THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 21, 1995 TAG: 9502210020
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
DID WE REALLY need a movie like ``Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle'' to show us that Dorothy Parker was actually a tragic drunk and that the famed Algonquin Round Table of 1920s intelligentsia was actually a collection of shallow freeloaders?
As directed and co-written by Alan Rudolph, ``Mrs. Parker'' is a bitter and unfocused film that tries to take on more than it can possibly deliver, and it does so with little flourish and absolutely no love of life. Rather than make a movie just about witty, caustic Dorothy Parker, it tries to present the entire Algonquin Round Table. As a result, people like Edna Ferber, Deems Taylor, Will Rogers and F. Scott Fitzgerald wander through. And it covers four decades. It is nothing if not excessive.
Still, the dialogue is literate and the guest list is formidable. What other film would even recognize people like Robert Benchley, Robert Sherwood and George S. Kaufman? The best moments are throwaway lines muttered on the sidelines. Rudolph stole this vocal tease from his mentor, director Robert Altman. You must listen closely to this film. You'll be rewarded by some little gems that are much better than the muddled plot in the foreground.
Jennifer Jason Leigh, an actress who is overly praised by most other critics, suggests a Dorothy Parker accent that is 80 percent drunken slur - perhaps with a case of lockjaw. You won't understand much of what she says, but you'll get the idea that she means it when she says, ``Kindly direct me to hell.'' You have to give it to Leigh, though. When she chooses an accent, she sticks with it. There is some intrigue in watching how far she'll go. The girl has guts.
Andrew McCarthy is cast as her philandering first husband. Then there is an affair with Charles MacArthur (the playwright who later wrote ``The Front Page''), played by Matthew Broderick. (This was long before MacArthur married Helen Hayes and supposedly straightened up). The script, though, suggests that the real love of Parker's life was humorist Robert Benchley, wonderfully played by Campbell Scott (George C. Scott's son, who should be a major star by now). Their friendship is portrayed as being platonic yet romantic. Someone comments, ``They do it with their minds, like bunnies.''
The wit is mainly dry and deadpan, like a plague inflicted as torture rather than for fun.
The famous folk are played by a cast of today's more pretentious and ambitious young actors, many of whom will be unknown by most of the audience. It will be difficult to spot the literary giants in our midst. Lili Taylor is Edna Ferber. Jennifer Beals is Mrs. Robert Benchley. Martha Plimpton is Jane Grant, a veteran feminist. Some 24 real-life characters are portrayed.
The film ably recreates the look of its eras - from settings to costumes. It doesn't do as well at dramatizing them.
The film is not dull but is relentlessly depressing and rambling. Visiting this Algonquin Round Table is like finally getting a chance to meet some of our greatest literary legends - only to learn that they were drunken bums. Couldn't we have had some fun with them? ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle''
Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Campbell Scott, Matthew Broderick,
Andrew McCarthy, Peter Gallagher, Jennifer Beals, Gwyneth Paltrow,
Sam Robards, Martha Plimpton, Stephen Baldwin
Director: Alan Rudolph
Screenplay: Alan Rudolph and Randy Sue Coburn
Music: Mark Isham
MPAA rating: R (sexual situations)
Mal's rating: Two 1/2 stars
Location: Naro in Norfolk
by CNB