Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 20, 1993 TAG: 9311220271
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's a wry but occasionally cliched approach to an uncomfortable subject - death. It's also honest enough not to turn away at the inevitable conclusion. At the same time, producer/writer/director Bruce Joel Rubin has stacked the deck strongly in his protagonist's favor. He's not interested in engaging viewers' intelligence, only their emotions.
From the beginning, the audience knows that Bob Jones (Michael Keaton) is dying of cancer. He's a successful Los Angeles public-relations man with his own agency and a pregnant wife, Gail (Nicole Kidman). Using a camcorder, he tries to explain himself and his life to his unborn child.
In those sequences, he talks directly to the camera and the audience. They're intercut with his continuing search for unorthodox treatment from a ``healer,'' Dr. Ho (Haing S. Ngor), the progress of Gail's pregnancy and Bob's relationships with the rest of his family.
Keaton is near perfect in the lead. His relaxed screen presence goes against the grain of the material and makes it unusually believable. This is the kind of ``big'' role that often earns Oscar nominations, and Keaton deserves one. Nicole Kidman doesn't fare so well. Though there's nothing really wrong with her work, she continues to be one of the least interesting actresses in the business.
Rubin dealt with similar material in his scripts for ``Jacob's Ladder'' and ``Ghost.'' In his debut as director, he handles things competently enough, though none too speedily. In many ways, the film looks and feels like another version of ``Ghost'' without the humor or the violence. At his best, Rubin is able to make Bob's condition and his reactions to it seem completely real. At his worst, the dialogue sounds like it was lifted from a trendy self-help book. Other characters urge Bob to ``share his feelings'' and to ``let go of his anger.''
The subject matter of ``My Life'' isn't likely to generate that much anticipation among moviegoers. Even Michael Keaton fans may not be that eager to see him in this role. So, despite the film's best efforts to engage audiences and to wring the right emotional reactions out of them - whether they like it or not - it's difficult to be too enthusiastic.
\ MY LIFE ** 1/2 Columbia release playing at the Salem Valley 8. 112 min. Rated PG-13 for subject matter, strong language.
by CNB