Movie Review: Wild Mountain Thyme (2020)

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While intellectually, I know that I saw several films in the theater before this one, for whatever reason, the movie-going memory that's seared into my brain as the first live-action feature that I ever saw is from 1987.

Following a busy morning running errands, as three generations of Italian-American women – a fact that would only become significant with time and understanding – I accompanied my mother and grandmother to a matinee screening of “Moonstruck” when I was six-years-old. Although it didn't mean that much to me as a first grader and my love for the film would grow exponentially over the years, I have a vivid memory of not only the uproarious laughter that filled the theater but also the overwhelming interest and focus that seemed to reach a fever pitch whenever the instantly magnetic Nicolas Cage hit the screen.

Years later, I jokingly began to blame the film, which has since become one of my favorites, for my obsession with character actors like Cage, and of course, my unrivaled love of epic monologues, like the ones which were penned in the film by the Oscar, Tony, and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer John Patrick Shanley. Shanley, who had already written the terrifically underrated film “Five Corners” would follow up the smash hit “Moonstruck” with decades of unpredictable work for both the stage and screen, including two directorial efforts with the cult comedy “Joe Versus the Volcano” in 1990 and 2008's controversial conversation starter “Doubt,” which he adapted from his play.

Shanley's third time at bat as a filmmaker arrives this week with “Wild Mountain Thyme,” which, like “Doubt,” first got its start on the New York stage. Described by Shanley as the most pleasurable experience that he'd ever had as a writer, “Outside Mullingar,” was inspired by his own family's Irish roots following a life-changing trip to his ancestral home in Ireland as an adult. 

A love story about two lonely, eccentric thirty-somethings living next door to one another in the Irish countryside, “Thyme” introduces us to the headstrong Rosemary Muldoon (a divine Emily Blunt) who has spent more than twenty years pining for her sweet yet shy neighbor Anthony Reilly (Jamie Dornan). Hoping that when his father Tony (Christopher Walken) leaves the family farm to him that he'll finally get the courage to propose so that they can start their life together, after Tony announces his intent to sell the farm to his wealthy American nephew Adam (Jon Hamm), decades worth of family drama and pent up romantic frustration come to a head.

On the surface, of course, “Wild Mountain Thyme” finds Shanley back in his “Moonstruck” sweet spot spinning multigenerational, slightly mythic yarns about love, family, and the way that both can throw a wrench into your best-made plans. Unfortunately, however, that's where the similarities between the two romances end, at least in terms of their overall quality. As awkwardly cumbersome as “Moonstruck” was smooth and free-flowing, although “Thyme” is filled with his trademark memorable speeches and pithy lines, there is something utterly laborious and exhausting about the way that it is all presented.

Opening with a fast-paced flashback meant to establish Rosemary's love for Anthony that doesn't get the gravitas or the screentime it needs to truly invest us in her plight, “Thyme” further steamrolls viewers by launching us into the middle of a debate with huge stakes for the characters before we clearly understand just who exactly everyone is and what's really going on. A film that seems to begin in the middle and then back up and change course altogether when suddenly Jon Hamm arrives like a cool breeze from what feels like an entirely different movie, although “The Prince of Tides” and “Closer” cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt's lush photography of west Ireland's County Mayo is warm and inviting, there isn't a lot about “Thyme” that's worth recommending. 

Featuring another epic “Moonstruck” level moment of musical theater derived intertextuality as not the glorious opera “La Boheme” this time but the classical ballet “Swan Lake” becomes the touchstone for our feisty heroine, Emily Blunt is clearly up to the task of bringing one of Shanley's great, complicated, middle-aged women looking for love to life. And indeed, Blunt is “Thyme”'s great shining light to the point that scenes not featuring the actress tend to drag. Shockingly, we feel this most when the usually reliable Christopher Walken and Jamie Dornan try to generate our interest in a contentious but loving father-son dynamic that plays as though the film's most important scenes necessary to understanding their relationship have been left on the cutting room floor.

It's a major disappointment given the level of the talent involved and how much I was rooting for the film, especially since we have a noted deficit in modern filmmaking when it comes to sophisticated romcoms for adults. And while it works as a passably average travelogue of Ireland, complete with a few musical moments featuring Emily Blunt, as a film in its own right (and even without my cherished memory of “Moonstruck”) when compared to the rest of Shanley's oeuvre, “Wild Mountain Thyme” is wild to a fault but nowhere near as bright.

Text ©2020, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. https://www.filmintuition.com  Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  Also, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases made off my site through ad links. FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy or screener link of this title to voluntarily decide to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique. Cookies Notice: This site incorporates tools (including advertiser partners and widgets) that use cookies and may collect some personal information to display ads tailored to you etc. Please be advised that neither Film Intuition nor its site owner has any access to this data beyond general site statistics (geographical region etc.) as your privacy is our main concern.

Blu-ray Review: Jersey Boys (2014)

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Midway through the performance of their first number one song, the members of The Four Seasons led by the angelic voiced Frankie Valli (played by John Lloyd Young in his Tony award-winning role) momentarily stop singing to break through cinema’s fourth wall to address the camera — and by extension the viewer — directly.

It's an innovative if admittedly stagy technique that's often employed on the Netflix series House of Cards to mixed results. However in the hands of Jersey Boys director Clint Eastwood, it livens up the otherwise over-rehearsed feel of the film adaptation of the long-running biographical Broadway show with a rock 'n roll version of a Shakespearean soliloquy.

Narrative experimentation is so effective here that — when you consider the fact that Boys centers on the dueling memories of four very different bandmates — it’s a shame that changes in point-of-view weren’t used much more often to better connect us with the characters and conflicts, especially given Jersey’s fluid relationship with time.

Likewise, the perceived spontaneity that occurs when the Boys temporarily break free from Jersey's regimented stage show choreography helps transports us away from the production’s overt performance pieces by supplanting it with the same street corner improvisation that initially inspired the sound of the Seasons from the start.

Although fortunately it's far more successful than early critical reaction would lead you to believe, Jersey kicks things off on an uneven footing while embarking on the same uphill battle that all musicals do when trying to be more than just gorgeously filmed versions of preexisting shows.

And given that Jersey is a global success eight years running, Eastwood and company certainly had their work cut out for them while attempting to make something not only old but also very familiar seem new again.

Immediately identifiable, Boys is filled with the infectious soundtrack of the a capella doo wop meets early rock and roll magical musical blend that the Boys made their own in their goal to be New Jersey's greatest cultural export since Frank Sinatra.

And while it’s sure to make you leave singing “Sherry,” the film chronicles the humble beginnings of neighborhood tough Tommy DeVito (a terrific Vincent Piazza), who looks after the golden voiced young Valli as a favor to the local mobster Gyp DeCarlo (Christopher Walken) who loves listening to him perform the Italian classics cherished by his mother.

Explaining that the only way out of their perceived deadend life was through the military, the mob, or fame, the guys aim for and eventually achieve the latter two when in the 1950s, bowling pinsetter (and future Oscar winner) Joe Pesci put them in contact with up-and-coming "Short Shorts" songwriter Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen).

With homebody Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda) rounding out the group, the guys do the rounds singing backup on a number of records until Gaudio locks himself in his room out of desperation before reemerging days later with the quartet’s first hit, "Sherry."

While it's missing the razzle dazzle of Chicago and Dreamgirls, Jersey aims for the same realism of Walk the Line and Rent, unfortunately not realizing that what we want more than just toe-tapping tunes and a few edgy and/or funny anecdotes is to be genuinely drawn into the journey undertaken by these Boys.

And by not letting us get to know the guys on a deeper level than just their harmonious swagger, Eastwood's film misses the invaluable emotional connection needed to hook us into the Jersey world truly inhabited by The Four Seasons.

While the film does strike a chord when it hits reset midway through and breaks up the band — causing the Seasons to scatter in a million directions — Jersey doesn't sustain our interest for long.

Speeding through the toll their ‘60s success and subsequent failure took on the men's professional and personal lives, Jersey Boys instead fixates on trying to fit the broken puzzle pieces of The Four back together by the end of the film for a rousing closing credits number worthy of a Broadway curtain call.

Had those working behind-the-scenes (including the film's two editors as well as the stage musical authors turned scripters Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice) broken up the chronology or shifted focus to give us the same sequence from the perspective of another source, Jersey might not have had to work so hard to make try and elicit the response it desired during the film's dramatic highs and lows.

For example, in what should have been an impactful life-altering event late into the picture (regarding one of Valli's loved ones), the payoff comes off as predictable and cliched rather than appropriately heartbreaking given that we barely knew the character in question until they were re-introduced onscreen just to tug at our heartstrings as if on cue.

Desperately in need of the cinematic equivalent of a stroll on the boardwalk to give the claustrophobically insulated, stagy film some much-needed fresh air, Jersey remains a likable, good-natured piece of Broadway movie musical nostalgia nonetheless. And thankfully, a few of its flaws are smoothed over by clever decision to combine the group’s sing-along worthy hits with some boldly postmodernist touches.

An above average achievement for anyone else given that the acting and the ambiance elevates it from its by-the-numbers paradigm, while it undoubtedly would've impressed us much more if made by a relative newcomer, Eastwood's reputation precedes him in this case in making the result a double-edged sword for the filmmaker.

Though it doesn't hold up next to some of his most extraordinary achievements from the haunting chamber piece Million Dollar Baby to the symphonic brilliance of Letters From Iwo Jima, Jersey Boys still warms us with the comfort food like rhythms of a pop song built on the same foundation that's swayed us thousands of times before.

However, while we're able to sing along with the guys from the first chorus, we just wish the rest of the work could’ve been as catchy as the playful hook that surprised us early on and broke up the narrative for a glorious beat or two before it continued on in familiar 4x4 time.

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to voluntarily decide to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

Blu-ray Review: Wayne's World (1992) & Wayne's World 2 (1993)

Introduction

Over the last six months as Paramount Home Entertainment has begun releasing some of their greatest hits onto Blu-ray, it's been fascinating to revisit the works I watched repeatedly while growing up in Midwestern suburbia.

While a majority have held up well despite some dated pop culture references-- one of the things that's always enjoyable about the discs is the current day interviews with the cast and crew as they talk about not just their involvement in a movie but also speculate as to why the film managed to catch on as a beloved contemporary classic.

On the one hand, some are simply stunned and can't venture a likely assumption about the film's universal appeal such as Matthew Broderick who still seems incredibly humbled and awestruck by the life that Ferris Bueller's Day Off has taken on since its mid-80s release. However, when it came time to explore the extras for director Penelope Spheeris' Wayne's World, Mike Myers managed to tap right into not just the central driving force of the two characters in the film but distills his thought into just under a sentence.

What the fictitious Aurora, Illinois heavy metal hand-banging slackers we were first introduced to on Saturday Night Live brought to a filmgoing public was a celebration of real life or as Myers specified, the concept of “no-money fun.”

Wayne's World
(1992)

While they cherish their public access television show they run out of Wayne's parents' basement (since as Myers' Wayne notes, he still lives with his parents “which is both bogus and sad”), the two guys aren't exactly blessed with the wheels provided by Bueller's friend Cameron Frye nor the expensive computer and technological equipment owned by Ferris.

Despite living in an era of video games which they quickly learn as the snake-like TV executive Rob Lowe appears to exploit the show by working out an arrangement to commercialize it as essentially a cheesy version of a thirty minute advertisement for Bryan Doyle-Murray's Noah's Arcade-- our two heroes discover more proactive ways to party.

Whether it's rocking out to Queen's “Bohemian Rhapsody” (in a scene repeatedly filmed over the course of a night resulting in major neck and head pain) in the '70s era Pacer shared by the duo that's seemingly owned by Carvey's Garth Algar, filling up on jelly donuts, rescuing their “partied out” friend from being alone and drunk on the sidewalk, or poking gentle fun at authority figures-- the main goal of the two is to have as much fun as possible.



Proving that they “still know how to party” by frequenting the local heavy metal hangout-- it isn't too long into the film before Wayne sees the dynamic, beautiful, confident, and level-headed Cassandra (Tia Carrere) performing onstage with her band Crucial Taunt.

Taking on a Cantonese dialect for her accent, Carrere is a refreshing change of pace for the coming-of-age genre as a beautiful equally fun loving inner-geek at heart who confesses she learned English in “college and the Police Academy movies.”

As Cassandra and Wayne begin a tentative relationship despite Wayne's stalker “psycho hose beast” ex Stacey (Lara Flynn Boyle), Wayne and Garth find themselves facing another coming-of-age obstacle regarding selling out to the man when they blissfully sign a contract serving up the rights for their show to Rob Lowe's scummy yuppie who predictably decides that in addition to their show, Cassandra will be his next acquisition.



Obviously thin on plot-- the novelty of the film was that it managed to transcend the joy of Wayne and Garth from the screen directly to the audience. As acclaimed documentary filmmaker Penelope Spheeris remarked when she took on helming the project as her first feature film, the guys consistently manage to “have a good time, even though their fun arises from very meager beginnings.”

Boredom is a word and a state of mind that doesn't exist in their vocabulary and it's on this level alone that it manages to reach us all since it comes from a very real and identifiable place since as Myers notes both on the Blu-ray and in the production notes, the character of Wayne Campbell was one he'd been playing with since the age of twelve to amuse people at parties.



And of course, his infectious enthusiasm in bringing a sketch character he based on roughly five real people including himself was doubled when he was aligned with his ultimate side-man Dana Carvey's. For the film, Carvey earned the opportunity to finally help flesh out his simple one-dimensional worshiping sycophant from the skit in a feature length film (by of course keeping that same voice he "borrowed" from his his brother as inspiration). Moreover, suddenly, the energy from what could ordinarily have been much too broad in transfer of the late night few minute hit became both relatable and highly successful to fans around the globe-- head-bangers and non-metal enthusiasts alike.

Simply put the characters laugh at the same things we all laugh at on a daily basis-- ridiculing feature filmmaking down to the traditional storytelling structure, talking directly to the camera perpetually, going into fantasy sequences, spoofing pop culture and inventing phrases we've come to take for granted (like “that's what she said” which is probably most famous today for Steve Carrell's over-usage of it on The Office).

And as a writer, I can't help but assume that a great reason the incredibly fresh film still feels so vibrant today is because the screnwriters-- Myers and Bonnie and Terry Turner (who have since worked on other SNL projects like Tommy Boy) were-- much like the director and the stars, all involved in either their first studio project or their first film altogether.

The highest grossing SNL movie based on a skit from the late night series-- incidentally Wayne's World was also SNL mastermind Lorne Michaels' first to be produced by Paramount in his exclusive SNL crossover deal (which resulted in an overwhelming number of misses that are luckily overshadowed by some amazing crossover hits for his talented cast). And I can't help but think that all of these ideas for "no-money" fun or not having a bullseye they specifically needed to hit helped unleash the freshest amount creativity from precisely the right group of people working together at precisely the right period of time.

Listed on Siskel and Ebert's Top 10 list as one of the best films of that particular year and one of the highest grossing and biggest surprised of '92-- it's still a joy to watch today, both for sheer humor and the uplift you feel when watching characters who use genuine friendliness and curiosity to engage strangers (even when pulling their leg) rather than overtly going for a mean or rude approach for shock value. Additionally it's equally intriguing to go back and witness the talent involved firsthand once more when you realize just how underrated and overlooked actors like Carrere and Carvey were, essentially deserving much more work than they ultimately received.



Likewise, for those who've been overly dismayed by Mike Myers' last few forays in the Hollywood system such as The Love Guru and the third Austin Powers sequel, it's nice to go back in time as if we were taking part in one of the Wayne's World magical ending options to witness his overwhelming potential to make us laugh (when he isn't solely fixated on toilet humor) and undeniable charm.

Seeing the film for the first time since its VHS release, obviously for this reviewer, the transfer was a vast improvement. Yet in comparison to other Blu-rays, while there's a noticeable difference in depth perception, the overall picture (most of which was shot extremely quickly to fit into Carvey and Myers' summer time availability in between SNL seasons; and a good portion in poor light) battles a tendency towards some soft and muddied colors that blend into one another.

However, and similar to some of the dated works being transferred to Paramount Blu-ray-- the studio's one consistent Achilles Heel is apparent from the start as the sound mix is uneven with faintly heard conversations and window rattling music as without any augmentation or speaker positioning whatsoever, I had to move the volume dial well past 60 on a stellar quality LCD TV.

Despite this as far as I'm concerned once you balance it out, Wayne's World is well worth the audio tweaking as it still remains one of my absolute favorite comedies and one that's so surprisingly sophisticated and intelligent that it still makes me appreciate the multi-faceted, multi-layered jokes so many years later.

And now when our society is definitely being hit with a need for “no-money fun,” one could do a lot worse than trying to look on the brighter side of inventing your own amusement a la Wayne and Garth instead of simply popping in a shooting video game and taking out your frustration with a computerized body count.

Wayne's World 2
(1993)

As all involved acknowledge, once the '92 original far exceeded Paramount's wildest expectations at the box office, discussion of a sequel quickly followed and the final production rolled out just one year later. Yet despite the one year difference-- as far as the Blu-ray quality goes-- the jump from '92 to '93 is huge. I'm not certain if the difference was merely source based wherein possibly a much better version of the original theatrical print was taken for the transfer but whatever the case the sequel's clarity is sharper than the first one. And admittedly although this could also be due to the difference in budget and shooting style, likewise the sound balance is twice as good right from the start in crystal high definition clarity.



Unfairly, it was maligned as a movie the very existence of which went against the very idea of fighting "the man" and "selling out" that the first one proudly used as a plot point. And while sure enough, the second helping of Wayne's World adds in an over-abundance of celebrities whether they appear in tiny cameos or new supporting roles and follows down familiar territory with more pop culture riffing-- but all that aside, it's still a whole lot of fun.

Whereas the first movie is solid all the way through, Wayne's World 2 can perhaps be best appreciated as as series of intensely funny, wildly freewheeling, sequences that are so unique they help distract from the rushed feel of the work. In fact, sequence-wise, I'd venture to bet that you'd be able to pull out at least six to eight sequences in the sequel that more than top the original... even if the film as a whole never quite reached that bar.



One of those all-too-familiar individuals who still feels they were born a decade or two too late (as I have a strange faux '60s nostalgia myself)-- Myers admits he was possibly creatively foreshadowing the Austin Powers movies with this strangely psychedelic partly Doors-influenced and undoubtedly Woodstock inspired sequel.

Having finally moved out of his parent's basement and rooming with Garth in an old doll factory turned over-sized place, Wayne begins wondering what he should do next with his life. Similar to where we'd last left him working on Wayne's World in their new headquarters and dating Cassandra-- while her career has begun to skyrocket and she spends more time with her smooth producer (Christopher Walken) than Wayne, he goes through an existential crisis. In a weird dream which finds him led out into the desert to chat with the ghost of Jim Morrison by "a weird naked Indian," Wayne decides that the purpose of his life is to put on a concert.



Dubbing it "Waynestock," the guys adhere to Morrison's advice not to be stingy with the roster since "if you book them, they will come." And in trying to seek out the best, Wayne and Garth travel to London to enlist help of a hilarious British wing-nut named Del Preston (the scene stealing Ralph Brown essentially channeling Ozzy Osbourne and Keith Richards among others) and lead their fellow slackers through a wicked course of roadie boot-camp.



In a similar retread of the first movie which found Wayne worried about Rob Lowe's ulterior motives where his girlfriend is concerned, the same plot happens again in this film but it's to greater comedic effect. Long before Wayne partakes in a terrific send-up of dubbed kung fu fight scenes with Cassandra's dad played by James Hong (reason alone to buy the film and unsurprisingly Myers' favorite scene in the film), Christopher Walken ratchets up the intensity as a romantic rival.



Deliciously wicked-- and far similar to those old creepy SAL "Continental" skits-- Walken truly is as Lorne Michaels calls him "a hidden treasure in comedy," nailing lines like "what are you doing here, Wayne?" before dirty dancing with his girl right in front of him, and chasing Wayne and Garth into a gay bar when he catches him spying that results in an impromptu "Y.M.C.A." Village People homage.

However, the film feels at times like it's going through the motions in a few uninspired "skits" that find Wayne and Garth trapped in a car a la Jurassic Park. And aside from the fact that it continues on a good ten minutes too long in its brisk 94 minute running time during a gruelingly long ode to The Graduate (that saves itself with a payoff hinted at earlier and a funny Charlton Heston cameo)-- it's still filled with laughter throughout.

Nicely giving Garth much more to work with-- Carvey manages to steal focus away from the overwhelming beauty of Kim Basinger as her unlikely lover in a film noir retro subplot. Although he still hasn't mastered his confidence problem, we see a much more liberated Garth in this film, as now on his own with Wayne, he's truly relishing in a long overdue sense of freedom while nervously flirting with Kim Basinger at a dry cleaner confesses that he's "sans parents" and "can go to a movie on a school night like that" before he gets the chance to finally go all the way.



Bolstered by nice cameos by Chris Farley (expanding on his brief security guard turn in the first movie as their quick-to-anger manic friend), Kevin Pollack as a strict city official whose glass eye leads to a disastrous conversation wherein the guys say "i" much more than they dream, and of course Drew Barrymore as a sultry Swedish radio station receptionist.

And while it does feel like its glossier than its heavy metal, rougher original as Canadian Kids in the Hall director Steve Surjik replaced Penelope Spheeris and Myers' decision to move it into a more spiritual and philosophical realm was a bold risk that may have cost him some of the franchise's core audience, I applauded the way that suddenly and very subtly the head-bangers grew and changed into men much more than just "a little older and a little wiser."

While they still definitely know how to party, to ask why they needed to party may have been a bit of a jolt but it allowed the film to go into some truly interesting directions-- a few of which while unsuccessful-- I still greatly admire and feel that much like a truly great episode of Saturday Night Live that admittedly does have a few skits that fail, Wayne's World 2 may in fact surpass the first one at least in the sheer number of stand-alone, crazily funny sequences you can easily pull out from that film and watch on their own despite framing them in a shaky narrative structure.

As far out plot-wise as any SNL comedy and one that fails to go through the all-too-familiar paradigm the Lorne Michaels productions would establish in the decade-- both to its peril and its delight-- while it was still sad to see Wayne and Garth go and especially to see Carvey never quite achieve that same success despite his amazing ability at stand-up comedy, I'll never tire of watching the two films back to back for some true good ol' "no-money fun."

Sleepy Hollow

Director:
Tim Burton

Such as it was in the case of Edward Scissorhands and their newest collaboration Sweeney Todd, some material just seems made for director Tim Burton and his frequent muse and star, Johnny Depp. And in the case of-- as they sang in the Disney animated version-- “Ichabod, Ichabod, Ichabod Crane,” and Washington Irving’s entire Legend of Sleepy Hollow, again we are faced with one of those quintessential situations best delivered to audiences via Burton and Depp.

Sensuously heightened and painterly in scope, the photography by Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (The New World, Great Expectations, Like Water for Chocolate) is one of the most startlingly original artistic achievements in years and well-worth the audience investment even when the film grows increasingly bloody with each passing scene.

Set in 1799, Sleepy Hollow (which incidentally was filmed precisely two hundred years later) follows scientifically inclined constable Ichabod Crane who leaves his post in the big city to travel to the small village of Sleepy Hollow in order to investigate the suspicious deaths of numerous citizens who are left decapitated in the night by a villainous horse-rider that the town has dubbed the Headless Horseman (played by Christopher Walken, of course).

Emphasizing the unattractive qualities of his intense fear, shyness and peculiarity rather than the historic homeliness of Crane, Depp is wonderful, delightfully gasping and fainting when he comes face to face with not only the village horrors but also the beautiful young Katrina Van Tassel (Christina Ricci), whose family he stays with during the investigation. Earning a sidekick in not only Katrina but Young Masbath (Marc Pickering), a servant boy whose father was one of the unfortunate victims, Crane sleuths out the case, only to predictably find himself the center of increasing jeopardy as he detects some of the shocking little secrets being hidden by the town's elders (including the judge, reverend and others).

Although as IMDb reported acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard was tapped to complete an un-credited rewrite of the script to tone down the excessive violence of Andrew Kevin Walker’s original work, blood spills and heads roll aplenty but luckily, Burton never fully relishes in the gore as some directors may have, instead, as a former Walt Disney Studios animator, he found himself inspired by the style of Disney’s version in the creation of his own (IMDb). However, as true with Sweeney Todd, when it comes to this Burton/Depp venture, it’s best to leave the kiddies at home and like Todd, their fans wouldn't have it any other way.

Romance & Cigarettes

Director: John Turturro

“There’s a lot of things in this pothole of a life that don’t make sense,” Nick Murder (James Gandolfini) tells his youngest daughter Baby (Mandy Moore) in writer/director John Turturro’s self-described “down and dirty musical love story,” produced by Joel and Ethan Coen, Romance & Cigarettes. Turturro originally had the first inklings of an idea for the film in the 1980’s before beginning to write it when portraying a struggling screenwriter himself in the 90’s in the Coens' Barton Fink and, after directing his two earliest pictures Mac and Illuminata, Turturro finally got the chance to bring this startlingly sexual, overwhelmingly crude, yet undeniably original musical to life.

Despite the production being postponed for nearly two years due to James Gandolfini’s commitment to the HBO series The Sopranos, Turturro spent those years securing the rights to the songs he’d chosen (IMDb) for his trashy firecracker salute to musicals that told the story of blue collar ironworker Nick Murder whose dressmaking wife Kitty (Susan Sarandon) discovers he’s been betraying her as well as bailing on his duty to his three daughters (Mandy Moore, Mary-Louise Parker, and Aida Turturro) by having an affair with the sultry, British, lingerie-selling redheaded harlot Tula (Kate Winslet).

Now dubbed a “whoremaster” by his betrayed wife who runs to church to take her frustration out with a stirring rendition of “Piece of My Heart” along with Eddie Izzard and the rest of the choir, Nick is relegated to the fact that according to him “marriage is combat” and he must fend for himself opposite his wife’s army (the three daughters) even if it means that Kitty will no longer be preparing his dinner. Nick ends up going to extremes to satisfy his "mistress in heat" Tula who we’re introduced to in a laughably over-the-top fire sequence and as Winslet plays the part (visibly having a ball), Tula is a woman whose dialogue is completely made up of foul lines that get even more shocking as she continues on and soon we realize that the relationship isn’t going to last even before she confesses that she “loses interest in a man as soon as he begins to care" about her. However, Turturro’s film busily occupies itself as a musical comedy of “remarriage” as Nick fights to try and win back his wife, who, meanwhile has been fantasizing about her first love Aidan Quinn and seeking revenge on the cheating Nick by conducting her own investigation along with her dangerous cousin Bo (Christopher Walken).

Despite a four star review from Roger Ebert, this Golden Lion nominee from the 2005 Venice Film Festival was labeled “loud and pointlessly crude,” by The Hollywood Reporter’s Ray Bennett (9/7/05) who cleverly summed up Romance & Cigarettes with the observation that “it looks more like something that might have been made by Jesus Quintana, the wild man of the bowling alley he [Turturro] played in The Big Lewbowski.” Definitely film fodder for an acquired taste, I found myself mostly disgusted by the cinematic train-wreck created by the indisputably talented writer/director and cast, even though admittedly it was oddly compelling at times. Ultimately, Romance & Cigarettes is an unnecessarily lewd offering that never failed to inspire genuine interest in the characters who populate each frame other than the initial involuntary shock that forced viewers to pay attention similar to the way that we can’t help but stare at a fire or traffic accident, terrified and drawn in by the twisted beauty but all the while hoping that everyone gets out in one piece.