
DATE: Wednesday, October 29, 1997           TAG: 9710290814

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E7   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Movie Review

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   82 lines

THERE'S LITTLE GLOW IN ``MOONLIGHT''

IF ``BOX OF MOONLIGHT'' is any indication, there is precious little joy in liberation. Rather than moonlight or any other kind of viable dream in the symbolic box, there is merely a phony-velvet emptiness.

The trouble with this modestly budgeted little film is that it builds its expectations so simply and so clearly that we are more disappointed than we might otherwise be when they aren't delivered.

An uptight, schedule-obsessed electrical engineer takes a turn off the main road to visit the world of a ``free'' trailer kid in the woods. What one expects here is something like a ``Zorba the Greek'' revelation - when Anthony Quinn, the free soul, taught uptight Alan Bates to dance, and to live.

What we get is a meandering bit of lowlife cheesiness that actually makes us glad when the engineer returns to his wife and what, presumably, is meant to be the ``dull'' life.

The trouble is primarily in the casting of newcomer Sam Rockwell in the all important role of ``Kid,'' the nature-child who is meant to be the force of freedom. Clad in a Davy Crockett suit stolen from a movie set, Kid is simply a social loser, and a rather uncharismatic one at that. He's torn up his Social Security card, never paid taxes, hates the CIA and the FBI, and hides out from life in a makeshift trailer in the woods. In a better screenplay and with a bravura performance, this character could have been parlayed into a believable, even compelling, rebel, but Rockwell fails to give a hint as to why the visiting engineer might admire Kid's lifestyle. On top of everything else, Kid is a petty thief, stealing lawn ornaments from puzzled homeowners.

John Turturro, a good character actor in things like ``Quiz Show'' and ``Barton Fink,'' is miscast as the uptight engineer. Indeed, Turturro would have been better as the free soul than the uptight one. As the embodiment of a midlife crisis, he panics when he finds his first gray hair and begins seeing things happen in reverse (water flowing into a glass, a boy riding a bike backward). This too-obvious symbolism is meant to suggest that he wants to stop time. Not content that we see it played at least two times, the director takes another scene to explain it to us.

Poor Turturro is made to read lines such as, ``Life is a tomato ripe off the vine.''

The only semblance of joy is a dance around a campfire, but even this seems artificially staged, and it comes too late in the film.

Catherine Keener, who was in ``Walking and Talking,'' has an interesting but undeveloped part as a failed sex-line operator. Her real-life husband, Dermot Mulroney of ``My Best Friend's Wedding,'' has a bit as a local redneck.

The film was shot in 34 days in and around Knoxville, Tenn. The lack of financing shows.

It was written and directed by one-time ODU student Tom DiCillo, who has seen better work, much better, in the hilarious ``Living in Oblivion,'' which was about the vagaries of making low-budget films. He clearly will have other chances, and better-financed ones.

With ``Box of Moonlight'' behind him, we can look, hopefully, toward Paramount's February release of his ``The Real Blonde,'' starring Kathleen Turner, Matthew Modine, Marlo Thomas and Darryl Hannah. This former Norfolk student has become known as one of the more unpredictable and audacious forces in independent film. It's just that, in this outing, he isn't working with a full moon. ILLUSTRATION: Photos

TRIMARK PICTURES

An uptight electrical engineer facing a midlife crisis (John

Turturro, right) looks for freedom personified by Kid (Sam Rockwell,

second from right) in ``Box of Moonlight.'' Also featured are Mike

Stanley, left, and Dermot Mulroney.

Former ODU student Tom DiCillo wrote and directed ``Box of

Moonlight.''

Graphic

MOVIE REVIEW

``Box of Moonlight''

Cast: John Turturro, Sam Rockwell, Dermot Mulroney, Catherine

Keener, Lisa Blount