The Emperor Has No Clothes

Rating: 1/10 (11 August 2002)

Every few years a young director comes around and everybody raves. A few years ago it was Quentin Tarrantino, before that David Lynch. Now everyone is excited by this latest flavor (who incidentally sports a directing style highly influenced by David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock). Sorry, Mel is one of my favorite actors, this role stretched his repetoir even more. I can't figure out why he did it. One reviewer, more perspecacious than most, understood the film was about the redemption of Mel's faith, but for goodness sake, that was the subtext of the film and only about ten percent of viewers ever understand the subtext of a complex film. But first, you must have a good compelling story and sorry, but it wasn't there. Watching this film reminded me of an impressionist painting of the pointalist school. Lots of images, good camera work (although overbearing), but the story had more holes than my old gym socks. Perhaps the Director felt he could fill those holes with some interesting camera angles and a few good boinks in the script. At the end the audience was grumbling. They'd been cheated out of a throughput plot. Maybe it was too sophisticated. The big test will be to see the fall off in box office in weeks two and three. If it drops more than 35% then the word of mouth wasn't good. If not, then the picture has legs. One thing this picture does lack is repeatability. I, for one, have no desire to see it again. Why did Mel make it? Did Frank Marshall get down on his knees and beg? Remind me to ask Mel the next time I see him.