This is not a film for the weak-stomached.  This is a very real, gritty and non-glamorous look at drug abuse and a revelation of its many forms and faces.  Darren Aronofsky does an impressive job directing a cast that doesn’t “wow” anyone in name (Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Ellen Burstyn and Christopher MacDonald), but certainly does in performance, particularly Burstyn, who was nominated for an Academy Award for this role.

Harry Goldfarb (Leto) is a lazy ne’er-do-well breaking into the adulthood in Brooklyn who happens to have a little heroin issue.  He’s been supporting his habit by stealing his mother’s television and selling it, only to have her purchase it back on a regular basis from the same resale vendor.  Harry feels guilty, but not that guilty.

Harry’s in love with Marion Silver (Connelly), an aspiring designer with a teeeensy weeeensy cocaine addiction.  In fact, he loves her so much, that he and his best buddy Tyrone (Wayans) decide that if they give this whole drug-dealing thing a whirl, they can put away enough money to open up a store for Marion and live the proverbial dream.

Of course, it’s not as easy as it looks.  Harry and Tyrone have some devastating run-ins with the police and with some big-time dealers.  Marion’s addiction drives her to desperate measures for a fix.  Meanwhile, Harry’s mother Sara (Burstyn) is becoming dependent on diet pills in a fervent quest to fit into a red dress for an elusive television appearance.  All of these characters hit rock bottom, revealing the true evil of drug addiction and how it spins lives out of control.

I know that Aronofsky’s directing style isn’t everyone’s favorite, but I think that this is one film that it fits.  The actual use of the drugs isn’t glorified or even spotlighted.  This is a story about what drug addiction does to people, not about people using drugs.  These aren’t street rats who were born addicts.  They are real people.  They have dreams.  I believe that this film can make people think twice before experimenting with drugs.  It’s that powerful.

The highlight of this film is Burstyn, in all her glory.  You’ll want to cry when she’s having coffee with Harry and speaking of her lonely life, filled with nothing but television and chatty Brooklyn biddies.  This is why her quest for the red dress consumes her.  The refrigerator gains a personality as she increases her dosage of the uppers.  Christopher MacDonald plays an infomercial personality who acts almost as a spirit guide directing her throughout her quest.  Her performance is absolutely dazzling.

As I mentioned above, this film is certainly not for the queasy.  If you think you can handle some rather graphic images, I strongly recommend this movie; if for nothing else, for Ellen Burstyn’s superb performance.

Clever and cute - This comedy from screenwriter Robbie Fox and director Thomas Shlamme, starring Mike Myers and Nancy Travis, is funny without going over-the-top or crippling itself with forced character chemistries and abrupt scene transitions like a lot of other 90’s comedies.

Charlie Mackenzie (Myers) has a commitment-phobia that has eventually ruined all of his relationships.  He reminisces about these women through beat poetry at a coffee shop.  This is his routine.  Until he meets Harriet Michaels (Travis), a butcher, when he stops in to buy haggis one day.  Everything is sweet as punch, until Charlie catches a glimpse of an article in the Weekly World News (which his mother refers to as “the paper”) about Mrs. X, a black widow who marries men around the country and murders them on their honeymoon.  He finds similarities in the names, places and details of the victims of Mrs. X and the men in Harriet’s past.  Of course, he fears this must mean that he is next, but his best pal Tony (Anthony LaPaglia) tells him he’s just letting his phobia scare him away as usual.  So, who’s right?

One of my favorite things about this movie, aside from its enjoyable simplicity, is the way it captured the time.  Having been released in 1993, the epitome of the 90’s coffee shop, flannel and jeans, clean grunge (as opposed to dirty grunge) that we all remember from mall trips and Snapple commercials, is so successfully captured. In the same vein, it has a great soundtrack, including Myers’ fun beat poetry from the film and a cover of “There She Goes” by the Boo Radley’s (my favorite take on this song, by the way).

There are a few notable cameos.  Myers also plays the role of Charlie’s Scottish father, Stuart, who is very reminiscent of Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers movies.  Also, the Alcatraz tour guide, played by Phil Harman, is named John Johnson, “but everyone here calls me ‘Vicky’”.  A small engine pilot is played by Steven Wright as well.  All are great, especially Hartman (as usual).

All of that said, I’m a huge fan of this movie.  It’s funny and quotable (like most Myers films) and has some snippets, like the Fat Bastard predecessor, that you can recognize budding and see developed in later Myers movies.  In the box office rush between Wayne’s World, Austin Powers and Shrek, this is a significant piece of the Mike Myers puzzle that everyone should see.  I guarantee you’ll laugh.

Mockumentary fans, rejoice!  The team that brought you This Is Spinal Tap, Best In Show and A Mighty Wind also thought up my personal favorite - Waiting For Guffman.  Christopher Guest does the directing, Guest and Eugene Levy do the writing (even though it’s mostly ad-lib), and they both star, along with Catherine O’Hara, Fred Willard and Parker Posey in this complete mockery of small-time stage performing wrapped around a collective and incredible dry wit.

The small town of Blaine, Missouri is planning a sesqui-centennial celebration (that’s 150 years) and the town celebrity, Corky St. Clair (Guest), has been asked to assemble a team of local talent and put on a stage play about their town and its founding for the event.  After open auditions, the small cast is chosen and consists of Libby Mae Brown (Posey), Dr. Allan Pearl (Levy), Sheila and Ron Albertson (O’Hara and Willard), Johnny Savage (Matt Keesler) and the narrator, Clifford Wooley (Lewis Arquette).  Practices begin and the team comes together well, at least in their own minds.  When they receive a letter from Mort Guffman, some New York producer’s leg-work man, the group decides - for some reason - that this must mean they have a shot at Broadway.

I cannot comment sufficiently on the genius of this cast.  Willard is perfect.  Levy is absolutely gut-splitting.  Posey is a natural.  Guest is great.  And the absolute diamond, O’Hara, is unbelievable every second on screen.  The minor characters, save a very few, are equally brilliant, from Brian Doyle Murray to Bob Balaban.

This is such a true-to-life mockumentaries that you literally feel so badly for these people.  They are hoping for Broadway and they are complete jokes.  I mean completejokes.  You must see the audition scenes.  Some horrid singing, acting and O’Hara subtlely saying her partner’s lines.  It’s like the worst of American Idol, only they are being told they’re good by the key leaders of Blaine, rather than being told they’re terrible by Simon Cowell.

If you have ever been involved in any kind of a church play, school play, town play or musical, you simply must - MUST - see this film.  The rest of you will get a kick out of it, too.  It’s my favorite of the mockumentary selections.  In fact, it’s in my top 5 movies of all time.

Here’s a vampire movie for ya.  Sean Patrick Flanery is your lead.  The lesser-known Charlotte Ayanna is the vamp.  The directing team is Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman, who also co-wrote the script, along with J.R. McGarrity.  With a good-looking guy like Flanery, who’s also a talented actor, leading the scenes and a beautiful former Miss Teen USA as his object of forbidden amore, you might wonder why you haven’t heard much about this film.  The answer is - because it’s really not very good.

Harry Balbo is a virtual loser whose only pride in life thus far has been being the MVP at his corporate cubicle-laden office.  He moonlights as the emergency maintenance man at his apartment complex.  Going about his usual Big Slurpee and a hot dog ritual at the end of his day puts him right in the wrong place at the right time.  He witnesses a sassy bum getting the holy guacamole sucked right out of him in an alley by Tatiana (Ayanna), a she-vampire who’s beauty strikes Balbo so crushingly, he almost doesn’t care that she’s just drained a man of his heart-juice.  Upon learning that she’s responsible for killings in the area, and that she often uses her victims as lovers before finally sucking them dry, he decides he must stop her.  And figures it might be nice to be her new lover.

Flanery, a guy who’s high-life hit with Simply Irresistible and The Boondock Saints in 1999 after being the face of the young Indiana Jones the same year, should still be flying high.  I’m really not sure why he does crappy films like The Insatiable.  He’s done major television appearances (The Dead Zone, The Twilight Zone, CSI, Charmed and more), but can’t seem to get to “it boy” status in Hollywood.  It’s a shame, really.  Maybe he just has a lousy agent.  At any rate, he’s really the only good actor in the bunch.  Ayanna is hot, but not good.  I don’t blame her for that as much as I do the writing/directing team for giving her lame lines and making us believe that she could be caged for a week or two and never need a shower, a reapplication of lip gloss or a toilet, for that matter.  Her lines were just as ridiculous.

I don’t know who Joe Huertas is or where he came from.  He plays a horrid jerk at Balbo’s office who can’t get enough of himself and loves to rip Balbo for nearly everything.  The first couple of scenes with him, I thought, “This guy is terrible”, but as the film went on, I couldn’t wait for him to come back on screen.  He’s funny.  I looked him up and found he’s appeared on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and Prison Break.  Someone who will not have you looking forward to their scenes is Michael Biehn.  Then again, I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to a Michael Biehn scene in anything.

This story is really lame.  The extras were awful.  The dialogue couldn’t have sounded more written.  That’s a bad thing.  Good dialogue isn’t supposed to sound like someone plunked it out on a keyboard.  It was very distracting for me.  One of the biggest directing “oopsies” was when Tatiana bites into *someone’s* arm and yanks it off.  This person falls on the floor and - It’s a miracle!  His arm is back!  Come on, guys.  You can do better than that.

All of that said, I still think it fair to mention that while the story was stupid, the acting was often icky and the dialogue was usually a joke, this movie is really eerily entertaining.  If you don’t like cheesy horror, I think this would be a waste of your time, but if you get a kick out of it, give this one a whirl.  There are those moments that will redeem it, but only for the true fans of B horror.

What do you get when you take 2 parts Samuel L. Jackson, 1 part Julianne Moore and a quarter cup of Edie Falco?  I’ll tell you what I got.  I got a good cast.  But when I let this mixture simmer in a pot of Richard Price and stirred constantly with my Joe Roth, I found I had a delectible development.  Oh, by the way, the movie’s called Freedomland.

Brenda Martin (Moore) explains to Detective Lorenzo Council (Jackson) the details of her carjacking.  One little bitty detail had been left out of her story to the other officers; her 4-year-old son was sleeping in the backseat.  A search ensues, collecting manpower from the middle class town of Gannon, while the projects in Armstrong, where Martin’s carjacking took place, becomes the collective criminal in the minds of the majority of the citizens in and around the area.  Racial tensions swell and burst right when Council’s suspicions of only having part of the story are finally confirmed.

I don’t want to talk too much about this movie and if you can see it without having too much of the plot revealed, you’re lucky.  It’s a very good film; not on anyone’s top 10 list, but still very good.  The kudos go to Richard Price who, not only wrote the screenplay, but also the novel on which it is based (Roth, mentioned above, directed, by the way).  The characters are extremely strong.  Even the minor characters have very solid voices.  Even though you know from the beginning that the truth hasn’t fully come out, you’re still guessing until the end.

Sam Jackson, who, in my opinion, typically weaves between good acting and cliche quite a bit, strikes gold with his portrayal of Council.  Catch him at the very end when he sees his son.  I cried.  Julianne Moore seems to have scores of fans, although I am not one of them.  I feel that the attention she’s received from dramatic roles is typically undeserved.  Her best acting, in my opinion, has been her comedic roles (The Big Lebowski, Cookie’s Fortune, Benny & Joon).  Honestly, I was tired of her from the first scene, but then again, I admittedly have a chip on my shoulder when it comes to Moore.  Aunjanue Ellis as Felicia, a woman from Armstrong, doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but shines when she does.  The real diamond from an acting standpoint was undoubtedly Edie Falco.  Watch for the scene where she’s telling Brenda Martin her personal story.  Yes, it’s good writing, but Falco is beyond flawless; she’s pristine.

The racial clash does have a tendency to overplay its hand as well.  It’s not over-the-top, though.  All-in-all this story is nearly poetic from Council’s grasp of the moment in the hospital with Martin to the pensive attention Karen Collucci (Falco) leans to Council in the end.

This is absolutely a film that I would recommend to anyone; especially parents.  You’ll kiss your little munchkins a little sweeter and hold them a little nearer tonight.

Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan teamed up for the third installment of this series to make Rush Hour 3.  Brett Ratner, who also directed the first two Rush Hours, sat in the director’s chair once again for this film.  The screenplay came from Jeff Nathanson.  It was also the first major role before American audiences for French actress Noémie Lenoir.

At the film’s opening, LAPD officer James Carter (Chris Tucker) has been busted down to a traffic corner and Chief Inspector Lee is back in his bodyguard role over the Chinese Ambassador.  Then the assassins enter the scene and make an attempt on the Ambassador’s life.  Carter hears the news over his police radio and assumes he’s the man for this job.  Lee takes off on foot after the bad guy.  Soo Yung comes to check on her father and persuades Lee and Carter to give her their word that they will find the man who tried to assassinate the Ambassador.  As it turns out, her life is also in danger.  There’s a generations-old secret that some are killing to keep secret and others are killing to uncover and the key is a French woman in Paris.  Lee and Carter jump a plane.

The always funny Chris Tucker is the sole reason this film is even watchable.  The plot is ridiculous and some scenarios were so off-the-wall, they seemed cartoonish.  Carter and Lee have no questions to answer when hospitals and freeways are shot up and torn apart.  Carter is stripped of his gun by French detecitve Revi (played, oddly enough, by Roman Polanski) and in the very next scene, somehow he pulls a gun out of the air and puts it to a cabby’s head.  Of all the things that were overlooked, the most absurd has got to be the very end.  Lee and Carter have risked their lives to save this girl.  But as the credits roll, they just walk off and leave her!  Edwin Starr starts playing and they forget that sects of lunatics around the world are trying to kill or capture this girl and they dance off into the night.

I enjoyed the first Rush Hour.  It wasn’t an amazing movie, but Tucker and Chan have an amazing chemistry on screen.  The second one, I can’t seem to really remember much from, other than Chris Tucker singing karaoke.  This one was a complete let down.  I’m sure there are plenty of people who saw it and enjoyed it, but I have a hard time enjoying an action movie where guns are being fired and cars are skidding into traffic and everyone walks away without a scratch.  I’m not sure where the fault lies, but I would have to assume I wouldn’t be wrong if I pointed my finger at Nathanson on this one.  Honestly, I felt like there was a point in at least every other scene where I was thinking, “Oh come on…”

While Jackie Chan is always entertaining to watch and Chris Tucker is always going to deliver that line funnier than it was written, it’s still not enough to make this film good.  Not to mention the fact that the fight choreography was so boring.  Chan’s was great.  But that’s it.  Even Soo Yung, who was introduced as a Kung Fu teacher in Chinatown (Right, the daughter of the Ambassador of China teaches Kung Fu in LA) never showed off any fighting prowess.  She kicked a few guys and threw some bent elbows in the air, but that was about it.  The climax had Chan in a big fight scene, but Tucker was just standing there with four bad guys for most of it.  Then - for no real reason - they decided it was time to fight and Carter took out all four of them, besting their karate chops with his, um, fists, I guess.

If you’ve seen the first two and you feel like you’d be missing something if you didn’t see this movie, knock yourself out.  If you want to watch a good movie tonight, pass this one by.

Virtually the entire writing team from the television show put in their 2 cents to - finally - make The Simpsons Movie.  The task of directing went to David Silverman, who also directed The Road To El Dorado, several Treehouse Simpsons episodes and co-directed Monsters, Inc.  In addition to the TV team (Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Yeardly Smith, Julie Kavner, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, etc.) were the voices of Albert Brooks, Tom Hanks and the members of Green Day.

Abe Simpson puts on a prophetic display in church predicting the fall of Springfield.  Homer is the catalyst, whose lack of concern for anyone but himself is the propeller that sends Springfield into endangerment.  As a result, the Simpsons are hunted by the townspeople and the government until an epiphany divinely grips Homer, thanks to an Eskimo woman.  As you can imagine, the side stories in the film are plentiful, including Lisa and an environment-loving Irish boy, Marge and Homer’s thin marital foundation and Bart choosing Ned Flanders over the ever-disappointing Homer.  Once Homer learns his lessons, he sets out to set things right between himself and his wife, his son, and his town.

Of course there are plenty of moments that force you to realize you are watching a PG-13 movie and not just another Simpsons episode.  Bart, for example, not only gets drunk in a scene, but skateboards to Krusty Burger naked.  And yes, there’s a little yellow package that makes its way to the screen.  This movie is not intended for children, which is why it has the rating that it does and carries so much humor that children just aren’t going to “get”. 

This is not the best thing to ever come out of the Simpsons team, but it is a funny movie that fans of the show will enjoy.  It has its moments of less-than-amazing plot, but nothing to encourage passing this picture by.  The main thing that kept me from loving the film was that some plot points were visited too long and others could have used a little extra time.  I would have loved to see more with Lisa and her beau - perhaps something we haven’t seen in an episode.  I would also have enjoyed seeing something more substantial come out of the Bart/Ned relationship - that we haven’t already seen in an episode.  On the other hand, I could not have been more tired of scenes with Russ Cargill (voice by Albert Brooks).  This character was funny in the first few scenes, but then got very dull.

In the humor department, this film definitely does not disappoint.  The wit of the movie is very much the wit of the show and, I think, displays more siblingship with the 5th or 6th season than some of the not-so-funny later seasons (however, it is not nearly the calibur of the 3rd and 4th seasons, which I believe to be the best).

I’ve read some desparaging reviews on this movie, but I can’t agree with them.  Anyone who loves The Simpsons (which is virtually everyone) should see this movie.  It’s not going to blow your mind, but you’ll be glad you saw it.

David Koepp adapted this script from the novel by Richard Matheson.  Koepp also directs this film, which stars Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Zachary David Cope and Illeana Douglas.  It’s about a young boy who sees dead people.  Please hear me out.

Jake Whitzky (Cope) is a young boy who’s “got the eyes on him”.  His father, Tom (Bacon), after goofing around with hypnosis at a party, has his eyes opened, too - but only slightly.  Tom sets out to decode his dreams and visions, then realizes that his son knows many of the answers he’s searching for.  Tom’s wife Maggie (Erbe) is skeptical, then becomes scared when Tom’s obsession in solving his mysteries makes him lose interest in going to work and even showering.  Tom’s mind begins to play tricks on him; or maybe it’s just hinting at answers to his riddles.  When Tom uncovers the truth, he realizes that his obsession has put his entire family in danger and he must reassess what is truly important in order to save himself, his family and a forgotten runaway.

This film was overshadowed by The Sixth Sense, which was released the same year.  While M. Night Shyamalan is obviously a writer/director who deserves respect, I think that Stir of Echoes is a more gripping tale.  It’s not merely a mystery as The Sixth Sense really is.  The twists and turns in Stir of Echoes are revealed through Tom’s dreams in a way that is cinematically admirable, rather than a simple “Gotcha” at the end.

This is one of my favorite Bacon roles.  I think little Zachary David Cope deserves some recognition for his work here, too.  Unfortunately, other than a bit part in The Wedding Singer, you can’t find much more of him.  This film was released in 1999, so I’d love to find out what kind of actor this young man has turned out to be.  He was, by the way, nominated for a Young Artists Award for his performance in this film.

If you are under the impression that this film is too much like The Sixth Sense to warrant your time - think again.  It is not the same film by any means.  Most importantly, Keopp gives you a haunting air that will stick with you.  I slept with the light on

Director Ron Howard does it again.  Matthew MacConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Ellen Degeneres and Woody Harrelson star in this immensely funny witticism about life.

True TV, a reality television station, decides to follow one person with 24/7 surveillance.  Ed Pekurney (MacConaughey) is chosen by Ellen Degeneres and Rob Reiner, the True TV executives.  He’s an average guy, who works in a video store, dreams of his brother’s sweet girlfriend (Elfman), idolizes Burt Reynolds and really wants nothing more than a beer at the end of his day.

Being a reality television star changes all that and much more.  His budding relationship is unable to blossom due to the lack of privacy and the fact that Ed is the “Menudo” of reality television.  Ed makes the most of it, with Leno appearances, Pepsi sponsorships and even a little model dating.  The fun stops when Ed’s entire family is exploited and the fad of fame becomes drab.  When the executives tell him he will be on the air for 3 more months, Ed uses his voice to America to turn the attention to the station executives.

A thoroughly enjoyable film.  I love Ellen Degeneres and found her quite charming in this role, particularly when her loyalties lean toward Ed and stray from True TV.  This film is, in fact, wonderfully casted.  With Elizabeth Hurley as a camera-loving model, Martin Landau and Dennis Hopper as Ed’s dads and Clint Howard as a “guy who eats three meals a day” in the Edtv truck, you can’t miss.

Additionally, Ron Howard does a fantastic job of creating this world for us.  This film was, unfortunately, overshadowed by the Truman Show, which came out the same year.  This is a much better film…if you ask me.

This hilarious screw-ball comedy from Director Peter Bogdanovich stars Barbra Streisand as Judy Maxwell and Ryan O’Neal as Howard Bannister (”As in ’sliding down the…’”).  This is one of those 70’s films in the vein of “It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World” that keep your sides split wide open.  Don’t shy away from Babs playing the lead.  She is at her peak in every way in the role of this girl who attracts, and looks for, trouble.

Howard Bannister and his maternally-bent fiance Eunice Burns, played by Madeline Kahn in her screen debut, stay at the Bristol Hotel in San Francisco for a musicologists convention at which Bannister is contending with Hugh Simon (Kenneth Mars) for a $20,000 grant from the Larabee Foundation.  Sounds simple enough, until Judy Maxwell catches a glimpse of Bannister and proceeds to interfere in every avenue of his life.  Bannister is the most scatter-brained man you’ve ever seen, but after Maxwell brings “havoc and chaos to everyone”, he appears a new man by the time the credits roll.  This is not to mention the 4 identical overnight bags that hold Bannister’s igneous rocks, Maxwell’s underwear, a wealthy woman’s jewels, and top-secret government documents that get mixed up in nearly every scene and unite at the home of Mr. Larabee (Austin Pendleton) in a gun fight, pie fight, fist fight scene that culminates in a car chase, ending only when the cars drive off a pier into the San Francisco Bay.

This comedy doesn’t miss a beat.  The funnies truly are funny and even the semi-funnies are hilarious.  The cast of this film is perfect.  John Hillerman and Randy Quaid even stop in for quick cameos.  Bogdanovich got story credit, but screenwriting credit went to Buck Henry, who also wrote “The Graduate”, “Town and Country” and lots more. 

The one who steals the screen, in my opinion, is Madeline Kahn.  Eunice Burns is a “dangerously unbalanced woman” who needs to be needed more than anything in the world.  When she takes a cab to 459 Durella Street and allows squeaks to slip from her throat when she sees the men, who are obviously not with the Larabee Foundation, threatening one another with Bannister’s rocks, I laughed out loud.

Again, don’t let Babs scare you away from this thoroughly enjoyable film.  It’s this reviewers favorite comedy of all time.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck return to their personal roots of South Boston for this character-driven dramatic piece.  Director Gus Van Sant enters into this world with them, and with us, as we learn about love, life, the human psyche, and above all, friendship.

Damon and Affleck (who wrote the script together and won an Oscar for it, despite large suspicion of a ghost writer taking on the lion’s share of the work), along with Casey Affleck (Ben’s brother) and Cole Hauser, portray 4 guys who are the kind of friends that stick to one another’s ribs. They would probably grow old and die in Southie if it weren’t for Will Hunting (Damon) and his pesky gift for mathematics.   A run-in with the law gives Hunting the option of jail time or dividing his time between cracking mathematical codes and meeting with psychologist Sean Maguire, played by Robin Williams who picked up an Academy Award for his incredible performance in this role.  Maguire breaks through Hunting’s emotional walls, helping him to finally understand his past, his future and his girl (Minnie Driver).

I’ve heard people complain about Van Sant’s directing style in this film, but I found it spectacular.  The ceiling shot when Maguire tells the story of Pudge Fisk in Game 6.  The intimacy of Will Hunting’s breakdown moment.  The ducks.  And the line of mathematicians begging for Hunting’s assistance when Chuckie (B. Affleck) poses as Will and tells the men to “keep [their] ear to the grindstone.”

Additionally, Minnie Driver shines so brightly as the girl that everyone always wanted, many fellas walked out of the theatre with a new crush.  She’s given some fine performances since, but nothing quite this pure.

 Personally, I saw this film 8 times in the theatre.  There have been many films since that have attempted to steal its charm, but none have pulled off the feeling you get when Chuckie knocks on Will’s door or when Maguire checks his mailbox.

Also known as Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, this take on one of Shakespeare’s most reknowned works stars Leonard Whiting as Juliet’s “only love” and Olivia Hussey as Romeo’s “lady”.  A more familiar face is that of Michael York in the role of Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin.  Although it’s uncredited, you may also recognize the voice of Laurence Olivier as the voice of the Narrator.

Romeo is a Montague.  Juliet, a Capulet.  Their families have been at a literal war in “three civil brawls bred of an airy word”.  When at first they meet, neither realizes that the other is sprung from their “only hate”.  They fall in love and elope.  That’s when everything truly goes wrong.  Juliet has been promised to Count Paris.  Romeo is banished by the prince.  With the help of Friar Lawrence, Juliet devises a plan to reunite them, but Romeo never receives instruction for his part of the plan.

While there is arguably no one in the world who is unfamiliar with the plot of this story, Zeffirelli does a fantastic job making us feel as if we are citizens of Verona, forging a stronger connection to the characters than we had from simply reading the play.  His direction of this classic story, which was recognized with an Academy Award nomination, is largely the reason that this particular version has stood the test of time.  He did not win the Oscar, but this film did receive two from its four nominations.

Other than a few editing issues, the film is beautifully shot and raw.  Considering that Shakepeares sword-fighting scenes simply were written as: “They fight.”, watching the dance that had evolved from Zeffirelli’s mind made Mercutio’s explanation to Romeo of being “hurt under your arm” finally become crystal to me.  The downfall in this film is some of the translation.  There are some very distinct sections of the prose that are delivered suggesting definitions that do not fit them at all.  This is partially the fault of actors who don’t properly research their lines, but in the end, I suppose Zeffirelli had to have a flaw.

 While I didn’t see from Romeo’s perspective what was so intriguing about Juliet, I found myself falling in love with Romeo right along with her.  Perhaps the omission of what sparked Romeo’s desire is simply stated by Friar Lawrence (”Young men’s love, then, lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.”).  I’m also not sure if it was a decision on the part of Shakespeare or of Zeffirelli to make the Capulets the obvious bad guys.  At any rate, this is a piece of art that I believe should be seen by everyone.  I’m not here to bash Baz Luhrmann’s rendition, but this film thoroughly captures what Shakespeare intended for us to see.