Product Description
-------------------
With an incredible all-star cast, this critically accled
comedy takes a hysterical look at the pleasures and pitfalls of
fortune and fame! Following their divorce, the lives of a
restless writer and his inhibited ex-wife take off in
outrageously unpredictable directions! While Lee (Kenneth Branagh
-- HAMLET, OTHELLO) explores the wilder side of his newfound
freedom, Robin (Judy Davis -- DECONSTRUCTING HARRY) begins an
improbable transformaiton from neurotic schoolteacher to
high-profile T.V. talk show host! Whether it's partying with
supermodels, sexy encounters with movie stars, or interviews with
the cream of high society, CELEBRITY offers you a riotous excuse
to rub shoulders with the kind of people we all love to
celebrate!
.com
----
Woody Allen's portrait of the celebrity life--as seen through
the eyes of a newly divorced couple--is a black-and-white, New
York-style La Dolce Vita that's a chillier flip side to Allen's
earlier New York valentine, Manhattan. Despite a few missteps,
though, it's an admirable (if dark) and worthy addition to the
Allen pantheon. Kenneth Branagh and Judy Davis (both boasting
American accents) star as the once-marrieds, each struggling to
build new, separate lives in a media-saturated, celebrity-driven
world. He tries his hands at celebrity profiles (while peddling a
screenplay to any star that will listen) and falls into the lap
of a bosomy starlet (Melanie Griffith), the first in a long line
of briefly attainable women. She runs into a producer (Joe
Mantegna) who offers her a job as a TV personality as well as a
loving relationship. This seemingly simple double plot is
punctuated with twists and turns in the form of flashbacks and
innumerable side trips, all ravishingly photographed in black and
white by the legendary Sven Nykvist, and populated by one of
Allen's largest casts ever; if you blink you'll miss countless
cameos by Isaac Mizrahi, Donald Trump, Hank Azaria, and a host of
others.
While Davis is splendid as usual (aside from the requisite
nervous breakdown scene she's done one too many times), somebody
should have told Branagh to put a kibosh on his Woody Allen
imitation, which is so impeccable as to become irritating. His
failure in the role, however, isn't entirely his fault, as it's
also another in a long line of unlikable male protagonists that
Allen has created, as if daring audiences to hate his main
characters after loving them in such movies as Manhattan and
Annie Hall. He's never more unlikable than in a painful sequence
in which he tags along with a spoiled, temperamental teen idol (a
shrewd and clever Leonardo DiCaprio) and proves himself the
quintessential noodge. Far more enjoyable misadventures with
Branagh include Charlize Theron in the film's best performance as
a libidinous supermodel with a penchant for echinacea; a stunning
Famke Janssen as a successful book editor Branagh almost moves in
with; and Winona Ryder, acting like an adult for the first time,
as an aspiring actress who catches Branagh's eye more than once.
All manage to slip through Branagh's fingers by the end of the
film.
Despite the film's lack of focus, Allen aficionados will want
this film for at least two wonderful moments, one in which Davis
seeks solace from a streetwise fortune teller after she's fleeing
her own wedding, and a beautiful nighttime scene in which Branagh
romances a captivated Ryder at a subway kiosk. Both episodes
prove that Allen, despite the fitful period he's moved into,
still has that movie magic. --Mark Englehart