Just when it seemed every romantic comedy was manufactured with a cookie-cutter sameness, along comes playwright Wendy Wasserstein ("The Sisters Rosensweig", "The Heidi Chronicles") and British director Nicholas Hytner ("The Madness of King George") to shake things up a little.
Their refreshingly grown-up collaboration, "The Object of My Affection", is something of a grounded flip side to "My Best Friend's Wedding". Only here, the acerbic gay best friend hasn't been neutered for mass-audience consumption.
While the result makes for a considerably less-than-mainstream proposition and the picture's first half has pacing problems, the consistently smart writing and terrific performances should generate some enthusiastic word-of-mouth, at least in big-city markets.
Based on a novel by Stephen McCauley, the film has changed the first-person male point of view to that of Nina Borowski (Jennifer Aniston), a Brooklyn social worker who offers her spare room to George Hanson (Paul Rudd), a schoolteacher about to be unceremoniously dumped by his smarmy college professor boyfriend, Dr. Joley (Tim Daly).
The fact that Nina and George get along famously doesn't sit quite well with her brash, civil liberties lawyer boyfriend, Vince (John Pankow), especially when she finds out she's pregnant with his child but announces she'd rather have George (with whom she's become smitten) help her raise the baby.
Initially tickled by the idea, George is subsequently faced with making a tough decision when he meets Paul (Amo Gulinello), the very young roommate of a much older theater critic (the always on-the-money Nigel Hawthorne).
A little too heavy on the dramatic element to be labeled a true romantic comedy, "The Object of My Affection" tends to derive its humor from dialogue rather than situation. Although Wasserstein's way with words is always welcome, the film could have benefited from a bit more of the latter.
Still, Hytner's direction is never less than involving, and his cast is uniformly wonderful. Aniston's never been better than as the vulnerable but determined Nina, while Rudd's conflicted George rings three-dimensionally true. Both leads remain appealingly cute without becoming cutesy.
Among the rich support work, Pankow (Cousin Ira on "Mad About You") also manages to tread a fine line between being outspoken and obnoxious; Hawthorne brings a finely tuned wit and grace to his role of the chastened father figure; and Allison Janney (the scene-stealing stumbler in "Primary Colors") and Alan Alda are a blast as Aniston's snooty matchmaking sister and her name-dropping, literary agent husband.
Fine, too, are Daly as Rudd's full-of-himself former flame and Gulinello as the spirited new guy in Rudd's life. As an inside joke for stage buffs, Daly and Hawthorne are joined in a panel discussion putting down contemporary theater by real-life leading lights Alfred Uhry, Christopher Durang and Michael Weller, among others.
THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION
20th Century Fox
A Laurence Mark production
A Nicholas Hytner film
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Producer: Laurence Mark
Screenwriter: Wendy Wasserstein
Based on the novel by: Stephen McCauley
Director of photography: Oliver Stapleton
Production designer: Jane Musky
Editor: Tariq Anwar
Costume designer: John Dunn
Music: George Fenton
Music supervisor: Alex Steyermark
Casting: Daniel Swee
Color/stereo
Cast:
Nina Borowski: Jennifer Aniston
George Hanson: Paul Rudd
Vince McBride: John Pankow
Sidney Miller: Alan Alda
Dr. Robert Joley: Tim Daly
Rodney Fraser: Nigel Hawthorne
Constance Miller: Allison Janney
Paul James: Amo Gulinello
Running time - 112 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Their refreshingly grown-up collaboration, "The Object of My Affection", is something of a grounded flip side to "My Best Friend's Wedding". Only here, the acerbic gay best friend hasn't been neutered for mass-audience consumption.
While the result makes for a considerably less-than-mainstream proposition and the picture's first half has pacing problems, the consistently smart writing and terrific performances should generate some enthusiastic word-of-mouth, at least in big-city markets.
Based on a novel by Stephen McCauley, the film has changed the first-person male point of view to that of Nina Borowski (Jennifer Aniston), a Brooklyn social worker who offers her spare room to George Hanson (Paul Rudd), a schoolteacher about to be unceremoniously dumped by his smarmy college professor boyfriend, Dr. Joley (Tim Daly).
The fact that Nina and George get along famously doesn't sit quite well with her brash, civil liberties lawyer boyfriend, Vince (John Pankow), especially when she finds out she's pregnant with his child but announces she'd rather have George (with whom she's become smitten) help her raise the baby.
Initially tickled by the idea, George is subsequently faced with making a tough decision when he meets Paul (Amo Gulinello), the very young roommate of a much older theater critic (the always on-the-money Nigel Hawthorne).
A little too heavy on the dramatic element to be labeled a true romantic comedy, "The Object of My Affection" tends to derive its humor from dialogue rather than situation. Although Wasserstein's way with words is always welcome, the film could have benefited from a bit more of the latter.
Still, Hytner's direction is never less than involving, and his cast is uniformly wonderful. Aniston's never been better than as the vulnerable but determined Nina, while Rudd's conflicted George rings three-dimensionally true. Both leads remain appealingly cute without becoming cutesy.
Among the rich support work, Pankow (Cousin Ira on "Mad About You") also manages to tread a fine line between being outspoken and obnoxious; Hawthorne brings a finely tuned wit and grace to his role of the chastened father figure; and Allison Janney (the scene-stealing stumbler in "Primary Colors") and Alan Alda are a blast as Aniston's snooty matchmaking sister and her name-dropping, literary agent husband.
Fine, too, are Daly as Rudd's full-of-himself former flame and Gulinello as the spirited new guy in Rudd's life. As an inside joke for stage buffs, Daly and Hawthorne are joined in a panel discussion putting down contemporary theater by real-life leading lights Alfred Uhry, Christopher Durang and Michael Weller, among others.
THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION
20th Century Fox
A Laurence Mark production
A Nicholas Hytner film
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Producer: Laurence Mark
Screenwriter: Wendy Wasserstein
Based on the novel by: Stephen McCauley
Director of photography: Oliver Stapleton
Production designer: Jane Musky
Editor: Tariq Anwar
Costume designer: John Dunn
Music: George Fenton
Music supervisor: Alex Steyermark
Casting: Daniel Swee
Color/stereo
Cast:
Nina Borowski: Jennifer Aniston
George Hanson: Paul Rudd
Vince McBride: John Pankow
Sidney Miller: Alan Alda
Dr. Robert Joley: Tim Daly
Rodney Fraser: Nigel Hawthorne
Constance Miller: Allison Janney
Paul James: Amo Gulinello
Running time - 112 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 4/13/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The talented horror veterans George Romero and Dario Argento each contribute an adaptation of an Edgar Alan Poe story to the feature-length ''Two Evil Eyes.'' Although the results are not the best of either filmmaker's work, each manages to bend his material to his own ghoulish taste, and the outcome makes for an entertaining outing. Boxoffice prospects, if not overwhelming, should be similarly -- and seasonally -- satisfactory.
Romero has updated ''The Curious Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar, '' Poe's tale of a man who remains under hypnosis after he is dead. Valdemar (Bingo O'Malley) is a rich recluse whose estate is looted by his wife, Jessica (Adrienne Barbeau), as he lies on his deathbed.
Jessica and her lover, Dr. Robert Hoffman (Ramy Zada), have hypnotized The Old Man into signing away his millions. But after he dies and is stored away in a basement freezer, Valdemar begins moaning about beings on the other side who wish to use him to cross over.
Like his ''Creepshow'' screen anecdotes, Romero's 55-minute tale leans mightily on a twist ending, but the filmmaker also manages, in his portrayal of the hateful bickering between Jessica and the doctor, to interject his familiar musings on the relative merits of the living and the dead.
Poe's ''The Black Cat'' is about a man who walls up a hated feline with the remains of his murdered wife, but the subject seems to be insufficiently gory for Italian horror maestro Argento. He turns his protagonist, Rod Usher (Harvey Keitel), into a crime photographer specializing in gruesome killings. This permits him to begin his 65-minute sequence with a shot of the bisected corpse of a naked woman, thus keeping his bloodthirst in check for most of the action.
Argento marshals his usual collection of Steadicam and oddball point-of-view shots, so we get to view the action not just from a cat's perspective, but also from that of a corpse about to be plunged into a bath. The camera thus adorns the story of a man driven wild by a malevolent cat and the fearful fantasies it inspires about his violin-teaching, live-in girlfriend Annabelle (Madeleine Potter).
The latter provides the opportunity for the resourceful Argento to stage a dream sequence about a medieval auto-da-fe, and it is this sense of elegant excess that, as with any Argento exercise, gives the film its vitality.
Both features contain some character work from familiar names and faces, including E.G. Marshall and Tom Atkins in Romero's segment, and John Amos, Martin Balsam and Kim Hunter in Argento's.
The print screened at a local theater for purposes of this review was in bad enough shape to make a judgment on cinematography impossible, and the sound mix in general was a little ragged. However, this Pittsburgh-lensed production did not lack for atmospheric sets, and the makeup effects by Tom Savini Ltd., though closely rationed, were up to, if you'll pardon the expression, snuff.
TWO EVIL EYES
Taurus Entertainment
A Heron Communications Presentation of a ADC/Gruppo Bema Production
Producers Achille Manzotti, Dario Argento
Music Pino Donaggio
THE CURIOUS FACTS IN THE CASE OF MR. VALDEMAR
Writer-director George Romero
Director of photography Peter Reniers
Starring: Bingo O'Malley, Adrienne Barbeau, Ramy Zada
THE BLACK CAT
Director Dario Argento
Writers Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini
Director of photography Beppe Maccari
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Madeleine Potter
Color/Dolby
Running time -- 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
Romero has updated ''The Curious Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar, '' Poe's tale of a man who remains under hypnosis after he is dead. Valdemar (Bingo O'Malley) is a rich recluse whose estate is looted by his wife, Jessica (Adrienne Barbeau), as he lies on his deathbed.
Jessica and her lover, Dr. Robert Hoffman (Ramy Zada), have hypnotized The Old Man into signing away his millions. But after he dies and is stored away in a basement freezer, Valdemar begins moaning about beings on the other side who wish to use him to cross over.
Like his ''Creepshow'' screen anecdotes, Romero's 55-minute tale leans mightily on a twist ending, but the filmmaker also manages, in his portrayal of the hateful bickering between Jessica and the doctor, to interject his familiar musings on the relative merits of the living and the dead.
Poe's ''The Black Cat'' is about a man who walls up a hated feline with the remains of his murdered wife, but the subject seems to be insufficiently gory for Italian horror maestro Argento. He turns his protagonist, Rod Usher (Harvey Keitel), into a crime photographer specializing in gruesome killings. This permits him to begin his 65-minute sequence with a shot of the bisected corpse of a naked woman, thus keeping his bloodthirst in check for most of the action.
Argento marshals his usual collection of Steadicam and oddball point-of-view shots, so we get to view the action not just from a cat's perspective, but also from that of a corpse about to be plunged into a bath. The camera thus adorns the story of a man driven wild by a malevolent cat and the fearful fantasies it inspires about his violin-teaching, live-in girlfriend Annabelle (Madeleine Potter).
The latter provides the opportunity for the resourceful Argento to stage a dream sequence about a medieval auto-da-fe, and it is this sense of elegant excess that, as with any Argento exercise, gives the film its vitality.
Both features contain some character work from familiar names and faces, including E.G. Marshall and Tom Atkins in Romero's segment, and John Amos, Martin Balsam and Kim Hunter in Argento's.
The print screened at a local theater for purposes of this review was in bad enough shape to make a judgment on cinematography impossible, and the sound mix in general was a little ragged. However, this Pittsburgh-lensed production did not lack for atmospheric sets, and the makeup effects by Tom Savini Ltd., though closely rationed, were up to, if you'll pardon the expression, snuff.
TWO EVIL EYES
Taurus Entertainment
A Heron Communications Presentation of a ADC/Gruppo Bema Production
Producers Achille Manzotti, Dario Argento
Music Pino Donaggio
THE CURIOUS FACTS IN THE CASE OF MR. VALDEMAR
Writer-director George Romero
Director of photography Peter Reniers
Starring: Bingo O'Malley, Adrienne Barbeau, Ramy Zada
THE BLACK CAT
Director Dario Argento
Writers Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini
Director of photography Beppe Maccari
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Madeleine Potter
Color/Dolby
Running time -- 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 10/28/1991
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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