Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 17, 1993 TAG: 9311250307
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: C12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Mike Mayo
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It's a funny, touching coming-of-age story that deserves a huge audience. Yes, it lacks the ``name'' stars - and the attendant studio hype - that draw audiences to particular titles. Instead, it has all the fundamentals of a really good movie: likeable, fully developed characters dealing with universal conflicts in an unusual setting.
It's Australia, 1965. Young Danny Embling (Noah Taylor) is an outsider at a snotty, traditional private school. His fellow students are a mostly thick- headed lot with a strict pecking order. Smart, dark-complected and smaller than the rest, Danny is near the bottom.
At night, after the house master has administered canings with the ill- concealed zeal of a self-righteous bully, Danny lies awake and stares across the lake at the girls school.
That's where Thandiwe (Thandie Newton) finds herself almost as ostracized as Danny. She's a black African and, like Danny, a romantic who reads Camus and Sartre. Their attraction to each other is completely natural. So are the barriers that will be thrown up by the adolescents and adults who surround them.
If the film is at all accurate - and writer/director John Duigan has given it such an autobiographical atmosphere that it must be - Australia wasn't much different from the American South in the mid-'60s. Styles of clothing, speech and music were eerily similar. So were the unwritten social rules; the cliques and the painful cruelties that the strong inflict on the weak.
The supporting cast is filled with instantly recognizable characters who cross cultural boundaries - the jock who looks like he's 35 when he's 16; the kid who's almost in the ``in crowd'' but laughs too loud at the wrong moments. Actress Nicole Kidman is perfectly cast as the cool blonde cutie - there's one in every school - who rules the female population and has considerable power over the boys.
If all of this sounds a little familiar to some readers, it's because ``Flirting'' is a sequel to another fine Australian film, ``The Year My Voice Broke,'' reviewed here a few years ago. And according to the production notes, it will be followed by a third look at Danny's journey through adolescence.
Don't be put off by the fact that this is technically a ``foreign film.'' It's just a good movie about the experience of being a teen-ager. In its own way, it's as enjoyable as anything you're likely to see this summer on tape or in theaters. And even though the MPAA, in its wisdom, has given ``Flirting'' an R-rating for its realistic, delicately handled sexual content, it's much more appropriate for teen-agers than a lot of the PG and PG- 13-rated dreck that Hollywood passes off on them.
"The Efficiency Expert'' is another Australian import set in the 1960s. This gentle, offbeat comedy will probably strike some viewers as a subdued delight, while it will leave others scratching their heads and wondering what the point is.
Anthony Hopkins is Harold Wallace, the title character. He's used to dealing with the complexities and hard economic realities of the business world. But when his partner uses some of their findings to manipulate a union-management negotiation, Wallace begins to question his work. Is there any human value to the cold statistics he gathers?
At the same time, he has been brought in to analyze production at the Ball moccasin factory. Mr. Ball (Alwyn Kurts) is an amiable old fellow who means well but doesn't seem to know what he's doing or what his employees are up to. Even though it's not too difficult to see where the story is going, it takes some nice twists - notably when Harold goes to the slot car races.
Some of the subplots are predictable, too, but the scenes between Hopkins and Kurts have a genuine warmth to them. Overall, director Mark Joffe makes the picture work by creating and sustaining a wry, good-humored mood. You won't laugh out loud, but you will smile, and there's a lot to be said for that.
New releases this week:
Amos & Andrew: *
Stars Samuel Jackson, Nicholas Cage, Dabney Coleman. Directed Max Frye. Columbia TriStar. 92 min. Rated PG-13 for strong language, mild violence and some sexual humor.
There's a good comedy to be made about racial prejudice in America, but this movie isn't it. It's really a slow ``buddy'' picture about a successful black writer and a white crook who are thrown together by a politically ambitious police chief. Slow and unfunny.
Rich in Love: * Stars Albert Finney, Katheryn Erbe, Suzy Amis, Kyle
MacLachlan, Alfre Woodard. Written by Alfred Uhry. Directed by Bruce Beresford. Warner (MGM/UA). 105 min. Rated PG-13 for subject matter, some strong language.
This well-intentioned misfire is aimed squarely at the ``Room With a View'' crowd. But the creative team that was so successful with ``Driving Miss Daisy'' doesn't fare nearly as well with this adaptation of Josephine Humphrey's novel about a South Carolina family. Characters talk about the past and worry about the future. But on the rare occasions when something interesting is about to occur in the present, the camera is tastefully averted.
Malcolm X: *** 1/2 Stars Denzel Washington. Directed by Spike Lee. (Warner)
Rated PG-13 for language, violence. 201 minutes.
Well-crafted biography of the black leader who was murdered at the age of 39. Lee's movie captures Malcolm's message of the time - pro-family, pro-education and anti-drug - issues that could play in the '90s.
Passion Fish: **** Stars Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard. Directed by John
Sayles. (Columbia TriStar) Rated R for language, adult situations. 135 min.
Written and directed by Sayles with honesty and intelligence, this is a look at a crippled soap star and her nurse who help heal each other's spiritual wounds. A movie with finely balanced performances, good, cliche-free supporting characters and flavorful Louisiana atmosphere.
\ THE ESSENTIALS: Flirting: ***1/2 Vidmark. 99 min. Rated R for sexual
content, mild violence, strong language.
The Year My Voice Broke: *** LIVE. 103 min. Rated PG-13 for profanity,
mild violence and mature subject matter.
The Efficiency Expert: **1/2
Paramount. 97 min. Rated PG for a little strong language.
by CNB