailer, played by Tom Hanks. Some are moved by the
film's themes of redemption and spirituality; Roger Ebert says it's full of
"vivid characters, humor, outrage and emotional release" (the Chicago
Sun-Times ). Less kind reviews note the "inadvertently racist overtones" of
the relationship between Hanks and Duncan (Janet Maslin, the New York
Times ) and say the movie has the "suffocating deliberateness of a river of
molasses" (Kenneth Turan, the Los Angeles Times ). (David Edelstein the
movie in
Slate
: "not all of the movie is melodramatic,
pseudo-mystical drivel--only about two hours and 15 minutes.")
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo
(Buena Vista Pictures).
Not surprisingly, a slew of bad reviews for this bottom-feeding comedy about a
fish tank cleaner who falls into the gigolo business by accident: "Among
devotees of comedy, Deuce Bigalow is for the undemanding" (Lawrence Van
Gelder, the New York Times ). Some go so far as to insult the cast,
calling star Rob Schneider "a runty fellow of no particular talent" (Susan
Wloszczyna, USA Today ). One reviewer pipes up in the movie's defense,
calling Deuce "an hour-and-a-half goof on kinky sex, bathroom humor and
inner happiness … a considerable cut above the crop of recent features by other
SNL alums" (which is not saying much) and that it's "funnier than it
deserves to be, not to mention rather sweet in a sophomoric,
manwhore-with-a-heart-of-gold kind of way" (Michael O'Sullivan, the
Washington Post ). (Click here to find out more about Rob Schneider.)
Book
Hillary's Choice
, by Gail Sheehy (Random House).
Sheehy's psychological biography of the first lady is deemed old news by the
critics ("compartmentalization, the need of children of alcoholics to please
and Hillary the enabler, who feels closest to Bill when she's saving him from
impending disaster") that will be of use only as a "compendium of all the
previous reporting on the Clintons' marriage" for "people who have been trapped
in a mine for the last few years" (Gail Collins, the New York Times Book
Review ). The Washington Post 's "Reliable Source" column has had a
field day pointing out factual errors in the book over the past few weeks.
Although Sheehy has a weakness for writing about "how our leaders feel, not
what they stand for or what might become of them or even what we should think
about the things they do," the book has one point in its favor: It has the
irresistible pull of "good local gossip" (Judith Shulevitz,
Slate
). (Click here to read the first chapter and to read the rest of
Shulevitz's review in
Slate
.)
Death
Joseph
Heller (1923-1999). The author of Catch-22 died of a heart
attack Sunday. Best known for his absurdist treatment of World War II, Heller
published six novels as well as plays, screenplays, and TV comedy. Although
Catch-22 received mixed reviews when first published, it eventually sold
more than 10 million copies in the United States and "enriched the American
lexicon with its title slogan and its new definition of absurdity" (Elaine Woo,
the Los Angeles Times ). Heller's seventh novel, Portrait of an Artist
as an Old Man , was completed just before his death and will be published
next year. (Click here to visit the New York Times ' special section on
Heller, which includes the original reviews of his novels and plays,
interviews, and other information on the author.)
