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Reviews
EDtv (1999)
mediocre "Truman" rehash
"EDtv" is "The Truman Show" lite. A product of the mass-media culture it pretends to abhor, it raises the same questions about media inundation and the decay of privacy, but with none of "Truman's" ingenuity. "Truman" challenged the audience, while "EDtv" panders to the easily entertained.
Like "Truman," the main character is a man whose entire life is broadcast on television; the only difference is that Ed knows it. In fact, he dimwittedly signs a contract allowing a film crew to document his every move.
All of the clever wrinkles that made "Truman" one of 1998's very best films have been ironed out of "EDtv" for the sake of mass appeal. Instead of Peter Weir, the Australian auteur who has puzzled and provoked audiences with daring films like "Fearless," "EDtv" offers Ron Howard, the Hollywood pro who puts no personal stamp on his movies. Instead of Jim Carrey defying expectations and expanding his range in a brave dramatic performance, "EDtv" gives us Matthew McConaughey doing what he does best, the only thing he *can* do: being Matthew McConaughey. Like "Truman," "EDtv" features cutaways to loyal viewers, but unlike the delightfully quirky collection of Truman-philes, Ed's fans consist of a politically correct cross-section of America--an African American couple, a gay couple, a trio of Latino chefs, and a dormful of girls at the University of Iowa.
What's worse, "EDtv" offers no subtext. "Truman" was a multi-layered film: Aside from commenting on the power of television to shape our views and dominate our lives, it also explored humankind's relation to God (if there is one) and questioned the implications of living in a created universe. "EDtv" contains nothing beneath its explicit surface message: that the phenomena of instant celebrity and the destruction of privacy are B-A-D T-H-I-N-G-S.
Ultimately, the film fails to engage the viewer. Howard's slick direction and McConaughey's superficial acting turn Ed into little more than a genial presence on the screen. Some viewers may care about what befalls him, but I wanted to grab the remote.
Restoration (1995)
Great costumes but little else
If sets and costumes were all it took to make a movie, "Restoration" would certainly be considered an all-time great. Unfortunately the filmmakers did not pay as much attention to the script and the casting as they did to their lavish recreation of the court of Charles II. Behind the frills of foppery at its most extravagant, the film is little more than an old melodramatic formula: gifted man falls victim to debauchery and loses his talent, only to rediscover it after a series of tribulations. The film is so overplotted that each scene introduces a crucial dilemma, leaving little room for character development. And yet the stolid camerawork makes things feel rather slow.
"Restoration" also features the most bizarre casting of any English period drama I've ever seen. The problem: Practically nobody's English! Instead we have Sam Neill, who's clueless in the role of King Charles; you'll wonder, how exactly did this wooden, charmless man seduce all those women? Meg Ryan is at her most ridiculous as an Irish woman driven to insanity by the loss of her family; cute as Ryan is, she's an actress with an extremely limited range. Robert Downey Jr. as the hero manages an amusingly off-beat performance, but the script puts him through such extremes of emotion in such short periods of time that he's forced to underplay. I can't argue with its Academy Awards for costumes and art direction, but as a movie, "Restoration" is the equivalent of an expensive wig.
Chinatown (1974)
The greatest!
Having just viewed "Chinatown" for the second time, I can call it quite possibly the greatest film ever made--a model of cinematic perfection that may have never been equalled, at least as far as I have seen. It took a brazenly ambitious concept--a film noir in color--and pulled it off masterfully, managing to incorporate sunlight into the noir milieu and creating a palette that reflected the parched, burned-out atmosphere. And unlike many old noirs, it does not compromise its mood with a ridiculous happy ending, but rather one that completes its gloomy, desperate vision in a setting that makes perfect thematic sense. The script, the acting, the music, the costumes--along with Polanski's direction these mesh perfectly together to create a whole and coherent artistic vision. A masterpiece.