PARK CITY, Utah -- Terrence McNally's Tony Award-winning play, "Love! Valour! Compassion!," depicting the gay middle-class, has opened on the screen. Unfortunately, it has not been opened up for the screen but seems framed solidly beneath the proscenium arch. Nevertheless, this Fine Line release boasts a talented cast and will perhaps reach new fans who have not caught its big-city runs.
As New York audiences know, and Los Angeles audiences are currently learning, the story focuses on a circle of eight gay male friends and their weekend in the country. Actually, it's three weekends in the country here as the scenario runs the summer-holiday weekend season of Memorial Day/Fourth of July/Labor Day. In McNally's brainy and witty story line, the friends congregate at Gregory's (Stephen Bogardus) lakefront home, an inviting Victorian that, although fussily outfitted, is a warm cocoon for the guys. For those not familiar with the play, the menfolk are a diverse lot, temperamentally as well as professionally.
As in any gathering, it's usually the most flamboyant members who, as we get to learn more about them, are the most vulnerable. In this case, the eye-catchers are Buzz (Jason Alexander), a Broadway musical buff whose constant witticisms and pronouncements lead us to suspect that his happy hysterics mask far less happier truths. On the dispositional opposite end from Buzz, way down the grouch meter, is John (John Glover), a haughty and pompous composer whose sour asides and judgmental glower dampen everyone's spirit.
Without further delineating the plot, suffice it to say that what the plot does not necessarily thicken, it spreads, genuflects, saddens, alights, pouts, reconciles and curls around.
Perhaps the most striking addition that this filmic visualization makes to the stage play is the stunningly sunny lakeside setting. The natural beauty of the setting is a fitting corollary for the men's friendship and, alas, also a sobering counterpoint for the unspoken thoughts on everyone's mind -- AIDS. Director Joe Mantello sensitively swathes the storyline with images of the pristine beauty of nature, and this truly does "open" it from the play. However, discussions are statically shot and visualizations are medium-shot -- boring.
Mantello never fully uses the power of the camera to add perspective or provide insight, nor does he utilize the rhythm of the cut to propel the production beyond a standard, dramatic two-step.
The highlights of "Love! Valour! Compassion!" are the layered, revealing performances. As the bawdy but brittle Buzz, Alexander is a treat. He's the life of the party and, ultimately, the character who most touches our hearts. Glover is marvelously formidable as the towering composer and does double duty by limning the musician's dying brother from England. John Benjamin Hickey and Stephen Spinella are aptly solid as the dull, gray suits of the group.
Technically, the film is at its best in its design. Praise to production designer Francois Seguin for the neo-Victorian look and to costume designer Jess Goldstein for the array of personal colors that catch one's eye in the characters' outfittings.
LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!
Fine Line Features
Producers Doug Chapin, Barry Krost
Director Joe Mantello
Executive producers Ruth Vitale,
Jonathan Weisgal, Amy Labowitz
Line producer Diane Conn
Screenwriter-playwright Terrence McNally
Director of photography Alik Sakharov
Editor Colleen Sharp
Production designer Francois Seguin
Music supervisor Jackie Krost
Music Harold Wheeler
Costume designer Jess Goldstein
Choreographer John Carrafa
Color/stereo
Cast:
Buzz Hauser Jason Alexander
Ramon Fornos Randy Becker
Gregory Mitchell Stephen Bogardus
John & James Jeckyll John Glover
Arthur Paper John Benjamin Hickey
Bobby Brahams Justin Kirk
Perry Sellars Stephen Spinella
Running time -- 115 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
As New York audiences know, and Los Angeles audiences are currently learning, the story focuses on a circle of eight gay male friends and their weekend in the country. Actually, it's three weekends in the country here as the scenario runs the summer-holiday weekend season of Memorial Day/Fourth of July/Labor Day. In McNally's brainy and witty story line, the friends congregate at Gregory's (Stephen Bogardus) lakefront home, an inviting Victorian that, although fussily outfitted, is a warm cocoon for the guys. For those not familiar with the play, the menfolk are a diverse lot, temperamentally as well as professionally.
As in any gathering, it's usually the most flamboyant members who, as we get to learn more about them, are the most vulnerable. In this case, the eye-catchers are Buzz (Jason Alexander), a Broadway musical buff whose constant witticisms and pronouncements lead us to suspect that his happy hysterics mask far less happier truths. On the dispositional opposite end from Buzz, way down the grouch meter, is John (John Glover), a haughty and pompous composer whose sour asides and judgmental glower dampen everyone's spirit.
Without further delineating the plot, suffice it to say that what the plot does not necessarily thicken, it spreads, genuflects, saddens, alights, pouts, reconciles and curls around.
Perhaps the most striking addition that this filmic visualization makes to the stage play is the stunningly sunny lakeside setting. The natural beauty of the setting is a fitting corollary for the men's friendship and, alas, also a sobering counterpoint for the unspoken thoughts on everyone's mind -- AIDS. Director Joe Mantello sensitively swathes the storyline with images of the pristine beauty of nature, and this truly does "open" it from the play. However, discussions are statically shot and visualizations are medium-shot -- boring.
Mantello never fully uses the power of the camera to add perspective or provide insight, nor does he utilize the rhythm of the cut to propel the production beyond a standard, dramatic two-step.
The highlights of "Love! Valour! Compassion!" are the layered, revealing performances. As the bawdy but brittle Buzz, Alexander is a treat. He's the life of the party and, ultimately, the character who most touches our hearts. Glover is marvelously formidable as the towering composer and does double duty by limning the musician's dying brother from England. John Benjamin Hickey and Stephen Spinella are aptly solid as the dull, gray suits of the group.
Technically, the film is at its best in its design. Praise to production designer Francois Seguin for the neo-Victorian look and to costume designer Jess Goldstein for the array of personal colors that catch one's eye in the characters' outfittings.
LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!
Fine Line Features
Producers Doug Chapin, Barry Krost
Director Joe Mantello
Executive producers Ruth Vitale,
Jonathan Weisgal, Amy Labowitz
Line producer Diane Conn
Screenwriter-playwright Terrence McNally
Director of photography Alik Sakharov
Editor Colleen Sharp
Production designer Francois Seguin
Music supervisor Jackie Krost
Music Harold Wheeler
Costume designer Jess Goldstein
Choreographer John Carrafa
Color/stereo
Cast:
Buzz Hauser Jason Alexander
Ramon Fornos Randy Becker
Gregory Mitchell Stephen Bogardus
John & James Jeckyll John Glover
Arthur Paper John Benjamin Hickey
Bobby Brahams Justin Kirk
Perry Sellars Stephen Spinella
Running time -- 115 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 1/27/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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