The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 79

E4 ENJOY! The Beacon Journal August 26, 1999 at the moviesreview Self-indulgent 'Muse' does not amuse I tjz frn 1 ft imsum? l' JL j. 7 A October Films Above, Sharon Stone and Albert Brooks. At right, Stone and Andie MacDowell in a scene frorrvJie Muse. Unlikable two main characters help sink movie The Muse is about as self-indulgent as a movie can get: It's a film from a Hollywood screenwriter who wrote a Hollywood screenplay about the difficulty of Hollywood screenwriting. In and of itself, this kind of subject is barely interesting; it's insular and reflexive, and sometimes it laughs at its own jokes.

But when you populate the story with some of the most unlikable characters imaginable, it evolves into something that's simply repellent The Muse is the latest project from Albert Brooks, a multitalented entertainer known for creating award-winning scripts like Lost in America and Mother. In The Muse, Brooks plays an aging writer named Steven Phillips, a man who has hit the wall. Film studios have suddenly decided his scripts lack "edge," and he finds Details Movie: The Muse Stars: Albert Brooks, Sharon Stone, -Andie MacDowell, Jeff Bridges, Steven Wright Director: Albert Brooks Studio: October Films Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes Theaters: Rating: PG-13 (very bnef nudity, language) Vt aggressively annoying could help anyone. The Phillips character isn't much better. He has no backbone and little common sense; the most believable aspect of his character is that he's run out of ideas.

It's fey?) ft-, SJf "Tli himself in danger of being pushed out of the movie industry altogether. In an act of desperation, Steven asks an ultra-successful friend (Jeff dltSs. CHUCK Klosterman -tl it li If if I i Li MSSSrSlk I if' murium i. ituniiili ZiiTiinfiftrfrrim if mt at the movies also clear that Brooks has lost his ability to understand how normal people live: Even though Phillips says he needs to sell a script "to feed my family," he's rich enough to spend more than $12,000 every week in order to keep his muse happy (Sarah prefers to stay in five-star hotels and eat food from Spago). It's hard to feel much sympathy for this guy.

The Muse tries to keep things interesting with smoke and mirrors (there are needless cameos by people like Rob Reiner, James Cameron and Martin Scorsese) and with visceral eye-candy (Stone rarely wears a bra), but it doesn't offer the kind of insight one would expect from an artist trying to tell us about the perils of his livelihood. It's self-absorbed, never absorbing. Ultimately, The Muse suggests that the art of writing is merely the product of supernatural magic and inexplicable inspiration. This is supposed to seem romantic, but it actually seems childish. The concepts of "work" and "creativity" are all but eliminated from the literary equation.

That exclusion serves as a metaphor for the failure of The Muse had Brooks worked a little harder at being legitimately creative, this film might have been worth watching. Chuck Klosterman is the Beacon Journal's film writer. Contact him at cUostermanthebeacor13mrnal.com. Showing at area theaters Aug. 27 through Sept.

2 Ratings as appeared in Beacon Journal film critic and wire-service reviews: Weak Mediocre Worth Seeing Shouldn't Be Missed Bridges) for help. His advice is for Steven to meet with a mysterious woman named Sarah (Sharon Stone). It turns out that Sarah is the living incarnation of a "muse" a mythical Greek daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne who acts as a guiding spirit for artists and scientists. Somehow, this makes perfect sense to Steven, so he spends the rest of the film doing whatever the blond charlatan demands, all in the hope that she'll inspire commercial success. This scenario may seem a little weird (and it is), but weirdness js not what kills The Muse.

Purely as an idea, it's easy to see how the collision of modern movie making and ancient mysticism could seem like a clever hook. The larger problem is Stone, or more specifically Stone's character. She embodies virtually every negative stereotype that's associated with the female gender (unreasonably demanding, painfully vain and obsessed with receiving gifts she doesn't appreciate). What's worse is that we're still supposed to like this character; evidently, we're supposed to find her rude, capricious behavior to be sassy and charming. And how would this help someone write? There's no way a muse that's so artist like his idol, Rubens.

Stars are Jack Warden, Jeremy James Kissner, Jesse James, Jon voight and Cheryl Ladd. Plaza 8 at Chapel Hill, Hickory Ridge, Canton Centre, Interstate Park Cinema 18, Jackson Township Movies 10, Montrose Movies, Cinemark 15, Valley View 24 DUDLEY DO-RIGHT (PG for cartoon violence) Set in the Canadian Rockies community of Semi-Happy Valley, the film stars Brendan Fraser as the hapless Mountie Dudley Do-Right. Playing his ladylove is Sarah Jessica Parker. Alfred Molina is the evil Snidely Whiplash. 1 hour, 15 minutes.

Tinseltown USA, Plaza 8 at Chapel Hill, Interstate Park Cinema 18, Hudson Cinema 10, Huntington Street Cinema 16, University Plaza, Montrose Movies, Wooster Movies 10, Cinemark 15, Valley View 24 THE MUSE -y2 (PG-13 very brief nudity, language) Albert Brooks stars in his own self-indulgent film about a writer who is fired by his studio and discovers that his successful friend (Jeff Bridges) gets inspiration from a muse (Sharon Stone). The film's unlikable two main characters (Brooks and Stone) help sink it. 1 hour, 37 minutes. Independence 10, West Market Plaza 7, Huntington Street Cinema 16, Jackson Township Movies 10, Cinemark 15, Valley View 24. THE 13TH WARRIOR (R bloody battles and carnage) Antonio Banderas plays a 10th-century Arab poet who ventures north as ambassador to the Vikings and is enlisted as the 13th member of an elite band needed to fight an ancient flesh-eating evil.

1 hour, 43 minutes Independence 10, West Market Plaza 7, Carnation Cinema, Lake Cinemas 8, Canton Centre, Interstate Park Cinema 18, Hudson Cinema 10, Huntington Street Cinema 16, Jackson Township Movies 10, University Plaza, Wooster Movies 10, Cinemark 15, Valley View 24, Midway Drive-In Opening Wednesday CHILL FACTOR The peace and quiet of a tiny tropical atoll See Page E6 Opening Friday THE ASTRONAUTS WIFE (R) Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron star in this horror thriller about an expectant mother whose husband starts acting strangely after suffering a scare in space. Tinseltown USA, Independence 10, West Market Plaza 7, Carnation Cinema, Lake Cinemas 8, Hickory Ridge, Canton Centre, Interstate Park Cinema 18, Huntington Street Cinema 16, Kent Cinema, Wooster Movies 10, Cinemark 15, Valley View 24 A DOG OF FLANDERS (PG) A boy sets out against all odds to pursue his dream of becoming a great.