Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 106

Al CD II cvtf lo C') co cc) 2 Twilight Page 37 US Marshals Page 39 Hush Page 40 1ilOVIES BI EBOWSK C1) 6 7 tdit 23 Bridges wins with strikes to spare Titanic 3035 screens Week gross $196 million Gross to date $427 million Weeks In release 11 2 The Wedding Singer 2826 screens Week gross $87 million Gross to date $488 million Weeks in release 3 I If 1 -pp-71- i "--4-Tj I -1 A I tomt 4 i A I 11 A 44 AA i Se 04 I 7 A ao -II 4 Jr )444 i e''''' '410 1 al 4 4 4 A g42(5F 'I''' I 110 wpo1 '21 0 ''''''Nk I- 14 I Otwokmet1afil le-lark Good Will Hunting 2203 screens Week gross $66 million Gross to date $964 million Weeks in release 13 4- Dark City 1754 screens Week gross $56 million Gross to date $56 million Weeks in release 1 0 haggy and groggy Jeff Bridges emerges with the warmest performance of the year in The Big Lebowski the new outing from Joel and Ethan Coen A pretzel twist of kidnapping greed and bowling Lebowski is salted with the kind of intricate goofiness visual and verbal that has become the Coen brothers' signature Happily Lebowski isn't as cool to the touch as much of as their previous output has been In Lebowski Bridges is Jeff Lebowski But nobody calls him that He's known as the Dude a hippie holdover who shambles through life looking for the ingredients to keep his preferred brand of lubrication White Russians wetting his throat The Dude backs into a bizarre kidnapping plot after he's confused with another Jeff Lebowsld (David Huddleston) a bluff pompous millionaire whose girlish toy of a wife has gotten involved with the wrong group of thugs And I say wrong because Big Lebowski is peopled with groups of thugs The Dude's hapless stumblings veer through a wealth of plot He's hired by the other Lebowsld to deliver a ransom after the imperious bulldog's wife is kidnapped The trail leads to Lebowski's autocratic artist daughter (Julianne Moore) a sage porn producer (Ben Gazzara) an attack marmot and the iron lung-bound writer of the western series Branded John Turtuno makes a brief flamboyant appearance and the hardworking Steve Buscerni pops up as the sweetly dim Donnie one of the Dude's bowling buddies Lebowski is a likably off-balance screwball comedy mystery that cruises along so smoothly and so quickly you've got to pay attention That's because Bridges' towering performance may divert your eye from the keen details the last time a single actor held a Coen picture in his pocket like this was Nicolas Cage in Raising Arizona As the Gramercy Pictures Jeff Bridges and John Goodman in The Big Lebowski As Good as It Gets 1831 screens Week gross $41 million Gross to date $1129 million Weeks in release 10 6 Sphere 2238 screens Week gross $38 million Gross to date $325 million Weeks in release 3 7 Krippendorfs Tribe 1529 screens Week gross $33 million Gross to date $33 million Weeks In release 1 1 John Goodman's psychotic bluster as Walter the Dude's haplessly bad-tempered buddy can go over the top and still be funny next to Bridges' amiable dexterity And Goodman does goes over the top his obscene tantrums held together with an equally crazed concept of his own dignity are a delight out of Tex Avery And his philosophizing about the differences between Nazism and nihilism winds up the funniest line of the year Bridges' stoner intensity lends a wasted sanity to The Big Lebowski He adds impact to every scene he's in He's such a wonder that using an actor with such command and audience rapport now looks like the only way to go for the The trippy effects and vertiginous gleam actually seem to grow out of the protagonist rather than feeling like affectations that are in the movie for their own sweet sake (The Dude's fantasies which are hilariously rendered are the only high-spirited thing about him) This creative team probably has no peer at fashioning deft rambunctious comedy even though their technical gifts can generally overwhelm everything else In Lebowski you develop a liking for everything because of the star presence smack in the middle He redeems their sly zestfulness 8- The Borrowers 1606 screens Week gross $283 million Gross to date $147 million Weeks In release 3 potbellied Dude Bridges delivers a beautifully scaled performance without a trace of vanity you can almost smell the mildew off his sandals It'd be tough to find another movie built around an inept pleasure seeker the Dude is like a boar who roots around for weed instead of truffles But because Bridges' technique is based on working out a character from the inside out and setting up house inside the human he has created it's the perfect counterpoint for the Coens' glib virtuosity There's nothing flip about their movies and the intricacies are lined up alongside the farce elements with such precision that you have to admire their craftsmanship The Coens can often wind up falling on the side of brittleness the movies can have a detached mean- ness because often the characters are accorded as much weight or as little as the sets and props Bridges is one of a line of saps in Coen pictures plot-point pawns who take their lumps and move the story (Frances McDormand's Marge from Fargo may be the only case of a protagonist who isn't used in quite that way) But with this immensely talented actor adding the touch of reality it's the perfect mix he's 3 4 AC I 9 Senseless 1850 screens Week gross $278 million Gross to date $92 million Weeks in release 2 10 Caught Up 713 screens Week gross $24 million Gross to date $24 million Weeks In release 1 i 1 4 kik Figures are for last weekend Sources: Exhibitor Relations Co The Associated Press Elvis Mitchell The Big Lebowski directed by Joel Coen featuring Jeff Bridges John Goodman Steve Buscerni Julianne Moore Sam Elliott Flea Rated (Adult situations drug usage brief nudity peculiar vio- )Aius tetieer A Uk 71 Gramercy Pictures John Turturro stars as megkilomapirgi ksus Quintana in The Big tLa-741 Griawcy Rehm Cr the rat bay alit the Inhftfht 'SY11 fl1 gaTFbr rikameakw-impak ti ft 3.