Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 170

7 Siskel's Flicks Picks By Gene Siskel 3 Scorsese finds timeless theme in stylish 'Age of Innocence' Martin Scorsese's treatment "The Age of Innocence," and 1 ur Flick of the Week is Edith Wharton's when Scorsese announced was greeted with the project two years ago surprise and skepticism. How would the great artist Kieu Chinh is a woman forced to abandon her daughters in "The Joy Luck porary New York handle a 19th Century costume drama? The answer is very well, as he finds emotional meanness in 1870s New York, where the wealthy kill not with guns but with slights and innuendos. More important, the Wharton novel allows Scorsese to once again probe the exquisite pain of men in the throes of the Madonna-Whore complex, torn between the good women they are supposed to marry and the bad women they want to marry. This was the theme of Scorsese's very first feature, "I Call First" (1967) and its remake, "Who's That Knocking at My Door?" (1969), and similar, elements can be found in "Mean Streets," "Taxi Driver," "New York, New York," and "After Hours." The tortured hero of "The Age of Innocence" is Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis, reestablishing himself as a major actor after cashing a check in "The Last of the The film opens with him engaged to a pretty young thing (Winona Ryder) but drawn to her scandalous cousin (Michelle Pfeifferj. Whom will he choose? This simple triangle is always at the forefront of the story, keeping the immaculate period sets and costumes properly in the background.

Costume dramas are the most difficult films to make in this cynical age; Scorsese triumphs because every emotion in his piece is timeless. 'The Age of Innocence" is playing at the 900 N. Michigan and outlying theaters. Rated PG. Flicks Picks guide Club." of Amy Tan's novel melancholy woman who is seen in flashback, and whose daughter, June, is about to leave for China to meet the two half-sisters her mother had to abandon as babies during wartime.

The other two women, Ying Ying (France Nuyen) and An Mei (Lisa Lu), who complete the Mah Jongg club from which the book took its title, have equally harrowing histories which bear directly on the identity crises faced by their daughters, Lena (Lauren Tom) and Rose (Rosalind Chao). "The Joy Luck Club" may be stylistically rickety, but Wang does a good job with the logistics of the movie, integrating multiple time periods, dialogue in two languages (English and two locations (San Francisco and China) and over- lapping casts--several characters require two and even three actors to play them at different ages to make a watchable whole. This is not a movie to be watched lackadaisically. Blink twice and you could lose the train of narration. A peripheral pleasure of "The Joy Luck Club" is Donald Graham Burt's production design.

Wang keeps settings far subordinate to character and action, but I found my eyes roving the screen to glean traces of well-researched ambience nonetheless. There are several stand-outs among the men in the lives of these women: Russell Wong, who plays Ling Ling's callous husband; Andrew McCarthy, Rose's idealistic mate; Christopher Rich, Waverly's bumbling, hopelessly Anglo boyfriend; and Michael Paul Chan as Harold, impossibly smug spouse." of the mean streets of contem DAVE (outlying). "Dave" Is a genial come- dy about how an Everyman does a better Job as president than the elected chief executive. In other words, this Is the film fantasy version of "What if Perot had been a nice guy?" Kevin Kline has a double role, playing both a nasty, post- Clinton president who delights in cutting aid to the poor as well as a mild-mannered employment counselor who makes a few extra bucks as a celebrity impersonator of the self-same president. Spotted by a Secret Service agent, he's hired to double for the comrnander-in- chief.

And when the president suffers a stroke in the throes of an affair, the wicked chief of staff (Frank Langella as a Juicy) concocts a scheme to stick the sick president in a White House base- merit and control the Oval Office with the patsy under his thumb. What about the First Lady, you say. Well, she (Sigoumey Weaver) hates her cheating husband they live In separate bedrooms and ultimately she becomes attached to the new guy. PG-13. DENNIS THE MENACE (outlying).

Walter Matthau is absolutely wonderful as the constantly tormented neighbor, Mr. Wilson, In this film adaptation of the popular comic strip and TV show. And although little Mason Gamble may not be another Macauley CutWn, he's fine as In-' nocently troublesome Dennis. But the movie loses track of its energy during a labored, 10-mlnute sequence with Dennis combatting a thief. What would have been better is more scenes of tenderness between Dennis and Mr.

Wilson. PG. THE FIRM (Chestnut Station, Webstar Place and outlying). Sydney Pollack adapts John Grisham's cautionary '80s novel about a young lawyer who sells his soul to a devilish law firm but it's Tom Cruise's show all the way. Cruise Joins a paternalistic Memphis law firm but begins regretting the situation after he realizes that the only way anyone ever See Fucks Picks, Page I My VW takes some joy out Movie review Johanna Steinmetz "The Joy Luck dub" Directed by Wayne Wang; screenplay by Amy Tan Ronald Bass, Aon the novel by Tan; photogaphed by Amir Mokrl; production designed by Donald Graham Burt; edited by Maysle Hoy; music by Rachel Portman; produced by Wayne Wang, Amy Tan, Ronald Bass and Patrick Markey; executive produced by Oliver Stone and Janet Yang.

Running time: 2:15 A Hollywood Pictures mease. Opens Friday at the Fine Arts Theatre. MPAA rating: R. Aduk themes; scenes depicting Infanticide, rape and polygamy. THE CAST Suyuan 1 TsaiCWn YmgYing.

Nuyen An Mel June Waverly Tomiui Lena Lauren Tom Rose Rosatnd Cnao then moving forward to show, their daughters' troubled marriages and careers. It is a universal story of immigration and assimilation, as well as a wrenching look at the barriers Chinese women have had to surmount (indeed, in many cases, still have to surmount) to survive and flourish. Easily the most prominant pair is the hard-nosed Lindo (played with wonderful flin-tiness by the Shanghai-born, London-educated Tsai Chin) and her daughter, Waverly (Tamlyn Tomita). Lindo, who was sold as an adolescent to be the bride of an impotent boy, had the cunning to outwit her in-laws and flee to America. But the same drive over here puts unrelenting pressure on her daughter to achieve, and the tension between these two dominates the movie.

Lindo's counterpart, until her recent death, is Suyuan (Kieu Chinh, once the leading film "star of Vietnam)r Stylized adaptation he Joy Luck Club," A my Tan's II phenomenally satisfy-II ing novel about two generations of Chinese-American women four pairs of mothers and daughters now living in San Francisco-owed much of its success to Tan's skill at weaving their varied stories into a smooth arabesque. The film based on the novel, with a script by Tan and Ronald Bass, tries the same approach but, under Wayne Wang's curiously stilted direction, it no longer feels so effortless. The Hong Kong-born Wang, whose saucy, low-budget "Eat a Bowl of Tea" was an art house favorite several years ago, shows an unexpected predilection here for soap operatic style. Many of his shots particularly the flashbacks to China in the "30s have the one-dimensional quality of animated paintings, formal and distant, underscored with lush orchestral climaxes. This may be an intentional stylization, but it isn't framed as such.

Or perhaps because some of the film's principal actors are schooled in Chinese opera, its highly formal style has rubbed off on the production. In any case, only during present-day scenes of a cacophonous going-away party for one of the daughters scenes that mark transitions from one woman's story to another's does the camera seem to come alive. The tale remains compelling, nevertheless, tracing the lives of the four mothers back in time, through tales of rape, concubinage; war and- infanticide, New this week THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (900 N. Michigan and outlying). This week's Flick of the Week.

See above. Rated PG. ALADDIN (outlying). A better title tor the latest Disney animated musical would be "Genie," because Robin Williams steals the show as the dude in the lamp with the wishes. Ctianing into more than 60 characters from Aresenio to Ed Sullivan the genie Is a major hoot as he helps a uyoung street beggar turn Into a prince and marry an embattled princess.

The two young lovers aren's anything special, but their Arabian adventure has Its pleasures, including a wisecracking parrot (voice by Gilbert Gottfried) perched on the shoulder of an evil king's adviser and a flying carpet with tassels for arms and legs. The songs aren' quite at the level with those "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast," bu this Is still a major achievement that ought to please parents and adults. G. THE BALLAD OF LITTLE JO (outlying). A modem tale of sexual role playing set in the Ok) West with a society woman (ac- -tress-model Suzy Amis) trying to pass as a man order to hide from having been sold Into servitude.

She winds up giving away her secret to a Chinese laborer who is forced to act like a neutered "coolie" In order to keep his head above water ki the sexist, racist Ok) West Although Amis Isn't convincing as a man, the story still holds some power. R. BOX) NO HELENA (Water Tower). Not as worthless as you may have heard. Admittedly bizarre, It's the story of a sexu- ally retarded surgeon who severs a beautiful woman's Hmbs In order to control her after she rejects his advances.

It's sort of a more sexually frank version of "Misery," and the Imagery Is an attempt to portray the condition of a lot of male-female relationships. Julian Sands Is creepy as the doctor, and Sherilyn Fenn has the thankless role as the love object, a role declined by Madonna and Kim Bastnger. R..