Newspaper Page Text
Thrust Into the World
by Terry Francis
•Men Don't Leave irk 112
Men Don't Leave stars Jessica Lange as a
traditional American housewife thrust out into
the world after her husband is killed in a work-
related accident.
The film's opening sequences are its finest.
We see Lange care for her family in a matter-
of-fact way familiar to us from decades of
movies and television. She's cook, cleaner, and
peacemaker, and when her husband misplaces
something (and unkindly implies that Lange is
to blame), she happily accepts his veiled order
for her to find it
Yet all these scenes have a distinctive,
murky undertow. You get the impression that
Lange’s character works at suppressing private
feelings, of being ill-served by her husband, of
feeling trapped in her marriage.
There's a remarkable scene in which Lange
stands quietly outside her home, her face
bathed in moonlight, as she watches through a
window her husband and son horsing around
good-naturedly. The scene is unusual for the
ambiguousness that Lange brings to it: the cool
breeze that lyrically tosses her hair away from
her face reveals an expression luminous with
resignation. If that sounds contradictory, it's a
measure of Lange's gifts as an actress that she's
able to infuse the scene with a mixture of sad
ness and joy.
The rest of Men Don't Leave always seems
about to give us some new perceptions con
cerning known territory. Repeatedly the direc
tor Paul Brickman (he directed the offensive
Risky Business and wrote the beautiful, laconic
Handle With Care) sets up a standard predica
ment from a promising new angle only to back
down into Hollywood formula.
Thus the scene in which Lange's seventeen-
year-old son becomes involved with an older
woman (Joan Cusack giving a smashingly
eccentric performance) goes nowhere; her
younger son's involvement in a VCR theft ring
serves no real dramatic purpose; and Lange's
relationship with a musician doesn't appear to
be based on anything we can see.
There is also an early defect in the structure
that looms over the entire film. We are expect
ed to believe that Lange's husband, who owns
and manages a construction firm that employs
several workers, dies without leaving his fami
ly the protection of a life insurance policy.
Unbelievable, and a clumsy plot device to
force the job-hunting Lange and her family to
leave their movie-past hometown and settle in
the nearest sin city—Baltimore.
Basically, Men Don't Leave doesn't come to
anything much. It never deals with Lange's
very serious financial plight in any sort of
meaningful way (we're meant to believe that
she's going to support her family as a freelance
pastry chef). And that Lange's sort-of-
boyfriend supports himself as an instrumental
ist. Even if any of this is plausible, the picture
never convinces.
I would never never subscribe to any coda
in the arts. Many male directors have made
films that rendered truths about women's lives.
But I wish we had women filmmakers in
America who were doing work of the caliber of
the Australian Gillian Armstrong (High Tide,
Mrs. Soffet) and the Brazilian Suzana Amaral
(Hour of the Star), and who might have direct
ed this film with stronger conviction and
breadth of thought
Personally I'd like to see Lange have a go at
both directing and acting in a movie like Men
Don't Leave. The acting in this film makes it a
pleasant diversion, but in terms of telling us
anything we don't already know, it just isn't
there.
• Apartment Zero kkl/2
Colin Firth stars as the owner of a going-to-
seed cinema revival house in this handsomely
photographed thriller set in Buenos Aires. We
watch him as his mind slips deeper and deeper
into a mysterious agitation. This is partly in
response to his mother's own degenerative
mental disorder, and to the financial burden
placed on him by her hospitalization and his
unprofitable theater. He takes on an American
boarder (Hart Bochner) to ease his expenses,
and gradually becomes emotionally dependent
on him, even after he suspects the man is a
fraud.
The Bochner character is a sort of pan-sexu
al chameleon, fulfilling the fantasies of
whomever he's with.
As a growing subplot to all this, Buenos
Aires is being traumatized by a serial killer who
may be linked to the notorious Argentine death
squads.
The making of this film is very fine. Work
with the actors is astute and confident; the story
is shot in rich, burgundy tones; music is unusu
ally expressive of character; and there is a dis
tinctive mood of desolation, giving the film a
nightbloom fragrance and erotic, purpled
sheen. But the picture is a failure.
Technical assurance is undone here by a cor
responding narrative flaw. Director Martin
Donnavan has a weakness for sophomoric,
metaphysical angst, which he offensively
equates with the political terrorism and charred
soul of Argentine liberty. The influences on
the film are legion: Bunuel, Fassbinder (In a
Year of 13 Moons and Despair), Marco
Bellocchio, and certainly David Lynch (Blue
Velvet). But Donnavan is a bom filmmaker in
his own right. With a good script he might
establish himself next time out as an important
director. Apartment Tero is the work of a gen
uinely eccentric mind.
Just returned from
YEARLY BUYING SPREE
Best Selection Now
LOOSE GEMS
CRYSTALS
and always beautiful jewelry
Contemporary & Custom Jewelry
with Character try Lainey Papageorge
ULUMlNA |
1529-D Piedmont MON-THURS 11-6
Clear Creek Center FRI-SAT 11-8
(Across from Ansley Mall) 875-7617
Spring has Sprung,
get a bunnie for
your honey... or...
other fine gifts.
Jewelry • Crystals
• Affirmation/Healing books,
tapes and videos
Atlantis Connection
New Age Bookstore
1402 N. Highland
881-6511
Our 1st Anniversary
Celebration
March 26th - 31st
Free Gifts
Sale Items
Grand Prize Drawings
easL
ATLANTA
H
A
Ceiling Fan & Wheel Barrow
627-5757
1279 Glenwood Av©. (Near Flat Shoals)
Open Mon- Fri 8:30-6:30, Sat 8:30-5:00
Neighborhood Owned and Operated
tit
Portraits...
and More
Location Portraiture including
Gay or Lesbian Weddings
and Light Commercial
Photography
Call us for details
984-2743
Discretion Assumed ! !
SOUTHKKN
EHHSSH
"Taking Pride In Our Culture"
rfdventiduty, Sated,
Full or Part Time
Several positions available.
Commission + bonuses.
Sales experience preferred.
Send resume to: C. Cash, PO Box 18215, Atlanta, Georgia 30316
March 15,1990 • Southern Voice 111