Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 8, 1995 TAG: 9504110036
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Still, Jennifer Jason Leigh's portrayal of the alcoholic, acerbic writer in ``Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle'' is more than a portrait of a train wreck. It is a portrait of the worst heartbreak of all, the one from which it may be impossible to recover: falling out of love with life and with oneself.
Director Alan Rudolph seems to have understood that his work was cut out for him. He could offer a sentimental view of Parker and the legendary Algonquin Round Table and look like a fool, or he could tell it like it really was and entertain practically no one.
He compromised, and we have an exceptionally pretty film with a tragic heroine and a backdrop of semi-famous literary figures. It's a little depressing but not painful, truthful but with anesthesia.
The story opens in black-and-white in the late '50s, with Parker in Hollywood. A stagehand tries to get her to talk about the good old days and the Round Table. ``It must have been so colorful in the '20s,'' he enthuses.
She says with great weariness, ``There were no real greats - just a bunch of loudmouths showing off.''
``Colorful,'' she whispers to herself later, as though trying to decide. Then the film goes to color and the story flashes back to the late '20s when Parker and her good friend Robert Benchley (Campbell Scott) are working for the first Vanity Fair. Parker gets fired, Benchley quits out of loyalty, and they get an office together so they can write only what they want to write. One day, they go to lunch at the Algonquin Hotel, where they are joined by so many of their literary and non-literary friends that the waiter (Wallace Shawn) has to find a round table to accommodate everyone.
The real star of this movie isn't the famed table or the bon mots for which its habitues were known. Nor is it Parker's work.
The real star is Leigh, who transcends the sad litany of Parker's first, failed marriage; her heartbreaking love-affair with Charles MacArthur (Matthew Broderick); her abortion; suicide attempt and alcoholism.
Leigh's portrayal is so compassionate and specific that Parker becomes more than real, even by cinematic standards: She can be sensed. The round table may still be bigger than life, but Mrs. Parker - in her vain struggle to NOT become a victim of her own persona - is much, much smaller.
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
***
A Fine Line/Miramax release, showing at the Grandin Theatre. Rated R for language and nudity. 124 mins.
by CNB