THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1994 TAG: 9406220039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
DATELINE: 940622 LENGTH: Medium
This is Nicholson's subtlest, most restrained performance in years and, even more surprising, it is a movie with a semblance of sophisticated, literate dialogue.
{REST} It is that rarity - a summer movie for adults.
Mike Nichols, who directed Nicholson in ``Carnal Knowledge'' and directed Elizabeth Taylor to an Oscar for ``Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,'' is a New York elitist who would be loath to admit that he directed a mere horror flick. At the same time, he's smart enough to realize that a satire about office conniving and book publishing would only get booked into Norfolk's Naro Theater on a Monday night. Consequently, he tries to hide his movie's intelligence by palming it off as a werewolf opus. The studio, in trailers that have been running for the past six months, has tried valiantly, and apparently successfully, to sell the film as a standard-issue thriller with big-name stars.
The movie is more. It is a comedy-drama about the cutthroat nature of big business, ultimately proving that in a dog-eat-dog world it is something of an advantage to be a werewolf.
Nicholson plays a kind-hearted and benign New York publisher who, on a lonely snow-covered Vermont road, hits a wolf with his auto. The animal is still alive and bites the man's hand. The bite brings out the beast in Jack. His newfound aggressiveness appears just in time, because a two-faced yuppie, whom he believed to be his friend and protege, has been scheming to get his job. James Spader has the role, and he's a perfect slimeball in it.
Christopher Plummer plays the money-conscious billionaire who fires Nicholson because he has ``individuality and taste'' - qualities that are clearly detriments in the New York publishing business. ``You're a nice person. Thank God I replaced you,'' Plummer says.
But Nicholson fights back, and before long he lets his scheming protege know that he's capable of staking out his own territory.
Meanwhile, he notices that he's developing a super-keen sense of smell, sight and awareness. In effect, he is becoming a wolf. He goes on nocturnal prowls that seem to be out of his control. (In the most distasteful, he kills a deer.)
For the most part, though, ``Wolf'' is more intelligent than wolfish. Director Nichols seems to want us to know that he is above it all, and that the story is really ludicrous. He never quite gives us a wink, though, and consequently the audience seemed reluctant to laugh - even though many of the lines are hilarious.
After playing the devil in real life as well as in ``The Witches of Eastwick,'' Nicholson would seem a natural to play a werewolf. The eyebrows have just the right slant. He has trouble, though, playing the genteel publisher in the early scenes, even with a pipe and a quiet demeanor.
Michelle Pfeiffer, who has co-star billing, has an underwritten role. Nonetheless, she gets every nuance possible from it - even suggesting that she could fall for an old geezer like Nicholson. She's cast as Plummer's rebellious and ``lost'' daughter - a veteran of drugs and wild times who now spends her time being idle. Her emotional desperation makes the love affair with Nicholson believable.''
Kate Nelligan, settling down to being a good character actress after an unsuccessful try at star roles, is cast as Nicholson's unfaithful wife.
The photography is by the great Giuseppe Rotunna and the musical score is by veteran Ennio Morricone. The script is credited to novelist Jim Harrison and genre hack Wesley Strick, but Nichols' old comedy partner Elaine May reportedly had a hand in shaping it.
It is unfortunate, though, that the film succumbs to a silly and standard ending. The last one-third of the movie sinks to an unimaginative level that is an insult to the earlier, sharp two-thirds of the movie.
by CNB