THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 12, 1995 TAG: 9508130102
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
IF ROMANCE has never glowed with this sort of gossamer, amber, other-worldly translucence, it should have. After all, we're not talkin' real world here.
``A Walk in the Clouds'' puts style over substance. The result is one of this year's most visually stunning movies. Clouds hover magically in a blue sky over the vineyards of northern California's lush Napa Valley. A burning fire lights the sky with the most movieish afterglow since Rhett and Scarlett smooched in the light of burning Atlanta. Even a family dinner is bathed in yellow light that seems to come from within.
Director Alfonso Arau, in his first big Hollywood outing, was obviously intent upon creating another world - the world of ``magical realism'' that is so prevalent in the Latin literature of his heritage. He has done just that, and brilliantly. The emphasis, however, is on the magical rather than on the realism. Plotwise, this is totally predictable. But with this glow, do you also need suspense?
Everything is over-the-top in this movie. If you want realism, rent ``The Grapes of Wrath'' at the video store. These are the grape pretenders.
Keanu Reeves, the boy-child of the new crop of leading men, plays a returning World War II soldier whose wartime bride doesn't meet him at the ship. When he finds her, he learns she didn't even read his letters from the front.
Dejected, he takes off to sell his boxes of chocolate. He meets a stunning woman first on a train and then on a bus (shades of ``Speed,'' but with the foot off the accelerator.) With tears in her eyes, she reveals that she is on her way to her family home, a wealthy vineyard estate in the Napa Valley. She's in trouble, pregnant and with no husband. Her father is an ultra-stern type who believes in family honor. She claims he'll not only disown her - he may kill her.
Reeves volunteers to return with her, pose as her husband for one night, and then disappear. He'll get all the blame and papa will think the baby had a legitimate father.
It doesn't take a Sherlock Holmes to predict that the two will fall in love. But there is that small problem of his wife.
Critics find Reeves' low-key delivery bland. He's getting a bum rap. He isn't the usual movie hero, but that's all to the good. His character is perhaps unbelievably understanding and vulnerable but there should be a place in the world, even in movies, for a guy like him.
And the women are going to go for him in a big way. Leaving the pumped-up ``Speed'' look behind, Reeves is so sensitive and so likably naive that every woman in the world may well want to mother him.
The new discovery from Spain, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, is Victoria Aragon, the woman who first needs him and then seems to support him.
The legendary Anthony Quinn creates yet another of his life-is-joyful characters as the grandpa; there's a delightful dose of Zorba the Greek in him.
Arau is a Mexican actor who dates back to ``The Wild Bunch'' cast and created a phenomenon directing his art-house hit ``Like Water for Chocolate,'' which became the top grossing foreign-language movie in U.S. history. It was also obsessed with other-worldly style, but it had a more mischievous bent. ``A Walk in the Clouds'' is almost too serious for its own melodrama.
If ``too romantic'' bothers you, this is not for you, but the dating guys may well benefit from the glow Keanu, and the film, will evince. ILLUSTRATION: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX PHOTOS
[Color Photos]
Keanu Reeves in "A Walk in the Clouds"
Aitana Sanchez-Gijon so-stars with Reeves in the World War II
romance, set in California wine country.
FILM REVIEW
"A WALK IN THE CLOUDS"
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Anthony Quinn, Giancarlo
Giannini
Director: Alfonso Arau
MPAA rating: PG-13 (brief sexual clinch)
Mal's rating: ***
by CNB