Two years after her stunning performance in Volver, Penelope Cruz is back with two movies, the romance drama Elegy and the relationship comedy Vicky Christina Barcelona. Cruz shows remarkable range and fearlessness in both performances"no surprise to her longtime advocates. After a summer long on comic-book movies, both films are also welcome changes of pace.
Pictured: Catherine Keener and David Arquette in Hamlet 2
Cruz doesn't enter until the midway point in Vicky Christina Barcelona, but when she does her entrance turns up the wattage in a delightful though somewhat predictable Woody Allen farce. The plot centers on the uptight brunette Vicky ( Rebecca Hall ) and her luscious blonde best friend Christina ( Scarlet Johansson ) , who are vacationing in Barcelona. Both fall for the devilishly handsome artist Juan Antonio ( Javier Bardem ) , though it's Christina who ends up moving in with him. Juan, however, is still heavily influenced by his ex-wife, the fiery Maria Elena ( Cruz ) , who moves in with the couple after making a suicide attempt. After a brief period of fireworks, things heat up between the three and a happy menage a trois is set in motion.
At one point, Christina even reveals to Vicky that she and Maria Elena have made love. ( The two are shown kissing in Christina's dark room. ) But contentment isn't the same as love, and there are several more twists before Allen's zesty little movie, enlivened by its beautiful Barcelona locations and the performances of Cruz and Bardem ( who brings heart to the stereotypical Latin lover character ) , comes to an end.
Cruz has a much larger role in Elegy, which tracks the course of a May-December romance. David ( Ben Kingsley ) "a respected college professor, author and aging rou—unexpectedly falls in love with one of his students, Consuela ( played by Cruz ) , who is 30 years his junior. The bewitching Consuela doesn't make demands or seem to want much of anything from David other than physical intimacy. On that score she's similar to Carolyn ( played by the sensational Patricia Clarkson ) , the woman who David has been sleeping with for close to 20 years. But David becomes convinced that the age difference between him and Consuela will become a problem and, in spite of himself, he steers the love affair into rocky shoals.
This is awfully familiar stuff ( it's easy to imagine this being enacted by a gay troll and young trick, for example ) , so you either go with the scenario ( including the maudlin last quarter ) all the way or not at all. What helps the film stand out is the exceedingly polite, less-than-melodramatic approach of director Isabel Coixet ( the initial seduction is scored to Erik Satie ) and the emotional, complex leading performances of Kingsley and Cruz and the supporting ones from Clarkson and legendary actor Dennis Hopper. ( Deborah Harry has a nice cameo as well. )
Romance junkies of every stripe are sure to get their fix with screenings of both Vicky Christina Barcelona and Elegy, and Penelope Cruz fanatics might just have to race home and take a cold shower.
British comedian Steve Coogan stars as Dana Marschz, a not-so-lovable loser in Hamlet 2, a black comedy strongly reminiscent of Waiting for Guffman and Drop Dead Gorgeous. Dana's a failed actor with a large ego who has ended up teaching drama at a high school in Tucson, Ariz. Even there, he's only got two disciples: Ephiphany ( Phoebe Strole ) , a racist airhead and Rand ( Skyler Astin ) , a closeted gay drama queen who has a crush on him. Everyone else in his class, which is filled with Mexican Americans, hates him. Saddled with a bitchy wife ( Catherine Keener, who is as cynical and nasty as she was in Being John Malkovich ) and the loss of his funding, Dana is determined to put on one last show that will put him on the map.
Dana hits on the idea of staging a sequel to Hamlet and, though his students don't know Shakespeare from Shakey's Pizza, they like the idea of staging the hideous play, which is riddled with pop-culture references and special effects. Getting wind of this, the administration tries to shut the play down but the demented show"which we see in bits and pieces in a montage as a gay chorus sings Elton John's "Someone Saved My Life Tonight"—goes on. The over-the-top show, obviously designed to shock, even includes a musical number, "Rock Me Sexy Jesus," with Coogan dressed as Christ in jeans shaking his ass.
Coogan relishes his nebbish character and the chance to redeem him, and he gets good comedic support from the young actors playing his students, Keener, Elizabeth Shue ( playing herself ) and Amy Poehler as a tough-as-nails lawyer. Hamlet 2 is silly, inconsequential fun with enough laughs to make it worth a trip to the megaplex.
From the moment Showgirls debuted in 1995 it was an unintentional instant camp classic. The outraged furor that greeted this rank turkey is hard to fathom. Who could take this piece of sublime junk seriously? This kill-or-be-killed look at the "glittery" world of Vegas showgirls introduced the stunningly incompetent Elizabeth Berkley to the screen, and the deep, dishy pleasures afforded while watching a cinematic car crash like this are not to be lightly dismissed.
The only thing more delightful than watching the camptacular Showgirls at home is seeing it in a theater with a packed audience of fellow enthusiasts. Hence, there is Showgirls Gone Wild, a special presentation ( complete with a pre-show featuring contests and interactive screening ) of the Camp Midnight series hosted by Dick O'Day ( the alter ego of yours truly ) that features members of the Hell in a Handbag theater troupe. Grab your fake fingernails and puppy chow, and prepare to do a pole dance this Saturday, Aug. 23, at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport. Pre-show begins at 10:30 p.m. www.musicboxtheatre.com
Check out my archived reviews at www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com . Readers can leave feedback at the latter Web site, where there is also ordering information on my book of collected film reviews, Knight at the Movies 2004-2006.
