[6] Splash is a sweet-enough fantasy rom-com from Ron Howard (his second feature). Tom Hanks stars as a man who falls in love with a mysterious woman who just happens to be a mermaid. Darryl Hannah plays the fish; John Candy and Eugene Levy ham it up in supporting roles. The best scenes are ones where Hannah tries to hide her true nature, including a …
[7] Michael Douglas plays Liberace for director Steven Soderbergh in this fast-paced tragi-romantic-dark comedy about the famed pianist’s five-year relationship with a man forty years his senior. Matt Damon plays young Scott Thorson, the naive pretty boy who falls under Liberace’s spell. Their relationship is highly odd, sometimes disturbing, but often tender — definitely compelling enough to hang a movie on, especially when it’s so …
[6] Greer Garson stars in this Technicolor costume melodrama about a woman who marries for money instead of love, and later regrets it. I love Garson, and its especially great to see Errol Flynn playing against type as her repressive husband. Walter Pidgeon and Robert Young play two of Garson’s illicit love interests — one is her brother-in-law and the other is her niece’s betrothed …
[7] Minnie Driver plays a destitute Jewish woman who poses as a gentile to gain employment as nanny for a rich family in Scotland. While there she falls in love with the children’s father and becomes the object of the older boy’s affection. The cast is top-notch, including Tom Wilkinson as the father and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the son. Gorgeous cinematography, sets, and wardrobe. …
[6] Charlton Heston headlines an ensemble cast in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth. We’re talking, of course, about the Circus — and the lives of the people who put it on. Heston plays the owner and manager of the sprawling, traveling outfit. Betty Hutton is the love interest he has no time for, while Cornel Wilde plays the hunky trapeze artist who …
[8] Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) directs this adaptation of David Ebershoff’s novel, based loosely on the life of Lili Elbe, one of the first people ever to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) is outstanding as, at first, Einar Wegener, and later as Lili. Redmayne’s transformation is a beguiling one, capturing all the seduction and trepidation a life-altering revelation should …
[6] Philip Kaufman (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Right Stuff, Quills) directs this adaptation of Anais Nin’s autobiography, about her sexual escapades with Henry Miller and his wife June in 1930s Paris. Movies that turn sex into some sort of transcendental experience leave me cold and bored. If I appreciated the approach more, Henry & June is a fine film with good performances from …
[7] Anthony Minghella (The English Patient, Talented Mr. Ripley) adapts Charles Frazier’s book about a Civil War deserter trying to get back to his lover. The film goes back and forth between the soldier’s story and the sweetheart’s story. My main issue with Cold Mountain is that these two characters, played by Nicole Kidman and Jude Law, barely know each other at all before they …
[6] A British diplomat in Kenya tries to solve the mystery of his activist wife’s murder, only to get in over his head with the culprits — a pharmaceutical company that is intentionally poisoning and killing people. The first third of the film belongs to Rachel Weisz, who plays the deceased wife in a series of flashbacks. Weisz took home the Oscar for best supporting …
[8] A surprisingly effective blend of romance, comedy, and supernatural horror, Ghost stars Patrick Swayze as a murdered man who works through a flim-flam psychic (Whoopi Goldberg) to save the life of his endangered girlfriend (Demi Moore). Ghost became so popular, I think a lot of us take it for granted today. But in the summer of 1990, full of sequels and overproduced action pics, …
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