THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604260061
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
VISUALLY as well as psychologically,``The City of Lost Children'' is a unique movie experience. Expect something entirely different and you'll still be pondering what hit you.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro have created a comic-book film with an ultra-serious tone. Their hope, obviously, is to create a cult film. There are people (maybe Trekkies) who are likely to go wild about this film. Probably the vast majority will just labor through it - content for the eye to be dazzled while the mind wanders. Its best place, probably, would be a midnight showing.
Don't expect a linear plot here, but the images eventually make a bit of sense (even though this realization may not come until after you leave the theater).
A circus strong man (Ron Perlman of TV's ``Beauty and the Beast'') and a street-wise urchin (Judith Vittet) search the waterfront for a missing child, whom they call ``little brother.'' He is just one, apparently, of hordes of children who have been kidnapped by cyclops creatures who drag the tots off to an oil derrick in the middle of some strange sea.
There dwells Krank, a mad scientist who can no longer dream. He has a resident brain, with no body, who regularly makes sarcastic comments to him about the lack of dreams. In retaliation, the evil one steals the dreams of children.
Hanging about is a menagerie of weird beings, including two hags who appear to be Siamese twins, who regularly say dirty things to the children - especially those trying to escape.
There is a bumbling diver who attempts a rescue. If he's supposed to be the hero, we're in trouble.
There also is a good deal of tongue-in-cheek humor, little asides that hint that these two filmmakers are not, after all, insane. They are apparently just bent on driving us insane.
As science-fiction fantasy goes, this is among the more fantastic.
The visuals are impressive, but the vision itself is blurred in what appears to be more audacious irreverence than pretension.
This one is for those who want something entirely different. Take your choice. MEMO: MOVIE REVIEW
``The City of Lost Children''
Cast: Ron Perlman, Judith Vittet
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro
MPAA rating: R (language, children in peril)
Mal's rating: two and a half stars
Location: Naro in Norfolk by CNB