THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 20, 1995 TAG: 9510200064
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALAN CHANG, TEENOLOGY MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
IT'S TWO DAYS before the end of the decade, the century and the millennium. The whole world is having wild parties to welcome the big ``2K.'' That is, the whole world except for Lenny Nero, who is experiencing the strangest days of his life.
In ``Strange Days,'' Ralph Fiennes plays Nero, a sleazy ex-cop and a coward who people hate and commiserate with at the same time.
Nero relies on his charm to smuggle what people call ``clips,'' accounts of sordid and violent experiences.
In the wild imagination of writer James Cameron (producer of ``Terminator 2: Judgment Day''), human technology has advanced so much by the year 2000 that we can record a piece of someone's life on these ``clips'' and re-live it on ``the wire.''
Maybe it's possible. But today, this highly addictive machine seems like an attempt to represent drugs.
Nero's illegal activities finally get the best of him when he receives an anonymous ``clip'' from a psycho. It contains the violent death scene of Faith, a cheap rock star who used to be Lenny's main crush. When Lenny finds out that Faith, played by Juliette Lewis, is in danger of being killed by the maniac, he tries to rescue Faith and his best friend, Mace, played by Angela Bassett.
Mace is a character that audiences will love and admire. Throughout the movie, she is the moral conscience for Nero and tries to snap him out of his fake fantasies on the ``wire,'' pressuring him to live in reality.
The two are eventually involved in an intricate murder case involving another clip, the Los Angles Police Department and a possible New Year's Eve riot.
Director Kathryn Bigelow tried to cram this intriguing but complicated plot into 2 1/2 hours, but the film seems to never end. The unusual angles, loud noises and jump-cuts from scenes add chaos to the movie. Watching this for 20 minutes is exhausting.
A major problem in this movie is that loud background noises muffle the characters' dialogue. Worst of all, Fiennes seems to mumble his way through the movie, which makes understanding him a challenge.
Despite the incomprehensible speaking, ``Strange Days'' is still a great futuristic and romantic thriller. With state-of-the-art visual effects by the Oscar-winning company Digital Domain, the audience gets a taste of a heart-pumping end-of-the-century celebration on the streets of L.A. MEMO: ``Strange Days'' is rated R. Children under 17 not admitted without a
parent of guardian. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Alan Chang is a senior at Kempsville High School.
by CNB