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Celebrity
***1/2
Cinema
Releases - June 11, 1999
Rated on a 4-star
scale. USA. Written and directed by Woody Allen. Starring Kenneth Branagh,
Judy Davis, Melanie Griffith, Leonardo DiCaprio, Famke Janssen, Michael Lerner,
Joe Mantegna, Bebe Neuwirth, Charlize Theron, Winona
Ryder.
British movie release schedules are an embarrassment,
when much of my readership is American, and I have to give them reviews of
films that are old news. A fair number of items don't arrive here too late,
but consider the work of Woody Allen -- perhaps the greatest working director
-- whose pictures arrive this side of the Atlantic approximately a year after
they get to the USA. Frustrating.
Allen's "Celebrity", which Brits
can now finally see, stars Kenneth Branagh as Lee Simon, a jittery, neurotic,
thirtysomething writer whose wife (Judy Davis) has left him and started a
rival career. As Lee, the kind of character Woody himself would normally
play, whines about his ongoing divorce, he moves in and out of relationships
with women too young and beautiful for him, pesters celebrities for interviews
and asks everyone to read his new screenplay or contemplate his unfinished
novel.
Allen's films rarely depend on plot, but the above
is still thin. Even the abstract noun of the title isn't too consistent an
issue in "Celebrity", because while there are witty offerings on the matter,
there aren't enough to base a movie on, and there's nothing too meaningful
said in them anyway. When we stop and think about this movie, it's beset
by problems -- aside from the lack of passion regarding the alleged main
theme, there isn't anything amazing about the individual stories of the estranged
husband and wife. Scenes are not directed with Allen's usual breathless energy,
and indeed when characters talk fast, they seem oddly out of place. There
isn't the excited sense of comical discovery that's been present in the inventive
recent Woody movies "Deconstructing Harry", "Everyone Says I Love You" and
"Bullets Over Broadway".
The piece is carried well, however, by Branagh,
who pulls off the Woody Allen screen persona surprisingly well, convincingly
making it his own. And unlike "Stardust Memories" and "Broadway Danny Rose",
this movie's mishmash of themes and plot twists doesn't impede the atmosphere.
We can soak up the sizzling dialogue, appreciate the inevitable moments of
greatness, smile at the A-list cameos. "Celebrity" is messy, but it's the
endearing mess of a charming genius.
COPYRIGHT©
1999 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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