| LIBERTY STANDS STILL |
 2002
- USADirector: Kari Skogland - Reviewed by Linda 
Poor Linda Fiorentino will never live down The Last Seduction. Hollywood loves to pigeonhole actresses: the second they have a breakthrough role, they may as well accept that they'll be playing variations of that role for the rest of their working careers... or resign themselves to not working at all. In The Last Seduction, Fiorentino was the classic femme fatale: smart, seductive, manipulating, and most important, HOT HOT HOT. (Anyone who has seen that film remembers a shockingly sexy scene involving a chain-link fence as support.)
But, despite proving herself as a fine actress (see also Alan Rudolph's The Moderns), if you see Linda at all in a film these days, the director will never fail to (wink-wink, nudge-nudge) incorporate her Last Seduction character. Case in point: in Liberty Stands Still, she not only has phone sex in the opening scene, but still manages to get completely naked, despite the fact that for 99% of the film she is handcuffed to a hot dog cart in a city square. In Liberty Stands Still (if ever there were a title that existed before a story, it is this one), Fiorentino plays Liberty Wallace, one half of a power couple that runs the largest gun manufacturing company in the country. After having phone sex in her limo and stopping to get a hot dog, her cell phone rings. Hello... Wesley? Wesley Snipes plays a badass guy who calls himself Joe. Joe is in a nearby building, and has his sniper rifle crosshairs aimed at Liberty. He has her trapped in a public space, and he has some issues to spout. And by having Liberty (who doesn't have much choice in the matter) handcuff her ankle to the hot dog cart, he literally has a captive audience. Can I just pause for a moment and add that this film came to a video store near you while the DC sniper was wreaking havoc on suburban Washington? Just a thought. Anyways, Joe's issue involves his young daughter being killed by a boy at school who got ahold of a gun. To emphasize this point, using MTV editing styles and camera angles, we see Joe pick up and put down a child's hair barrette. When you start to forget his mission, well, there's the hair barrette again. Pick up. Put down. Wesley grimaces and emotes from the memory. In the meantime, Fiorentino furrows her brow, listening to Joe's views on gun violence in the world, and tugs at her ankle chain often. She disrobes for an officer. She robes again. Her asshole husband (Oliver Platt) and the media show up. Did I mention that if she doesn't meet Joe's demands (whatever they are), that a theater full of play-goers is wired to blow up? Did I mention that this film came to a video store near you when Chechen rebels in Moscow held 800 theater-goers hostage? Obviously, this film is so timely that it really couldn't have come out at a worse time. The subject matter has become squirm-worthy in a way that I'm sure the filmmakers couldn't even begin to fathom. But it is still a rather dismissable movie. With the bulk of the film taking place in two static areas (hot dog stand, and sniper's hideout), the movie is basically a two-person play. Fiorentino and Snipes, both admirable actors, are given issues to debate, rather than characters to fill out. In the end, after listening to the characters pound out views on gun control (for and against, against and for) for two hours, you are left with a headache, a rather weak drama, and no answers. |
|
Home
| Currently Playing | For
Rent | Video Obsession ©2000 Moviepie e-mail us |
