THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 7, 1996 TAG: 9602070596
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
TWO FEARLESS performances fuel ``Dead Man Walking,'' a film that comes closer to discussing the essence of Christian spirituality than any other film is likely to do this year.
The outward plot is a simple one. A convicted murderer, sentenced to execution by lethal injection, is challenged and finally redeemed by the tough love of a Roman Catholic nun.
He is won over when she turns out not to be the pushover he expected. She is won over when he turns out to be a human being.
What might have been sappy material is saved by thoughtful, committed and often-unpredictable performances from Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon. Seldom do either of them take quite the tack we would have expected.
Penn proves, yet again, that he is one of our best, most uncompromising actors. He is flamboyant and physical, yet he stays thoroughly within the believable confines of this despicable yet pitiable character. He plays Matthew Poncelet, a sleazeball who is convicted of raping a teen-age girl and then murdering her boyfriend. He says he's innocent.
The countdown to his execution is on.
Sarandon, in what will surely become her fifth Oscar-nominated role, is more restrained than usual. She plays soul-searching with a surprising degree of visible introspection. She uses her eyes rather than histrionics to suggest moral groping. As Sister Helen Prejean, the real-life New Orleans nun, she is heart-wrenchingly vulnerable, a woman whose own faith is threatened as she tries to save another human being.
The surprising thing is that the film is meticulously balanced - so balanced, in fact, that it forgoes the more obvious chances for preachy drama. (With this film coming from Sarandon and writer-director Tim Robbins, her real-life companion, we had every right to expect would be an ultra-liberal diatribe against capital punishment.)
Sister Helen becomes the spiritual adviser to the lowlife Poncelet. She campaigns to save his life, and she is, understandably, condemned by the families of the two victims.
The families are played as understandably wounded parents rather than as hysterical seekers of revenge. Their hatred of the convicted murderer and his nun-protector is understandable while, at the same time, the movie seeks to suggest that no human being should be killed by another.
From Susan Hayward's execution in ``I Want to Live'' to Montgomery Clift's in ``A Place in the Sun,'' the movies have traditionally cast attractive, misunderstood and usually innocent characters as the ones who are to be executed. Here, Penn's character refuses to seek our sympathy. In addition to possibly being a murderer, he is a racist and a Nazi. Still, in spite of everything, he is a human being.
Filming on location in New Orleans, New York and suburban Louisiana, Robbins uses close-ups to capture the rare give-and-take between his two actors. Bruce Springsteen (perhaps going for a second Oscar?) composed and performs the title song. Ry Cooder adds a suitable folk motif by producing most of the other songs.
Rarely has a film been so fair and yet still managed to retain its edge. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
DEMMIE TODD/ Gramercy Pictures
In two fearless performances, Sister Helen (Susan Sarandon) comforts
convicted murderer Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn).
Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Dead Man Walking''
Cast: Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Robert Prosky, Lois Smith, Scott
Wilson, Roberta Maxwell
Director and Writer: Tim Robbins, based on the book by Sister
Helen Prejean
MPAA rating: R (language, rape, murder)
Mal's rating: Four stars
Locations: Greenbrier 13 in Chesapeake; Lynnhaven Mall lower
level, Pembroke, Surf-n-Sand in Virginia Beach
by CNB