March 2005
Love and Fear
Three Films to Get Your Heart Pumping
HIDE AND SEEK***
The film opens in a Central Park playground as an ostensibly happy husband and wife play with their 11-year-old daughter. And that’s the last we see of this happy façade of a family. That night the wife is found dead in the bathtub with slices across her wrists and we see the shock-ed daughter staring in horror at her life-less mother. The father (Robert De Niro) decides to give up his practice as a psychiatrist in Manhattan and move his daughter, Emily (Dakota Fanning), to live upstate and begin the healing process. But Emily’s condition just seems to worsen and she falls deeper into her imagination by inventing a friend named Charlie. Directed by John Polson (
Swimfan), the film offers an in-depth portrayal of characters trying to walk that fine line between insanity and reality. Robert De Niro (
Meet the Fockers), arguably one of the greatest actors of his generation, brings to the role a quiet intensity that one is not fully able to appreciate until the end of the film. Dakota Fanning (
I Am Sam), who has worked with top Holly-wood actors, such as Sean Penn, Denzel Washington and Tom Cruise, is brilliantly haunting as the disturbed child. The fine psychological thriller cleverly leads us to possible culprits of the violence that begins to pile up like leaves in the backyard, but, when one discovers who is really playing hide and seek, it’s totally unexpected.
German Release Date (subject to change)
March 10
US rated R
www.hideandseekthemovie.com
HITCH***
Finally, a romantic comedy for men! Sort of. Obviously it’s also a film for women to witness how foolish men can be when trying to woo the girl of their dreams. But it’s the perfect date movie for both sexes and is certain to please. Mega-blockbuster-action star Will Smith (
Men in Black) produces the film and stars as the legendary Date Doctor Alex “Hitch” Hitchens, who, for a fee, helps hopeless men obtain women who are so far out of their league that one could hardly even call it the same sport. Hitch has dating down to a science and assures his clients that no matter what kind of man he may be, his methods will guarantee success within three dates. Hitch’s latest client is a meek accountant named Alex, played by Kevin James (from the US television series
King of Queens) who is smitten with the glamorous Allegra Cole (Amber Valletta). While Hitch keeps busy playing the suavely covert “Cyrano” for his fumbling male clients, he finally meets his match in the form of sexy, street-smart gossip columnist Sara Melas (Eva Mendes). Both Sara and Hitch have sworn off intimate relationships in reaction to bad burns from the past, but somehow seem unable to keep away from each other for too long. Will Smith downshifts from saving the world from aliens to saving a man’s world from caving in from a broken heart, and it certainly seems to be worth the trouble. If there’s one thing that can be said of Smith, it’s that he’s one smooth brother, though, of course, a fine debut script by Kevin Bisch helps. The rapport between Hitch and Alex is extremely humorous and the heat between Hitch and Sara keeps the tension high up to the very end. It’s almost enough to make a shattered man believe in love again.
German Release Date (subject to change)
March 3,
US rated PG-13
www.sonypictures.com/
movies/hitch
New release on DVD
COLLATERAL***
Tom Cruise deftly sheds his good-guy image (again) to play a contract killer in platinum gray in this latest offering from hit director Michael Mann (
Ali). The film takes place over a night in Los Angeles, as taxi driver Max (Jamie Foxx) makes the unfortunate mistake of picking up a slick-looking businessman named Vincent (Cruise) at the airport. What ensues is a five-stop person-deletion program as Vincent hijacks the taxi to make his hits. Both characters become reluctantly dependent on each other as they face the darker side of night in the City of Angels. It’s rare for a Hollywood superstar such as Cruise (
Mission: Impossible) to play characters that aren’t entirely likable, as he did in
Magnolia, but when he does so the courage that it takes comes through in his acting. His crisp coldness, focused immorality and private justification for his crimes comes across in his intense glances and palpable vulnerability. The other side of the spectrum can be found in Golden Globe winner Jamie Foxx (
Ray) and his portrayal of the cab driver with a dream. His quiet humanness and numbed ambition offers the perfect counterpoint to Vincent. The secondary characters aren’t nearly as interesting, but Michael Mann delivers his usual deft direction and action sequences to die for.
