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HOW TO SUCCEED IN RELATIONSHIPS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
By Greg Walton
On the surface, your typical 'chick flick' doesn't have much to offer the male population. Dragged along by force - or even worse, willingly subjecting ourselves to atone for some minor sins the week before - the subject matter simply doesn't lend itself to the easily distracted masculine mind. We view the events onscreen through some sort of testosterone-tinged haze...there's flirting, then fighting, then kissing, then more fighting, then a sub-par sex scene that doesn't even show any skin. We can live these moments at home. There is simply no need to shell out $7.50 plus snacks for this lack of entertainment.
But for those inspired souls with a little ambition, the 'chick flick', once despised for hogging valuable theater space from Van Damme and Jet Li, can serve as a relationship cheat sheet. Think of them as educational films for the romantically challenged.
How many troubled marriages have been saved by a last minute, 'You complete me?' How many sloppy bar room trysts began with 'You had me at hello?' And that's just Jerry Maguire! Think of all the hours of material just waiting to be mined from Blockbuster and the Lifetime Network. Not to mention Autumn in New York, a tepid new tearjerker starring Richard Gere and Winona Ryder as May-December lovers whose relationship threatens to end before it ever begins.
A good relationship starts with chemistry, on screen and off. And one could do much worse than Gere and Ryder, two good-looking people with charm to spare. And even though the age disparity has become a Hollywood faux pas (universal reaction to Sean Connery & Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment: Icky, really icky), Autumn wisely places the issue right up front.
Gere is Will Keane, a womanizing semi-celebrity restaurateur with a list of conquests that would make Wilt Chamberlain stand up and applaud. His latest project is Charlotte (Winona Ryder), the daughter of a woman he dated in his younger years, now blossomed into New York Bohemian womanhood.
Charlotte allows herself to fall into the Cinderella story, whisked away by Will's penthouse lifestyle and well-practiced lines (pay attention, boys). And just as he's about to deliver his break-up soliloquy, she breaks the news that she has less than a year to live.
Girls, let the crying commence.
What is typically the climactic moment of most films, occurs in Autumn's first act, setting the stage for Will's response to this announcement. Does he a) Forget her and go on shagging every broad on the Upper East Side or b) Renounce his former lifestyle and pledge his undying love and faithfulness? A little of both actually. But when the time comes, the romantic moral center of the universe is set to rights, as it usually is on the silver screen. The real tension comes with Charlotte's impending illness, and the odds of her living to see their 'happily ever after.'
And it's not until that moment of truth, a surreal scene caught somewhere between a dream and a nightmare, that Autumn in New York truly connects - the meaningless strands of romantic entanglement stripped away until all that's left is the here and now. It's the high note of director Joan Chen's impressive second feature, a lyrical story that is familiar enough for you to guess every other note, but carries a tune all the same.
Autumn is a throwback to '40s romance, presenting New York as a sparkling, sweetheart of a city that still invites lovers to stroll through Central Park, kicking up a trail of fire-rimmed fall leaves. I lived 4 blocks away and all I saw were dead pigeons and rabid squirrels, but it could happen, I guess.
Chen's camera finds all the beautiful places, and photographs them with a gauzy brilliance that sets the mood for champagne and red lipstick. Her New York is the third party in this tragic love triangle, and definitely the one with the least flaws.
Gere should be at home with his bad-boy character. He's been honing that smirk since American Gigolo. And as Will Keane, he's a more than convincing sleaze, but it becomes progressively harder to believe there actually is a heart of gold underneath the slime. Even the moments of genuine passion leave a shadow of doubt, behind every tear a tiny twinkle in his eye that never fully commits. As Charlotte says, "You're not good enough." And even though the movie says otherwise, she's right.
Charlotte herself gets the schizo treatment by the screenwriters. Carefree and flighty for the first act (Ryder's specialty), by mid-film she's suddenly called upon to be liberated and wise (Ryder's Achilles' heel, seeing as she's the female equivalent of Keanu Reeves). But the story swirls around Will and his triumphant transformation into a sensitive male, so Ryder's performance, while intermittently strong, serves more as a sturdy bookend.
The formula for a successful Hollywood love story is about as old as the real thing: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy stands on his head to win girl back. And Autumn wouldn't be serving itself or its target audience very well by messing things up too much. There's a certain satisfaction in enjoying your favorite meal, even though you just had it for lunch; a pleasing predictability that, when spiced just right, still goes down swell.
Autumn In New York is a film content to stick to the menu. As far as pick-up lines? Well, the best Gere has to offer is this: "Food is the only truly nourishing thing in this life."
You try it first and let me know how it works out. Grade: B- |
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