Wit’s end

Nicole in The Invasion

Two movies new to DVD:


The Invasion (2007) I’ve never read Jack Finney’s 1955 novel, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, simply because the one book of his that I attempted to read — Time and Again — left a bad taste. He seemed to be a visionary author sadly handicapped when it came to characters and dialog; every sentence of Time and Again felt generic and artless, despite the color and promise of a time travel scenario.

    I don’t know whether Finney had his protagonists battling giant, conspicuous seed pods in Body Snatchers or if he described their invasion as more of a virus…which is the route taken by this new (and fourth) film version. It’s an appealing situation that’s nearly impossible to screw up on the screen: seeds from space take over our bodies and minds to forge a new (and presumably inhuman) world of, well, peace and tranquility. In Finney’s time, the story was a parable of communist infiltration. Today it pinches the nerve of terrorism and biological warfare.

    Nicole Kidman plays the doctor role essayed by Kevin McCarthy in the famous 1956 film. Here the character’s a psychiatrist prescribing antidepressants to make her patients behave like the calm drones threatening us from space. (One of her clients is Veronica Cartwright from the 1978 movie version.) When the aliens have nearly taken over, there’s a ceasefire in the middle east and peace treaties are signed from continent to continent. As someone who’s always been wary of emotional thinking, I have to ask: am I missing the downside to this?

    These intriguing elements are soft-pedaled in Dave Kajganich’s screenplay. He doesn’t punch up the social and political ramifications. (One of my favorite lines in Phil Kaufman’s movie from the ‘70s is when Brooke Adams thinks her husband’s icy new demeanor indicates he’s become a Republican.) Instead, it digresses into an action picture with Nicole running to save her child while trying to stay awake. The action isn’t bad, and Nicole is excellent…but the overall effect seems lacking.




I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007) Filmed in 2005 and barely released, this was financed and mostly filmed in England, but it’s set in Los Angeles. With the exception of five or six of the lead actors, the cast is predominantly British, while young Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) does a brilliant job covering her Irish brogue.

    Written and directed by Amy Heckerling, it’s a romantic comedy ostensibly about a forty-ish woman getting involved with a guy in his twenties. But the film is wildly disjointed and unfocused…yet as hypnotic as a train wreck.

    As the older woman, Michelle Pfeiffer gets points for keeping her end up. Her co-star, Paul Rudd, is fairly engaging. But the scenario winds through a bunch of episodes with no attempt at coherency. Indeed, the whole thing feels improvised. Yet some of the comedy works, such as Ronan’s dig on Britney Spears. Given time to age, this could ripen into a trash classic.

    Heckerling gives a fascinating audio commentary on the DVD. It’s apparent she’d rather be getting a root canal. But she explains a lot, such as the horrible image. It’s a digital process that allows filming without proper lighting. As a result, Michelle looks pasty and featureless. When you can make Michelle Pfeiffer look pasty and featureless, you’ve accomplished something heretofore unknown in Hollywood.