Page 10 - Thursday. October 30, /997 The Behrend College Collegian
The Big Voice, played by Dave Reynolds, offers firm advice to (1. to r.) Leo (Bond Davis), Bo (Joe
Getway), Heather (Amanda Pieper), Eddie (Michael Lechner), and Miriam (Jennifer Quadri) in Only You,
a contemporary comedy t o be presented by the Studio Theatre at Penn State-Behrend. Tickets are
currently available for purchase or reservation. Evening performance dates are November 7,8, 12, 13,
14 and 15 at 8 P.M.; Matinees will be performed November 9 and 16 at 2:30 P.M. Tickets cost $3 for
students, $5 for adults. A free student preview of Only You will be performed Thursday, November 6.
For reservations or more information, please call 898-6016.
A. SCHOOL Ato-ty
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Film review:
A Life Less Ordinary
Jon Stubbs
Collegian staff
The director/producer/writer trio of
Danny Boyle, Andrew Macdonald,
and John Hodge teamed up for a third
time to create the black romantic
comedy A Life Less Ordinary.
After tremendous successes such as
Shallow Grave and Trainspotting,
Boyle, Macdonald and Hodge should
certainly be disappointed with the
outcome of this film.
Ewan McGregor, another
Trainspotting and Shallow Grave
alumni, stars as Robert, a janitor/
wannabe romance novelist. Robert
becomes distraught when he loses his
cleaning job to a robot and goes to
complain to his boss, millionaire ex
ecutive Mr. Naville (lan Holm).
Things get hairy in Naville's office
when Robert steals a gun from a sc-
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and 13e vitt.
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and shulup.
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.. •
,
curity guard and shoots Naville in the
leg. Scared, Robert takes Naville's
daughter, Celine (Cameron Diaz)
hostage.
Of course Celine doesnit mind be
ing kidnaped, she wants to escape her
father and his financial obsessions.
She wants someone to pay attention
to her, so she helps Robert through
the kidnaping process, suggesting
ways to compose threat letters and to
collect ransom.
Screenwriter John Hodge must
have decided that a simple kidnap
plot was not involved enough so he
decided to add divine intervention to
the script. Two angels, Jackson and
O'Reilly (Delroy Lindo and Holly
Hunter) are sent to make sure that
Robert and Celine do indeed fall in
love, or else they will be condemned
to be mortals forever.
A Life Less Ordinary is teeming
Coliebe
esl-8
Sit cloth
an shut up
I don't undetstand
why students don't
. talk more in
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, ` 4 "-,
with talent. Danny Boyle is undoubt
edly one of today's most imaginative
directors. Boyle and director of pho
tography Brian Titfano create brilliant
transitions between scenes and unlike
many directors, shoot useful close
ups.
The movie is well cast. Ewan
McGregor is entertaining in any role,
even as a character from this script.
Cameron Diaz and Holly Hunter are
also very fine actresses, and their tal
ent is reflected in the film.
The script is the film's major fault.
The storyline is so simple and mun
dane that a viewer familiar with
Boyle, Macdonald and Hodge's work
may become confused and think that
they are missing something. The
ideas seem old. Hodge started writ
ing the script in 1993, and since then
films such as Michael and Excess
Baggage have already explored
; .
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within
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etss on of
Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz on their cross-country odyssey of guns, bank robbery
and karaoke - in A Life Less Ordinary.
themes such as tough, ass-kicking
angels and romantic kidnappings.
The Boyle\Macdonald\Hodge
slily, caulsl
spare a
IRto
*be
4Mfr
Addresses
tress them
:uality and
ilia's adult
oint.of view, the
411 fragments of a broken
fkitiii having been gone
'YesuOliadult /UM returns
#lo4 lo ankelnpon the death of a
I .4l4derld 44,the family.
thicsthlness and silence of
v*oPms-echo an over-
Painful past which she
buried with [her]
, •
This film effectively
parallels the
emancipation of
one single woman
with the growing
independence of
an entire nation.
dream team could have produced shame when an independent-rooted
Trainspotting several times with this production team wastes talent and
film's $l2 million budget. It's a money on a script less original.
litics
collective perspective from which to
make such a decision. In this way,
Alia's past relations with her mother
and other female cohorts provides an
invaluable wealth of experience from
which to make a life-changing deci
sion; she literally invokes the "ma-"
triarchs" of her own life as trusted
sources of wisdom. The knowledge
which is shared interteneratlonally
among women is depicted as unique
and crucial to a young woman of the
present.
In addition to its critical attention
to the relationship of women, the film
also focuses on the power of voice, ,
even the voice of , one young girl ,
(Alia) to break that "silence" which.
has for so long imprisoned these Tu
nisian women. As Alia's mother in
structed, "[the women of the palace] : ;
were taught one rule—silence.7l,
Ironically, the central male leader di
the palace recognized that "Alfa's *
voice is a treasure." Though be 1,1,4
referring to her singing voice, thbri .
statement still proves significant .*1
the film's theme; as it Alia's
her realizations, and her femini n e?(
pride and strength which eventnallyi
enable her to overcome the vbitraU
Khadlja,
body (to
i►,ireserve
Innocence,
Provide for
iaildwod and
imprisonment of the palace- • ••
This film affirms the strelgth, of
women to transcend pa - 11 / 4
established boundaries and tell4:a.ii
higher realm of freedom...where Ni-", 3,
lance" is no longer conditioned but,
. rather, discouraged. Prior to Alia's •
singing, she is told that, aalievrih.,
tore awaits , us; your 7VCACC-V&
chant everyone." Just as a nenvleW
lAcotity of
itcheti to
',mother
father
Jul entirtlife,
tura, polithmUy, awaits the pmAtaf::
fu ta rieo does a "new future,'
o awaitthese womensvilphoror,
been:silenced. ,' Piet
:..r.."°2101121°# vo ice ,Can: have ,"
to Ktrhant~evetyane" slid.
:117111bOlicidAt Y 9 reform the woven'
condition 'as well as the shdelotawlk
ditionwserws ,testameneto s the
film's pervasi e of Ifkelnkr,
~neat o