THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 11, 1995 TAG: 9504110051
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
DO YOU KNOW where your wife, or husband, is tonight?
If they're seeing ``Miami Rhapsody,'' they will surely come home with all kinds of questions, and suspicions. Be ready.
``Miami Rhapsody'' is only rated PG-13, but there is enough hanky-panky going on to break up at least four marriages. Marital infidelity, if this movie is to be believed, lurks behind every closed door.
``Miami Rhapsody'' is a shameless copy of Woody Allen's style, but in a much lighter, more superficial, vein. Woody, with all his neurosis in plain view has been making us laugh about love and death for years. Director David Frankel takes a similar look at marriage but without nearly so subtle, serious or important a result. He borrows almost as much from Neil Simon and TV gag writers as he does from Woody.
Sarah Jessica Parker, believe it or not, plays Woody Allen here. With frizzy hair aflutter, she's uptight and jittery about everything, particularly marriage. She talks to her psychiatrist about how she'd like to get out of the marriage she's about to enter.
When she looks around her, she gets ample evidence to feed her fears. There is marital infidelity everywhere.
Her mother (Mia Farrow) is having a reluctant affair with grandma's Cuban nurse, played by the hunk Antonio Banderas. Her father (Paul Mazursky) suspects his wife, but he, in turn, is having a flirtation with his travel agent (Kelly Bishop).
Parker's younger sister (Carla Gugino) married a football hero (Bo Eason) who turns out to be both a bore and a skinflint. He drives his wife into an affair with one of her old high school flames.
Parker's brother (Kevin Pollack) discards his pregnant wife (Barbara Garrick) for the wife (Naomi Campbell) of his business partner.
It's one of those comedies in which there is a surprise lover behind every door. Things get further complicated when Parker develops a crush on Banderas - which leads to romantic competition with her own mother.
Parker is asked, for the first time, to carry a movie. She fulfills her duties with an energy that suggests she could be one of the screen's most-used comediennes, if only she could find more scripts like this.
Casting Mia Farrow as the mother is a signal that director-writer Frankel doesn't care in the least that he'll be even more easily identified with Woody Allen. Farrow uses the same timing she used in Woody's comedies. She does look a bit young, however, to be Parker's mother.
Miami scenery and golden-oldie pop tunes keep both the eyes and the ears diverted from some of the lamer dialogue.
The movie is nothing special, but it is a better Woody Allen imitation than those turned out by Rob Reiner or Nora Ephron. Presumably, it was to do for Miami what Woody did for ``Manhattan.'' (The original title was just ``Miami'').
It isn't in the same league, but it's still an amusing enough diversion. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Miami Rhapsody''
Cast: Sarah Jessica Parker, Mia Farrow, Paul Mazursky, Antonio
Banderas, Kevin Pollack, Kelly Bishop
Director and Writer: David Frankel
MPAA rating: PG-13 (talk about infidelity, some of it acted
out)
Mal's rating: 3 stars
Locations: Circle 4 in Norfolk; Lynnhaven 8 in Virginia Beach
by CNB