Copyright
© 2001 by
Michael
Segers,
All rights Reserved
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As
I've written
before,
In
this new film, he's back on the couch... and imagining that beautiful young
women are wanting to join him there. Take
a look at Allen, however, and you'll see just how badly he does
need some therapy. I've often
suspected that Allen has given some of his female characters a really bad
treatment--especially considering that Allen, the writer, sets up scenes for
Allen, the actor, one of the most unlikely hunks of all filmdom, to play.
It's as if the 98-pound weakling is still trying to get back at the prom
queen for refusing to dance with him.
This
time out, Allen's persona appears as C.W. Briggs, an insurance investigator in
New York in the 1940's, and to give Allen his due, he evokes the city in that
time with a lush texture of costume, jazz, and photography.
Briggs's nemesis is a "career woman" (Helen Hunt), an
efficiency expert at the same insurance company, who efficiently puts Briggs in
his place. But, that means that
Briggs (or is it Allen?) has the opportunity to trash her--do I mean the
character Betty Fitzgerald or the actress Helen Hunt? I'm not sure; I'm not sure
Allen is either.
Things
get as interesting as they can get when Briggs and Fitzgerald fall victim to
that stock character, the evil hypnotist, whose post-hypnotic suggestions allows
him to use their knowledge to commit virtually perfect robberies.
And,
through the robberies, Allen, uh, Briggs, uh, Briggs-Allen meets Laura.
Now when I tell you that (1) Laura falls madly in love with Briggs, and
(2) Laura is played by Charlize Theron, you will join me in classifying this
film as science-fiction.
Well, as I said, I don't get Allen or his work. I certainly don't get the ongoing appeal that he has for some people--as inexplicable as the appeal that his character has for Laura in this film. I know that makes some people think that I need to end up on the therapist's couch a while, but I prefer to keep on rovin' and ravin', invitin' you to join me, with your feet dry and your heart, of course, full of noble thoughts.
Way,
way back in 1999, the The
Hunger Site appeared on the Internet, and I wrote
about it, “It may be the most
nearly perfect union of technology, commerce, and charity ever seen, in a way
that could only take place on the Internet. The idea seems too simple: click on
the button once a day, and the site’s advertisers will pay for a donation of
food.”
Recently, it disappeared, a victim of the decline in online advertising
revenues that I mentioned in last week’s