THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505150195
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
``A MAN OF NO Importance'' appears to have comedic promise. Albert Finney, in a showy, if somewhat restrained, performance, is an aging, lonely man who seeks to escape from his mundane life to create ``just one moment of art.''
But the heavyhanded direction makes the film a persistent downer. Any comedic possibilities are largely lost, in favor of a dullish obsession with guilt.
Finney plays a Dublin bus conductor in the early 1960s. He entertains his passengers each morning with witticisms from Oscar Wilde while he harbors a crush on the young bus driver (Rufus Sewell), whom he calls Bosie, the pet name for Wilde's beloved.
When he spots the beautiful Tara Fitzgerald (``Sirens'') on the bus, he immediately wants to star her in his own production of Wilde's ``Salome.'' With rehearsals at the local church hall, Finney feverishly tries to create another world - one of fantasy that would supersede his repressed, lonely reality.
Nothing turns out as planned. The cast is laughably ignorant of what they might be trying to do.
His production of ``Salome'' is condemned as blasphemous by the local butcher (Michael Gambon), who even complains that it has ``immodest dancing.'' Finney counters that ``dancing is neither immodest nor modest. It's either well or badly done.''
In a tragic surrender, Finney dresses as Oscar Wilde and visits a local pub, where he is ridiculed and beaten by local toughs.
Brenda Fricker (Oscar winner for ``My Left Foot'') plays Finney's strict and domineering sister, who eventually warms to his sexual persuasion and fantasies.
The possibilities for contrasting folksy humor with tragic repression are largely missed by the deliberately slow pacing of director Suri Krishnamma. Much of the Irish brogue is all but indiscernible.
``A Man of No Importance'' is an interesting misfire that ultimately sinks in its own heavy obsessions. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``A Man of No Importance''
Cast: Albert Finney, Brenda Fricker, Michael Gambon, Tara
Fitzgerald, Rufus Sewell
Director: Suri Krishnamma
Screenplay: Barry Devlin
MPAA rating: R (sexual theme, brief nudity)
Mal's rating: Two 1/2 stars
Locations: Naro in Norfolk
by CNB