The Winslow Boy
1999 • Columbia/Tri-Star

As the New Year rolled around, I was very surprised the apocalypse didn’t come and we were still alive. You see, I thought for sure that we were all goners when 1999 gave us two G-Rated films from guys who usually give us shocking and perverse material. I’m talking about David (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Lost Highway) Lynch and David (Speed The Plow, Untouchables, Glengarry Glen Ross) Mamet. Lynch brought us the heartwarming true-life, The Straight Story, about an old man who rode his lawn tractor across several states to visit his sick brother. Aside from the PG, The Elephant Man, this was a large departure from the twisted auteur. My first review for MODE was in November of 1998 and was about Mamet’s film, The Spanish Prisoner. Back then, I marveled at how he managed to make a film that earned him a PG rating. Mamet is one who shocks with language and the rhythmic staccato-like way in which he has his characters deliver their profanity-laden diatribes. Many times it works, other times it fails miserably.

Last year, Mamet directed his fourth feature film, though this time the source material was not from his own screen or stage plays. The Winslow Boy is based on a 1946 play (inspired by a true story) by Terence Rattigan (though the screenplay is by Mamet), which involves a fairly wealthy banker’s family in London at the early part of the century. The amazing Nigel (The Madness of King George) Hawthorne is Arthur, the patriarch of the Winslow homestead — a proud and honorable man who, while seemingly stern, is revealed to be a loving and caring father and husband.

His youngest son, Ronnie, returns home to explain that he has been expelled from his prestigious academy for stealing a five-shilling postal order. After talking to his young son, Arthur believes in his innocence and decides that he will not rest until his son receives a fair trial. This decision not only will bear heavily on Ronnie, but on the entire family as Arthur is prepared to sacrifice as much of himself as need be to clear not only his son but also the family name.

The attorney hired to defend young master Ronnie is Sir Robert Morton, played with excellence by Jeremy (An Ideal Husband) Northam. Morton joins Arthur’s struggle to clear his son’s name because the notoriety he stands to gain will aid his political career.

Unfortunately, having originally been a play, we too often hear about developments rather than seeing them. This is one time where a grand court room scene would be welcome but alas, we do not get it. Taking the road of telling rather than showing us could be considered a cop out, but somehow, Mamet (who’s smart enough to know what he’s not showing us), manages to salvage this plot point by still giving us a large amount of suspense strictly through the wonderful acting in the film.

Bowfinger
1999 • Universal

All too often, people forget that Steve Martin is more than the arrow-through-the-head wild and crazy guy. Apart from having been a philosophy major in college, Martin has long been a very talented writer (most recently in the New Yorker). Bowfinger, Martin’s own screenplay, is playfully directed by Frank (In & Out, Little Shop of Horrors, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) Oz. The story concerns Bobby Bowfinger, a down, down, down-on-his luck ‘producer’ who is looking for his next big break. His motley cast of actors and employees are also waiting for him to deliver something. When he gets what he thinks is a deal to make a movie (as long as he can get superstar Kit Ramsey, played by Eddie Murphy) his juices get going and the wheels start turning. What he doesn’t tell his crew though is that Kit refuses to be in the film, and so Bobby decides to shoot scenes around Kit while filming him in real life situations which Bobby will then cut into a movie.

This generates the best parts of the film, with actors going up to Kit and saying their lines (unaware that he is unaware that he is in a movie.) Bobby’s determination to make a film, and a good one at that, are the stuff that Hollywood dreams are made of. He never gives up and goes the distance to achieve this goal.

The side players in the film contribute a great deal to its success. Christine (The Birdcage, TV’s Cybill) Baranski is hysterical as the resident diva who cannot understand why Kit won’t rehearse before their scenes together. Carol (Heather Graham, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Boogie Nights) is perfectly cast as the naïve innocent girl (who is smart enough to know who to sleep with for the right job.) Showing us that he is becoming a better comedic character actor, Eddie Murphy pulls double-duty as Kit and as Jiff, a Kit look-a-like (from the back at a far distance, anyway.) Murphy doesn’t try to take over the whole scene, instead he blends in with the entire ensemble in this film.

Martin is perfect as the director/producer who wants that piece of film success and truly believes in what he is doing. He’s not a swindler, just a guy trying to do good and not let his friends down. Martin exudes the right combination of pathos and humor and manages to make us forget about stinkers like Housesitter and The Out Of Towners.

While not exactly a B-movie, it nonetheless gives us a humorous glimpse into the lives of those intrepid souls who are out there trying to patch together some semblance of a film so that we can get our B-movies from somewhere.

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