Epic lives: films journey from Middle Earth to Afghanistan. . - At The Movies - movie review

National Catholic Reporter, Jan 25, 2002 by Joseph Cunneen

"Killings" seemed largely a technical exercise for Dubus, not one of his best stories. Field fills out his movie by inventing material for the first two-thirds of it and retains a highly improbable conclusion. The film's deliberate pace deserves praise, but when empty time is filled with repetitious shots of Ruth watching TV and directing the high school choir, it's easy to grow restless. Ruth wants Frank to go back to architectural school, and resents Natalie because she is lower class, has two small children and an estranged husband, Richard Strout (William Mapother), a privileged, former high school athlete. Matt privately shares Ruth's worries but is pleased that his son is loved by an attractive young woman.

After the murder, the killer is let out on bail, and in a small town it's hard not to run into him. Matt is outraged that Strout will probably get a mild sentence for manslaughter, but takes some comfort in poker games with his friends. "In the Bedroom" explodes when long-repressed recriminations between husband and wife are finally aired. Though Field's final shots of the town at dawn bring no peace, "In the Bedroom" respects its audience and makes us look forward to its director's future work.

Gosford Park, Robert Altman's new movie, is part Agatha Christie and part "Upstairs-Downstairs," entertainingly satiric fun with an all-star English cast including Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Alan Bates, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emily Watson and Jeremy Northam. It all happens during a 1932 weekend of pheasant hunting at the country estate of Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon), and though the who-dunnit aspects of the story are weak -- its chief detective is terminally ineffective -- the complex relations among guests and servants, and between the classes, are lightning-fast and witty. I'd need to see it at least once more to be sure of all that goes on, since Altman's camera moves so quickly from one room to another that one doesn't always know who's speaking (often whispering) or what they're saying. Insights into class structure are consistently sharp and often funny, however, not least during the murder, which occurs while Northam is singing romantic ballads to a widely varied set of reactions from the guests.

Kandahar, the new film from Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, couldn't be more topical. Less lyrical than his superb "Gabbeh," it is an episodic, semi-fictional evocation of pre-invasion Afghanistan, shot on the Iranian border. Overwhelming glimpses of human degradation and ecological devastation are loosely tied together with the story of Nafas (Nelofer Pazira), who sets out for her native Kandahar in search of a sister who is threatening to commit suicide.

Nafas' diary entries of her experiences give unity to otherwise scattered incidents. Opening shots set the tone: torsos attached to wooden and plastic legs are dropped by parachute in the midst of ramshackle desert huts. On the ground is a Red Cross center that offers help for the many men, their legs blown off by land mines, who are competing desperately for replacements.