THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 2, 1995 TAG: 9412310042
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
THE SURPRISING thing about ``Ready to Wear'' is that it is so tame.
When Robert Altman takes on a subject as rich for spoofery as the Parisian fashion industry, you expect sly mischief. With an all-star cast that is awesome, there is mischief, but it's not too sly. You expect the feathers to fly, but all you get are feathers in the breeze.
If ``Ready to Wear'' is just-OK Altman, it is still brighter, sharper and more literate comedy than you're likely to get anywhere else on a current movie screen. The very possibility that such legends as Sophia Loren and Anouk Aimee are in small theaters, with an Edith Piaf song in the background, is enough to urge support of this film.
The setting is the Parisian week when the new designers unveil their creations. This center of self-obsession and phony hedonism is a natural for Altman. Give him a hypocritical setting and he'll allow actors to run through it with relish.
Stepping out of the pack to easily steal the film is Kim Basinger as Kitty Potter, the down-South TV reporter for the FAD network whose phony French becomes hilarious. ``Hey, I am, LIVE from Paris,'' she says as she points out that one designer has ``had a lock on the look of the '90s for decades.'' When Loren faints, she tells her visitors that ``a team of fashion doctors is standing by.'' Basinger has an energy and a flourish that has not been suggested in her previous roles.
A fashion official, whom everyone hated anyway, is seemingly murdered, and Marcello Mastroianni is the prime suspect. He seeks to revive an old romance with Sophia, who is the wife of the murdered man. They recreate her striptease scene from ``Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,'' the 1964 comedy. If nothing else, the scene proves that La Loren is still a knockout. They meet beside Ronin's statue of The Thinker.
Sally Kellerman, Linda Hunt and Tracey Ullman are rival magazine editors, each seeking star photographer Stephen Rea (who knows all about ``The Crying Game''). People say things like ``It goes beyond deja vu.'' Lauren Bacall is a former editor who has always been color blind. Tim Robbins plays a sports reporter who is forced to cover the fashion scene when the murder occurs. Julia Roberts is a reporter from Houston who gets stuck without clothes when her luggage is lost.
This is the kind of movie in which a major character dies by choking on a bit of ham fat.
It has a smart soundtrack that includes the new song ``Pretty'' composed for the climactic fashion show by the Irish quartet ``The Cranberries.''
The star-watching, particularly the emphasis on European legends not often seen, is quite fascinating even if this is not the kind of tease that makes us want to know more about each of the 38 featured characters. At his best, in ``Nashville,'' Altman is capable of creating brilliant little vignettes that leave us teased, and wanting to know more about each. Here, the characters are merely passersby, not really people we get to know.
Still, there's a lot of show for the money. ILLUSTRATION: E. GEORGES
Julia Roberts and Tim Robbins star in Robert Altman's ``Ready to
Wear,'' a spoof of the fashion industry.
MOVIE REVIEW
``Ready to Wear'' (``Pret-A-Porter'')
Cast: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Julia Roberts, Tim
Robbins, Kim Basinger, Stephen Rea, Anouk Aimee, Lauren Bacall, Lili
Taylor, Sally Kellerman, Tracey Ullman, Linda Hunt, Rupert Everett,
Forest Whitaker, Richard E. Grant, Danny Aiello, Teri Garr, Lyle
Lovett.
Director: Robert Altman
Screenplay: Robert Altman and Barbara Shulgasser
MPAA rating: R (nonsexy nudity, language)
Mal's rating: ***
Locations: Circle 4 and Naro in Norfolk; Lynnhaven 8, Pembroke
and Surf-N-Sand in Virginia Beach
by CNB