filmland / By Charlie Myers

Blinded by the Bland

Struggling to stay awake through ultra-dull ‘Eye,’ ‘Dead Body’

(Feb. 7, 2008) Previews

Opening Friday, Feb. 8, is four-time Oscar-nominated The Diving Bell and the Butterfly(cinematography, directing, editing, adapted screenplay). Director Julian Schnabel (Basquiat; Before Night Falls) seems to specialize in biographical films and this one is no exception. Diving Bell, based on the best-selling book by the former editor of the fashion magazine Elle, Jean-Dominique Bauby, tells the story of how Bauby learned to communicate by blinking his left eye following a severe stroke at age 43 that left him with “locked-in syndrome.” The result is a film that explores the process whereby Bauby’s memories were imaginatively recreated. The film made the 2007 Top Ten list of a number of critics. In French with English subtitles. Rated PG-13 for nudity, sexual content and some language. 122 m. At the Broadway.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

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On the Hollywood front, the romantic action/comedy Fool’s Gold stars Matthew McConaughey as booty hunter Finn Finnegan and Kate Hudson as his about-to-be ex who got fed up with playing second string when it came to a booty call. But wouldn’t you know it? When Finn may be close to discovering sunken Spanish loot from the 1700s in the Caribbean, the dying flame is rekindled. The big suspense here is whether the film will have any comedy, romance or action. Co-starring Donald Sutherland, Fool’s Gold is directed by Andy Tennant (Sweet Home Alabama; Hitch). Rated PG-13 for action violence, some sexual material, brief nudity and language. 123 m. At the Broadway, Fortuna and Mill Creek.

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins is a comedy starring Martin Lawrence as a hugely successful talk show host in Los Angeles who is engaged to a reality-TV star. His parents back in Georgia ask him to come home for their 50th wedding anniversary. With his son and fiancée in tow, he returns to his hometown only to discover his star status in California doesn’t translate very well in the South. The film co-stars James Earl Jones and Cedric the Entertainer. Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language and some drug references. 124 m. At The Movies.

Reviews

THE EYE: Every so often I get a craving for one of my favorite snacks — poppers — and I trudge off to a local store that sells them. I always seem to forget, though, that commercially made poppers, which amount to a deep-fried jalapeño pepper stuffed with cream cheese or cheddar and a cornmeal coating, are always made with most or all of the pepper seeds removed. What’s left is the ghost of jalapeño pepper flavor without the bite. This unnecessarily bland snack is a perfect metaphor for The Eye, a horror film/ghost story where the producers forgot to add the horror. Add Jessica Alba in the lead and you have a film that virtually disappears as you’re watching.

Alba is Sydney, a young woman who was blinded in an accident when she was five. She has carved out a career as a concert violinist and her life seems to be going along fine without sight. However, her sister Helen (Parker Posey, wasted in a role that amounts to little more than a cameo), who feels responsible for the accident, obsessively keeps up with the latest eye research. As a result, Helen convinces Sydney to undergo cornea transplants, an operation that takes place shortly into the film.

While the operation appears to be completely successful, Sydney begins to see things that no one else does, and the visions become increasingly violent. Initially, Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola, The Clearing; Junebug) ascribes her difficulties to the fact that her brain is trying to adjust to her new sense, but, as usual, the viewer knows better.

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