Movies
Head in the Clouds
Ménage à trois in pre-WWII Paris, composed of a flighty bi-national socialite ("You're very modern, aren't you?"), a socially conscious Irishman, and a crippled dancer in exile from Spain: Charlize Theron, Stuart Townsend, Penelope Cruz, in order. The recipe caters to the apparently bottomless appetite in art houses for period cars, clothes, and uncontroversial politics (i.e., anti-Fascist). Writer and director John Duigan, who would seem to be well acquainted with the basic repertoire of 20th-century English music ("The Lark Ascending" in The Year My Voice Broke, "The Wasps Overture" in Flirting, both by Vaughan Williams), twice calls upon the opening march of Elgar's First Symphony to lend gravitas. Then again, Hugh Hudson in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes called upon the same piece for the same purpose. Gravitas is not so much lent as leeched. 2004.
Reader Rating:
MPAA Rating: R
