age crober 31, |

. This Week

AT THE MOVIES

Miller’s

CROSSING
(Towne) Film-
making brothers
Ethan and Joel Coen first
applied their unique
cinematic vision to the film
noir thriller genre in the in-
tense Blood Simple. They
then turned to comedy in
the hilariously chaotic Rais-
ing Arizona. The stylish
siblings’ newest project,
Miller’s Crossing, is a
Surprisingly sombre but
meticulously crafted work
that puts a few new
wrinkles into the period
gangster motif.

SilvVersereen

ee

By DAVID

RYLAND

Crossing sombre but well crafted

The story takes place in 1929 in an unnamed American city and
revolves around Tom Reagan, played with brooding intensity by
Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, the right hand man to Leo (Albert
Finney), the city’s present mob boss. When Leo finds out that Tom

VERNA (Marcia Gay Harden) has words with Tom (Gabriel
Byrne), who she thinks has killed her brother, in Joel and Ethan
Coen’s gangster drama Miller’s Crossing.

is sleeping with his girl (Marcia Gay Harden), Leo gives Tom the
boot. Tom then turns to Leo’s foremost adversary, Johnny Caspar
(John Polito), disturbing the underworld balance of power and
setting a bloody gangland war in motion.

The Coens’ convoluted script so abounds with sub-plots, support-
ing characters and period colloquialisms that the first very talky
hour may have viewers confused to the point of distraction. But
if you stick with it, Miller’s Crossing pays off with some astound-
ing sequences, terrific performances and a gorgeous look, thanks
to first class photography, sets and costumes. Aponderous amount
of references to hats remains a total mystery, however.

If the recent Goodfellas represents the finest in real life screen
depictions of gangsterdom, then Miller’s Crossing must be one of
the best visualizations of mob life as myth, the hoods in their
heyday. If the Coens’ had only loosened their grip on their mostly
dark and solemn presentation of the material, Miller’s Crossing

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would have been as grandly entertaining as it is brilliantly
executed. ***1/2 (R) Violence.

QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER (Caprice/University Cinema)
Rousing, outdoor adventure yarn about Matthew Quigley (Tom
Selleck), an American cowboy and crack shot who answers an ad
sent out by an Australian land boss (Alan Rickman) calling for the
world’s best marksman. When Quigley finds out that his skills are
to be used to thin out the local Aborigine population, he naturall
balks, and quickly finds himself stranded in the middle of i
Aussie outback with nothing but his gun and a crazy, fellow-
American girl (Laura San Giacomo) for company. Battling the
formidable local terrain, native cuisine, packs of wild dingoes and
Rickman’s hired hands, Quigley manages to work his way back

to his adversary, where the two square off in a classic Western @&

tradition.
John Hill's script isn’t going to win any awards for originality,
but the combination of Selleck’s appeal in a tailor-made role, and

Lonesome Dove director Simon Wincer’s earthy feel for the genre ~
make this highly watchable entertainment. Rickman’s reprisal of@

the kind of villain role he perfected in Die Hard, and San
Giacomo’s sweet silliness are also pluses. Lovely Down Under
scenery shot in widescreen will be wasted on TV, so see this one
in a theatre. *** (Mature) Violence.

AVALON (University Cinema) Writer/director Barry
Levinson’s autobiographical trilogy of films that began with Diner
and continued with Tin Men concludes with Avalon, the most
personal, ambitious and romanticized of the three. Once again the
setting is Levinson’s hometown of Baltimore, but this time out he
widens the scope of his story, observing five generations of his
extended family, focusing on his boyhood days in the late 1940s
and early ‘50s.

Alovingly made film to be sure, but too introspective, particular-
ly during the last half hour, to hold the interest that a wonderful
opening piece and many fine performances try to sustain. Also
problematic are constant scenes of bickering between elderly
family members, which are amusing to start but become more
grating as they go on, and frequent reflections by certain charac-
ters that tend to slow the film’s momentum. :

&.

«

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Still, Avalon is worth seeing for its warmth, humor, sincerity «

and Levinson’s consummate directing skill, which result in a
beautifully mounted look back to a time when family unity built
individual strength. Although it appears that in this case you
would need all the strength you could get just to put up with your
family. Starring Aidan Quinn, Elizabeth Perkins, Joan Plowright
and Armin Mueller-Stahl. *** (Mature)

RATINGS KEY: *****, classic; ****, excellent; ***, good; **
fair; *,poor and no stars, worthless. :

\.

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