Leading Ladies: February 11, 2005
Heading to the movies this weekend? Find out what's worth your time according to the top women film critics at the nation's best publications. Every Friday morning we'll give you the female perspective on what to expect when the curtain rises.
A note about the links: Some sites require registration or are for paid subscribers, and some links are good for a limited time only.
Hitch
Stars: Will Smith, Eva Mendes, Kevin James
Director: Andy Tennant
Rating: PG-13
Will Smith's debut as a romantic-comedy leading man gets unanimous approval from the female critics this week. The Leading Ladies like his turn as Manhattan "dating doctor" Alex Hitchens so much, in fact, that they feel he single-handedly propels a clichéd romantic comedy into a good Valentine's Day weekend date flick.
The Miami Herald's Connie Ogle says Smith is an "endearing, driving comedic force, one who makes the buoyant Hitch more enjoyable than it has any reason to be." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Eleanor Ringel Gillespie says Smith's "to-the-camera monologues are every bit as good as Jude Law's in Alfie." And Salon's Stephanie Zacharek also falls under Smith's comedic charms, saying, "Few contemporary actors tease an audience onto his wavelength the way Smith does."
The critics also gave high praise to King of Queens sitcom star Kevin James as Albert, the nerdy accountant who seeks Hitch's counsel in winning over a beautiful socialite. "Easily equaling Smith's charm ‑- and that is saying something ‑- is James, as gifted at physical comedy as he is with the spoken kind," says the Philadelphia Inquirer's Carrie Rickey. And the Los Angeles Times's Carina Chocano says, "James is enormously likable and fresh in what must have looked like a fairly rote character on the page."
Female consensus: Will Smith as a comely Cupid is right on target
Inside Deep Throat
Stars: Linda Lovelace, Dennis Hopper, Norman Mailer
Director: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Rating: NC-17
Though it's still in limited release, plenty of female critics weighed in this week on the documentary that examines the lingering effects of 1972's seminal porn flick Deep Throat, the most financially successful film ever made. And while it may surprise some readers, the Leading Ladies found lots to applaud in this risqué outing.
The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday says the documentary is "an often lively investigation of the social forces that produced the original movie and made it an unlikely political shibboleth in the ongoing culture wars." The L.A. Times's Carina Chocano says the doc is "by turns funny and sobering, sweeping and intimate," and "consistently entertaining." And TV Guide's Maitland McDonagh says the movie about a movie reveals a "gold mine of giddy highs, stygian lows and colorful dramatis personae."
There is one negative criticism of the documentary several female critics share: its lack of depth in exploring the issue of women and pornography. The New York Times's Manohla Dargis says the movie is a "'slam, bam, thank you, ma'am' trifle of an entertainment" and that it's a shame the filmmakers "didn't work harder to understand why hard-core pornography sent some women into the streets and others behind cameras." The Chicago Tribune's Allison Benedikt says Inside Deep Throat "grabs you in the moment but leaves a distinct emptiness the morning after."
Female consensus: A provocative, entertaining quickie on the pornography wars
Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Stars: Brenda Blethyn, David Ogden Stiers
Director: Frank Nissen
Rating: G
It's good news all around for this most recent animated adaptation of A.A. Milne's classic stories, which introduces the Pooh posse's nemesis, the titular elephantlike Heffalump. The kids will like it and so will you, according to our Leading Ladies.
The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday says the movie is "lovely to look at and listen to, thanks mostly to a design and musical score that hark back to animation at its most classical." USA Today's Claudia Puig also commends the movie's "catchy songs by Carly Simon and an uplifting theme of accepting others' differences," while the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Eleanor Ringel Gillespie enjoys the "amusing throwaways, such as learning that Rabbit sleeps with his ears in rollers."
Female consensus: It will be Pooh-pular with the whole family
In limited release:
Bride & Prejudice is a Bollywood reworking of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, but Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum says, "This festively busy and exuberantly multicultural charmer is its own intriguingly postmodern creation." Of the Joe Mantegna family comedy Uncle Nino, the Chicago Tribune's Allison Benedikt says the movie is "all neat and sweet and one-dimensional, more the moral to a story than a story." The New York Daily News's Elizabeth Weitzman says, "Every action scene is a spectacularly choreographed set piece" in the martial arts action flick Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior.
