Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 28

2D DETROIT FREE PRESSTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1998 film scoreboard Quirky 'Little foiee' makes big impression Jack Frost In this holiday offering as heartfelt if i Ml Mf jf "2 if I i wT 1 if BY TERRY LAW SON Free lress Movie Critic The various voices in "Little Voice" are so rich, so entertaining and so endearingly outrageous that it barely matters that half the time we have no idea what they're going on about. In spite of northern English accents and colloquialisms that merit subtitles as well as translations, "Little Voice" has no trouble being heard and felt. "Little Voice" began life as a stage play written expressly for its star, jane Horrocks. At the risk of giving away the surprise, Horrocks has an extraordinary gift for vocal mimicry, beautifully exploited in this story of Laura, aka who is as pathologically withdrawn as her blowsy, boozy mother Mari (Brenda Blethyn) is horrifically extroverted. Laura has reacted to her father's death by locking herself away from the world, spending nearly all her time in her room with his record collection.

His tastes ran to torchy entertainers: Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey and Marlene Dietrich. Meanwhile, mother Mari runs free, spending most nights at the local show club run by Mr. Boo (Jim Broad-bent), where she is lucky enough to have attracted the bloodshot eye of Ray Say (Michael Caine), a talent agent whose best days were probably never in front of him. When Mari brings him home in hope of a little late-night slap and play characters in "Little Voice." The Free Press uses a four-star rating system. A rating of four stars represents the reviewer's highest recommendation.

Reviews are by Free Press movie critic Terry Lawson except where noted. OPENING ON CHRISTMAS DAY Dancing at Lughnasa See review Page 6D. Down in the Delta See review Page 6D. The Faculty Not prescreened for critics. See review on Page 2A of Free Press.

Little Voice See review Page 2D. Mighty Joe Young See review Page 6D. Patch Adams See review Page 6D. Shakespeare in Love See review Page ID. Stepmom See review Page 2D.

Michael Caine and Brenda Blethyn is able to channel the spirits of Bassey, Dietrich and Billie Holliday so convincingly that I was originally certain she was lip-synching. But Horrocks is just as convincing as the shy-beyond-hope shut-in, so the effect is like watching Tom Arnold morph into Tom Cruise. It's both a musical magic trick and old-fashioned fine acting. As excellent as the main attraction may be, she gets stand-up support from Blethyn, whose mighty-mouthed Mari makes you appreciate anew what an amazing piece of acting her tongue-tied turn in "Secrets Lies" actually was. Managing to remain just this side of detestable, Blethyn makes Sophie Tucker look restrained and Joan Crawford look like a good mother.

Equally good is Caine, who has his best part since "Mona Lisa" and knows it. Looking a lot like Alfie 30 years on, his Ray Say is the sultan of sleaze, yet so pathetically pitiable that we almost want to float him a loan. But by the time he leaves the stage in an unforgettable finale, he's lucky if anybody will buy him a pint. In honor of "Little Voice," however, we'll buy the house a Sappy 'Stepmom' is by the book tearjerker JTi-V ft I as it is hokey, Michael Keaton plays-' a dead dad who returns lrom tne crave as an animated snowman. Sure, the story turns to mush at the.

end, but you have to be trosty yourself not to be taken in by its charms. Rated PG; mildly inappropriate asides. Reviewed by John Monaghan The Prince of Egypt Three-D animation and a Broadway style score are used to retell the story of Moses (the voice of Val Kilmer) and how he led the Hebrews out of bondage. But while many scenes including a chilling first Passover have been borrowed from "The Ten Commandments," this is more spectacle than spiritual, with stunning action scenes but little religious content. Voice talent includes Ralph Fiennes, Steve Martin and Michelle Pfieffer; songs' are by Stephen Schwartz.

Rated PG; some disturbing imagery. Psycho Gus Van Sant's nearly shot-for-shot remake of the 1960 Hitchcock classic was a bad idea to begin with. It's also poorly executed, with awkward stabs at updating, and performances by a giggly Vince Vaughn and an anemic Anne Heche that have as much life as one of Norman Bates' stuffed birds. Rated violence, flashes of nudity. Reviewed by John Monaghan The Rugrats Movie While best enjoyed by viewers younger than 6, this feature-length version of the children's TV show is not without its broader charms.

Rated dirty diapers, sloppy eating. Reviewed by John Monaghan Star Trek: Insurrection As the title telegraphs, the crew of the Enterprise is not into blindly going where no one's gone before. So when the Federation hooks up i with some shady customers who say they want to "relocate" the inhabitants of a Utopian planet commune, Picard and Co. turn in their badges and hook up with the rebels. And, oh yeah, Picard's in love.

Who says the future is no fun? Rated PG; violence, sexual innuendo. Waking Ned Devine An enchanting comedy about an Irish village (led by Ian Bannen and David Kelly) that tries to claim the winning lottery ticket of one of its dead residents. As poignant as it is -funny, this delightfully tall tale might restore your faith in movies, or at least dark comedies, which don't always have to be nasty. Rated naked old men, Irish cursing. Reviewed by John Monaghan The Waterboy As a slim-wilted waterboy with a talent for tackling, Adam Sandler delivers consistent laughs even after, the one-joke premise wears out its welcome.

Rated PG-13; profanity, Henry Winkler's bum. Reviewed by John Monaghan You've Got Mail Director Nora Ephron reunites "Sleepless in Seattle" costars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in this update of the classic The Shop Around the! Corner," turning the lonely hearts pen pals into anonymous E-mail correspondents. Hanks is the owner-of a Borders-like chain that threatens to put Ryan's sweet children's bookshop out of Even though the components seem pre-assembled, there's enough soul in the machine to keep it humming. Rated PG; language. ALSO SHOWING 'Little Voice' oul of 4 stars Rated language, violence Opens Christmas Day tickle, Ray hears what he assumes is a Garland record coming from upstairs.

It turns out to be L.V., performing a note-perfect recreation of "The Man That Got Away," complete with breaks and quivers. Ray is overcome with greed. Sensing a gift-horse big enough for a number of riders, he convinces Mari that LV. can be a star if only they can get her out of her room, her shell and her dowdy duds. In a rather obvious attempt to provide a bit of hopeful, and romantic, contrast to all this underhanded-ness, director-writer Mark Herman Off) has given LV.

another suitor a pigeon-raising telephone installer named Billy (Ewan McGregor). The best that can be said of this sidetrack is that it doesn't derail the train. Similarly, the actual staging of debut is way over the top; the venue looks far more like the London Palladium than a seedy show bar in northern England. Still, it's difficult to argue with a showstopper, and Horrocks' transformation makes for one of the most magical sequences of any movie this year. It's incredible enough that she 'Stepmom' out of 4 stars Rated PG-13; language Opens Christmas liay phone, he never seems to really do anything.) Jackie got the Hudson Valley estate and a stable of horses, the devotion of her 12-year-old daughter, Anna (Jena Malone), and a potential goldmine in 7-year-old son Ben (I jam Aiken), an amateur magician and charmer who should have casting agents and advertising agencies bidding for his services.

Luke, on the other hand, has only the last great apartment in New York, an income that is as seemingly inexhaustible as his patience, and Isabel (Roberts), an advertising photographer with a smile so dazzling we can't fathom why her clients don't suggest a switch to the other side of the lens. Perhaps it's because her images are ideas and inevitably proclaimed brilliant. The only thing out of focus is Isabel's relationship with Luke's kids, who hate her. At least Anna does, very loudly and passionately and much to the delight of her mother. Ben seems incapable of hating anybody, but he's more than happy to please his beloved mother by pretending to, especially after Isabel confirms her general incompetence by taking the kids on a Central Park trip and loses track of Ben.

The real issue, the movie confides, is style. Jackie is an earth mother, a natural at Band-Aid removal and laundry miracles, while Isabel, who never wanted to be a parent at all, is incapable of toasting a Pop Tart. Nevertheless, Jackie goes about the business of preventing Isabel to change his play from a comic adventure to a romantic tragedy. This, however, seems quite beyond the scope of the second-rate cast with which he is saddled, and much to the distress of Henslowe, who thinks any play without clowns and dogs is most certainly a mutt What Will is missing is an actor capable of playing a sensitive hero, but he finds him in the stranger Tom, with whom he feels an instant connection. This is because Tom is actually Viola in a man's wig and mustache, disguised to get around the edict banning women from the stage.

From this deception, our own sensitive hero will take the makings of another play, "Twelfth Night," and "Shakespeare in Love" is gifted with the best of both worlds: comedy and tragedy, measure for measure. Director John Madden was well aware he had a gem of a script. It has been in development for ll years, and was once earmarked for Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. Madden's challenge was to prevent it from folding in on itself, becoming too precious and insular. At that Madden has succeeded spectacularly, taking his cue from his subject, whom the by Terry lawson Free Press Movie Critic At least no one can accuse "Step-mom" of being mistimed.

The holidays being all but an official sanctuary for soft sentiment, and Christmas being the day nearly every citizen is eager to sit back and allow someone else to take control of his or her mental faculties, "Step-mom" is a teary, tra-la-la tranquilizer. In the manipulative mitts of director Chris Columbus Alone," "Mrs. and five, count 'em, five scriptwriters, we are coddled with bittersweet cocoa, dazzled with movie-star melodramatics and then trotted off to warm beds with assurance that as hard as life may get, there will always be a movie to trivialize our pain. This, after all, is a story of a guy who walks away from a 17-year marriage to take up with glamorous photographer half his age she isn't," he says, protesting the assumption of a critical month or two). His adorable children become distraught and his ex comes down with cancer, but through it all, we somehow know that reconciliation even redemption, heck, maybe even resurrection is possible.

Why? Because the ex is Susan Sarandon, the glamorpuss usurper is Julia Roberts and the kids are cuter than an entire Cabbage Patch of Elmos, Beanies and Furbies. This is Christmas in Hollywood, a box of polished marketing in a Technicolor bow. "Stepmom" is as disposable as the tissues most people will want to bring along, notable primarily for making divorce and death look like Martha Stewart moments. Certainly Jackie (Sarandon) would seem to have have come out OK in her divorce from lawyer Luke (Ed Harris.) (At least he says he's a lawyer, and though he talks about being in the middle of a big case and is seen talking on a cell 4 Susan Sarandon, left, must learn to from being around her kids, Isabel goes about the business of feeling alternately resentful and inadequate, and the multitude of scriptwriters goes about the business of creating a conflict big enough to cause everyone to reassess their positions. In this case, the problem is cancer.

Despite all the writers involved, there are no prizes for figuring out what happens next. Like Columbus' previous family counseling sessions, "Stepmom" is a movie in which everyone learns lessons we already knew. (Don't leave kids alone; don't pretend to be your kids' nanny when you're actually their father, because it could cause them confusion; and don't malign your ex-husband's new girlfriend to your kids, because you might die tragically and there will be no one to make sure you look good in repose.) That does not necessarily mean "Stepmom" is hard to watch. First there's Roberts, looking as beautiful as ever, and doing nothing 0 a accept Julia Roberts in to threaten her position as someone ordinary women can like and identify with anyway. (Especially women hoping to someday dump the current goatee-and-earring loser for a responsible, loving lawyer with enough cash to support her and an ex with two kids and stable full of horses.) Then there's Sarandon, who with her more comfortable and less studied attractiveness and unshakable dignity, is obviously threatened less by Roberts than mortality, while learning to accept both.

Of course, if you happen to be someone for whom none of this holds this slightest appeal, attending "Stepmom" with someone for whom it does can enrich your life, too. Specifically, going to hold her hand in the sad parts earns you a pass when the new Bruce Willis movie comes out. And if you produce a handkerchief at a strategic moment, you could chalk up who knows how many chits. Don't worry, those moments are all to easy to anticipate. NOW SHOWING Babe: Pig in the City Expect a totally different animal in this sequel to the 1995 Oscar-nominated fantasy.

Director George Miller, who created the "Mad Max" films, plays up the harrowing, surreal elements of the story with Grimm determination. Rated nightmare-provoking imagery. Reviewed by John Monaghan A Bug's Life There are obvious similarities between "A Bug's life" and "Antz," both of which have a downtrodden worker ant trying to save his colony from extinction. But this film is sunnier, more kid-friendly and altogether cuter, which could also be interpreted as safe and formulaic. Rated PG; some scary bug fights.

Elizabeth This dark and daring inspection of the circumstances that put young, clueless Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchelt) on England's throne in 1554 is less historical drama than historical thriller. Awash in intrigue, bloody betrayals and power grabs, it has a dramatic urgency uncommon to costume dramas. Director Shekhar Kapur appears to have used "The Godfather" as a model; religious symbolism abounds, and the casting (Geoffrey Rush, Sir Richard Attenborough and Fanny Ardant) and Christopher Ecdeston) is impeccably offbeat Rated violence, sexual situations. Enemy of the State Paranoia strikes deep in this techno thriller from director Tony Scott. It stars Will Smith as a labor lawyer who has something the National Security Agency wants and he doesn't know it.

At least half the movie is played out on surveillance cameras, computer screens and satellite transmissions, and the barrage of info-bytes effectively overwhelms the fact that this is just another chase movie. By the time Gene Hackman shows up to tell Smith the score, we're all glassy-eyed goners. Rated violence, language. Gods and Monsters A drama about the final days of James Whale, a Hollywood-transplanted Englishman who directed 1931's "Frankenstein." His once classic cinema eye is now trained on his new gardener. Rated sexual theme, nudity, language.

Home Fries Even the irresistible Drew Barrymore can't make this indigestible dark comedy go down easily. She tries to charm her way through the thankless role of a pregnant, small-town fast-food clerk who falls for a coworker (Ioike Wilson) who helped murder the father of her baby and stay with me here who was also his stepfather. like everything else in this mess, it doesn't work. Rated violence, language. i 'Shakespeare in Love' wields a wicked wit fa I 1 Wi-'al: from Page ID lowe (Geoffrey Rush), and his more respectable chief competitor, Bur-bage (Martin Clunes), whose Public Theater hosts private performances for no less than Queen Elizabeth (Judi Dench) herself.

Nothing is written, of course, because Shakespeare has lost his muse. To his alchemist-analyst, he admits that his quill cannot be coaxed from its lethargy. The prescription is a new romance, but the antidote is elusive until Will becomes spellbound by the beautiful Viola (Gwyneth Pal-trow), who dares to contradict the haughty queen at a royal command performance. When the queen declares plays are capable only of farce and frolic, Viola, daughter of an untitled man of wealth, argues that a great play could fully express the nature of love. Shakespeare has found his muse, but alas" he has no class, and she is promised to another, a nasty-tempered and titled trader, Lord Wessex (Colin Firth).

Still, having followed her home that boat!" Will commands the water-taxi driver) for a clandestine balcony conversation, he is inspired movie humanizes in wondrous ways. This is not just Shakespeare love, but Shakespeare in show biz. The movie has great fun illustrating how its hero wrote the dramatic book and then, emulating his lessons, there's plenty of sex, action (two sword suspense and treachery and comedy both high and low. "Shakespeare in Love" also has been impeccably cast, with Fiennes providing evidence that talent runs in the family (he's Ralph's kid broth er), and Paltrow regaining all the romantic sparkle missing in misconceived projects like "Sliding Doors" and "Great Expectations." There also are wonderful turns by Simon Callow as a snippy theater czar and Ben Affleck as an actor-turned-director who gives Will both Ben Affleck gives young American History (R) Anlz(PG) Celebrity (R) Ever After (PG-13) Everest (Not rated) Home Fries (PG-13) How Stella Got Her (R) I'll Be Home Christmas (PG) 1 Still Know (R) U-thal Weapon 4 (R) Life is Beautiful (R) Living Out Loud (R) Meet Joe Black (PG-13) Pleasantville (PG-13) Practical Magic (PG-13) Ringmaster (R) Rush Hour (PG-13) The Siege (R) i Soldier (R) Very Bad Things (R) Wizard of Oz (G) plays an actor-turned-director who Will Shakespeare support and ideas. support and ideas.

The man may have been been a genius but, as "Shakespeare in Love" reiterates so stunningly, the stuff of dreams has always been a collaborative art Staff writer Terry Lawson can be reached at 1-313-223-4524. For additional full reviews, check -out the Free Press entertainment Web site: www.justgo.comdetroit 1 1.