|
Crazy In Alabama review
:. Director: Antonio Banderas
:. Starring: Melanie Griffith, David Morse
:. Running Time: 1:30
:. Year: 1999
:. Country: USA
|
In retrospect I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe that Almodovar's offspring would come up with something a little more offbeat and beautiful. Maybe that as a European taking a look at race relations in the U.S. during the Civil Rights movement a different colored light would show through that painful prism. I was not, however, expecting Thelma and Louise meets Mississippi Burning meets bad John Grisham courtroom drama. Alas, it was not to be.
Antonio Banderas's directorial debut leaves more than a little to be desired. Plot summary: Melanie Griffith plays Lucille, an Alabama housewife who decapitates her mean husband and takes off for Hollywood, carrying her husband's head in a hatbox. During this drive her husband talks to her in cheap voice overs. The second plot line is a somewhat melodramatic coming of age story during a tumultuous period in U.S. history. Her young nephew Peejoe (Lucas Black. Peejoe witnesses the murder of Taylor Jackson, a Black boy who is killed by the racist sheriff for swimming in an all white pool (Played by Meat Loaf, who seems to be getting all the interesting roles these days, from a lactating male in Fight Club to a racist sheriff in small town Alabama). Of course, this is also the sheriff that wants his beloved Aunt Lucille sent to prison, so compromises of sorts must be made during the ensuing trials. But not before a triumphant ending!! Yes, friends, it's that sort of movie. We see Alabama as the sparks fly during the Civil Rights movement through the eyes of a thirteen year old boy. We see a trip to Hollywood via New Orleans and Las Vegas through the eyes of wacky Aunt Lucille. And we see a boy stand up for what it right in the courtroom, to the surprise of everyone in the audience…
The symbolism of the movie is difficult to swallow because too much time is given to the story line of lesser importance. As Peewee tells us, Aunt Lucille killed for her freedom and Taylor Jackson had to die for his. We are supposed to see how they are intertwined with this line, but in reality it just proves that it was a mistake to string these two stories together. The time given to Aunt Lucille (looking like Elvira with a black wig) and her dream to be on Bewitched is more silly comedy that heart wrenching drama, and when coupled with the second story line's more somber tone, the result is too mixed up. The third and final part of the movie, the courtroom drama (Griffith's emerald dress is enough to make it ridiculous), is appalling for it's lack of creativity in the age of John Grisham and several TV shows devoted to the genre. Here is where loose ends are normally tied up, yet in this sequence they just unravel even more.
Melanie Griffith gives her usual ditzy "performance", looking decidedly more haggard than she does in print ads. David Morse, as her older brother Dove, plays his role soberly as a man who wants to protect his sister from harm as well as a man who believes in equal rights but is not going to push any envelopes to ensure people have them. Young Lucas Black gives a decent performance given the material he has to work with. The problem is that the characters are almost transparent caricatures of themselves. Meat Loaf is mean white guy, Peejoe is good white boy willing to stand up for what he believes in, and his uncle David Morse is OK white guy who won't go that far. Taylor Jackson becomes a martyr, but we don't get to know him as Taylor.
Banderas's first effort should be shelved under "Experience". A not very funny comedy, not very convincing civil rights upheaval in the South, and courtroom drama don't work. What may have worked, even in a cliché melodrama, is the friendship of the two boys in small town Alabama. Or a movie about an aging airhead's escapades on her way to Hollywood, a role that Cathy Moriarty could have played with much more gusto (Moriarty, incidentally, costarred with Banderas in his first American feature, The Mambo Kings). Or maybe Banderas could have directed an episode of Law and Order. But not both. And certainly not all three.
Anji Milanovic
 Movie Reviews: from 1998 to 2011
Movie Reviews: from 2012 to present
|
|
