Cast:
Antonio Banderas... ...Luis Antonio Vargas
Angelina Jolie... ...Julia Russell
Thomas Jane... ...Walter Downs
Jack Thompson... ...Alan Jordan
Gregory Itzin... ...Colonel Worth
Allison Mackie... ...Augusta Jordan
Joan Pringle... ...Sara
Cordelia Richards... ...Emily Russell
Directed by: Michael Cristofer
Written by: Michael Cristofer, Based on the novel "Waltz
Into Darkness" by Cornell Woolrich
Rated PG-13 for strong sexual content and some violence
Running Time: 1 hour, 56 minutes
Thou Shalt Not Marry
Based on Cornell Woolrich's marvelously titled book "Waltz
Into Darkness," Pulitzer Prize-winning writer/director
Michael Cristofer's "Original Sin" is a movie that
teeters on the embankment of ludicrousness, which is probably
the best place for a movie like this to be. The film is one
of those deliriously trashy stories involving sex, betrayal,
murder, and contains individuals caught in their own respective
webs of corruption. The experience is fun for a while until
the realization begins to sink in ... that there just isn't
a character for which an audience memeber can cheer. It does
what it can for as long as it can, but eventually - perhaps
inevitably - it lost my interest.
Luis Vargas
(Antonio Banderas) is a handsome and seemingly mild-mannered
Cuban businessman. The pragmatic entrepreneur has everything
... except a wife. His mercantile mentality stretches into
his personal life, as he figures the best way to marry without
the complication of love would be to obtain an American mail-order
bride. As the story opens, he is headed to meet the woman
who he feels will make his life complete. Her name is Julia
Russell (Angelina Jolie) and her face doesn't match the picture
sent to Luis. She offers an acceptable reason, and his initial
suspicions are dropped.
But the
audience senses something Luis strangely does not: that there
may be more to Julia than meets his pleased eye. We learn
that many of her stories are fabrications, she has odd recurring
nightmares, in the corner of her room is a trunk she absolutely
refuses to unlatch, and she opts against writing her deeply
concerned sister. Perhaps his apparent inability to question
is due to the fact that he's smitten with her and wants to
give her everything. It looks as though his new wife will
beat him to the punch, as she has her own hidden agenda. Upon
realization that the love of his life has skipped out with
all his money, Luis becomes enraged and embarks on a mission
to find and kill her. He is aided by a private investigator
(Thomas Jane) hired by Julia's worried sister. Will he actually
go through with the murder once he locates her, or will he
be seductively drawn into her game of corruption?
Jolie
and Banderas have the toughest assignments in a movie of this
sort, I think. They have to convey their characters' continuously
altering emotions as dictated by the curves in the film's
serpentine screenplay. Jolie handles the daunting complexities
a little better than Banderas, whose personality changes are
at times a bit abrupt. (He goes from an relatively distant
businessman to an obsessed husband - "Who was that man?
WHO WAS THAT MAN!" - a little too easily.) Given the
intricacies of the plot, they do an admirable job of expressing
the evolving emotions bred from each one's growing obsession.
I suppose
it's a tribute to writer/director Cristofer that the movie
stays interesting for as long as it does. He realizes the
nature of this kind of storytelling, and doesn't try to make
it into anything more than the sum of its engagingly trashy
parts. He seems to relish scenes where the camera looks down
from the bedroom ceiling as Luis and Julia test the facets
of lovemaking positions, or scenes that utilize jump cut editing
to give the film a furious, choppy feel.
However,
effects of the sort only go so far. Trying to spot the plot
twists becomes laborious and the film is ultimately drained
of any real impact in the final act. I don't mind movies that
lack a sense of grandeur, but my interest really shouldn't
go out the same window, regardless of the subject matter.
Copyright 2001 Michael Brendan McLarney
Critically
Ill
|