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Reviews
The Portrait of a Lady (1996)
A cold film, lacking the novel's passion
This film is well-made, but there is a severity or coldness about it which is false to the temperament of the novel by Henry James on which it is based. Not so much in the portrayal of Gilbert Osmund by John Malkovich (although he brings to it his trademark air of sick malevolence, it seems excessive, not quite in key, even for the evil Gilbert Osmund), but very much so in the manner in which the heroine, Isabel Archer, is represented. In the novel she is a creature of passion; in the film, she is quite rightly adrift (true to the original) but altogether too much in the manner of an iceberg off the English coast rather than as an American "jeune fille" in sunny Italy. What passion she is given has a tortuous, fantastic character, represented by skewed hallucinations rather than by the robust erotic musings of innocent naiveté.
Consequently, the movie ambles along, technically perfect but ultimately boring. Characters who appear to be bored and indifferent to their own lives not surprisingly fail to rouse in the audience any compensating interest. Ironically, it is given to the veteran actor John Gielgud (albeit perhaps unwittingly) to pronounce judgment upon this film in his character's dying scene: as Isabel fixes upon him an intent gaze, rapt with the serious business of grasping to her bosom a pearl of wisdom from this aged man poised on the brink of his ultimate odyssey, Gielgud emits as his final word-to-the-wise an elaborate yawn. In this curious version of James's energetic novel even death is a bore.
Drift (2000)
Leaves a Lasting Impression
While yet a young man still gaining experience through his own relationships, Quentin Lee has managed to produce a drama that explores the many subtleties and conflicting possibilities of relationships with the insight of someone twice his age. As an older gay male in a long-term committed relationship, I particularly appreciated Lee's mature take on the interplay between every young gay man's deep desire for a "perfect" relationship and the (maturer) realization that (perhaps) perfection lies in working on one's existing relationship. Yet--another sign of the film's maturity--this conclusion is not dictated, but merely suggested as one of several possible outcomes. As others have noted, the film is slow at first to engage the viewer, but once it does it will leave a lasting impression.
Naked Boys Singing! (2007)
Not the best version
This show has been performed live around the country with a wide variety of casts. I saw it first in the Provincetown production the first summer it was in P-town (2001)--before it was, curiously enough, banned in that overwhelmingly gay resort (the codes which resulted in its closing have since been amended). I saw it again later in the off-Broadway, long-running production in New York. Oddly enough, the P-town production was far better than the New York one--fresher, cuter, more spirited and funnier--but that was only in the 2001 showing; subsequent attempts to clone the production ("Bare Naked Lads" in 2007) were definitely third-rate. This filmed production features a Los Angelos production cast, and it is, as other comments have suggested, not the best. I would rate it somewhere in between the top-notch 2001 P-town production and the third-rate "Bare Naked Lads" P-town show from last summer.