FILM' REVIEW
Tremble at De Niro’s tattoos and go offto war with Melanie Griffith— The List offers a comprehensive, at-a-glance review spread of all new films opening this fortnight in Central Scotland.
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l Cape Fear(ls) Martin Scorsese‘s remake of]. Lee Thompson's 1963 original pushes back the boundaries ofwhat is acceptable in the name of big screen entertainment. , Robert De Niro is truly
terrifyingas whitetrash
3 psycho Max (‘adyx out of prison after a
fourteen-year stretch and after the defence lawyer (Nick Noltc) who withheld evidence to make sure he was put away.
By basing the ensuing scares on such a moral see-saw. Scorsese ensures that there is much more going on here than in a typical psycho-stalker thriller. The main female characters are always more than just objectsto be terrorised and are at the centre ofthe film‘s symbolic destruction of the ideal American family unit. But all this doesn‘t obscure the fact that this is the scariest movie ofthe year so far. That already infamous scene in which (‘ady seduces the object of Bowden's extra-marital affections before graphically tearing a chunk out of her cheek would make Hannibal Lecter choke on his liver and Chianti. (AM)
I Cross My Heart ( 12)
i Whentwelve-year-old Martin‘s mother dies. his schoolfriends band together to keep her death a secret from the
authorities and save him from being sent toan orphanage.
Writer directorlacques l-‘ansten delivers a wonderfully unsentimental view of childhood. whcrc notions of friendship and what is right and w rong have not
been tarnished by the pressures of adulthood. See preview on previous page. (AM)
an American university and so attempts to achieve
FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLE STOP : CAFE
In this sentimental Southern drama, overweight and undervalued Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) finds solace from the travails of a mid-life crisis in the enthralling stories told by eccentric octogenarian Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy). as she recalls dramatic past events surrounding the busy cafe in her home town of Whistle Stop, Alabama.
Run jointly by the tomboyish ldgie (Mary Stuart Masterson) and her God-fearing best friend Ruth (Mary Louise Parker), the thriving business is threatened when the local Ku Klux Klan warn of reprisals against the cale's policy of serving coloured customers. ldgie finds herself and the girls’ trusty black handyman Big George (Stan Shaw) on trial for the town's most notorious unsolved murder. The chronicle of courage and ingenuity that follows, as all concerned light together to reverse their predicament, offers both hope and inspiration for Evelyn, who takes herself in hand, cuts down on her massive chocolate intake, and slowly regains some self-respect.
Awkward title and ungainly dramatic structure aside, it’s something of a surprise to report that, tor a film starring Jessica Tandy and boasting female characters named ldgie, Ninny and Sipsey, this isn’t quite as overwhelmingly ‘heart-warming' as
one might have feared. Indeed, just about every time things look to be getting too icky for words, Fannie Flagy's screenplay throws in a tragic twist, a brooding hint of violence or a slew of eccentric plot details-from double-dealing ministers to mysterious barbecue sauces. All in all, Fried Green Tomatoes may never rank as the most tantalising item on the menu, but they make a llavoursome little dish nonetheless. (Trevor Johnston)
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (12) (Jon Avnet, US, 1991) Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson. 130 mins. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr. All UCls.
the dreams that have always been beyond her impoverished families possibilities. She discovers The Old Man
A m! The Sea. a novella by her neighbour Ernest Hemingway. and draws
and her own struggles. A
deceptively simple film
carried by a faultless
performance by Laura de I laL'z.(AM)
I Hello Hemingway ( 12) In 1951)s('uba. a young girl applies for a scholarship to
15 life List 13 —— 3b March 19‘):
parallels bewteen its story :
LATE FOR DINNER
Santa Fe, 1962, and the kindly but rather dorkish duo of Brian Wimmer and Peter Berg find themselves on the run from the law after a shoot-out with an unscrupulous Real Estate tycoon. Wounded and in need of medical attention, they end up in the clutches of the appropriately-named Chilblains (Bo Brundin), who reckons they'll make perfect human participants for his croogenics experiments, and without knowing much about it, the two guys are frozen solid for almost 30 years.
Left to wander bemused through 1991's tougher, less caring America, they decide to seek out the nearest and dearest they left behind three decades previously, but who've long since put the pair down as missing presumed dead. Understandably, Wimmer is cautious about meeting his wife (Marcia Gay Harden oi Miller’s Crossing fame), who’s since remarried, and afterthe lengthy climactic reconciliation scene lapses into mawkish slush, it begins to dawn on the viewer that the whole ill-conceived trip has scarcely been worth the effort.
DirectorW.D. Richter, who previously helmed the cult attraction The Adventures oi Buckaroo Banzai, seems to have aimed at combining the stuff of comic-strip entertainment with sensitive, meaningful adult drama, yet like the singularly underwhelming title
Fried Green Tomatoes: ‘aliavoursomelittle dish' !
Late For Dinner: ‘pretty wishy-washy stuff' ;
it's all wishy-washy stuff that barely g
cuts it on either count. Framed by a deeply misguided gooty narration from the slightly ‘backward’ Berg character, this is a tale told by an idiot that signifies not very much at all. (Trevor Johnston)
Late tor Dinner (PG) (W.D. Richter, US, 1991) Brian Wimmer, Peter Berg, Marcia Gay Harden, Peter Gallacher. 93 mins. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Edinburgh: UCI.