Original Sin

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Singleton</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="549" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="545"><div> Love can be lustful</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="580" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Luis Vargas: Antonio Banderas</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Julia Russell/Bonny Castle: Angelina Jolie</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Walter Downs/Billy: Thomas Jane</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><div> Alan: Jack Thompson</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="269"><div> Emily: Cordelia Richards</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><div> Sara: Joan Pringle</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="269"><div> Director: Michael Cristofer</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="304" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>30 Second Bottom Line</B>: A woman who <I>wants</I> a husband and a man who <I>needs</I> a wife are married after a "mail order bride" arrangement. The woman soon reveals a dark side to her personality, which brings out the worst in her husband taking him from love to lust and revenge.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Story Line:</B> Using a newspaper ad and the mail, Luis Vargas (Antonio Banderas) places an ad for a mail order bride, to which a woman named Julia Russell responds. She has sent a picture of herself but when she arrives in Cuba she's much more beautiful. Luis says he works at a coffee plantation rather than that he owns it. He does not want a wife who wants him just for his money and she does not want a man only interested in her beauty. They have lied to each other about who they are and Julia (Angelina Jolie) observes that now they know that neither can be trusted.  </div> <bR> <div> We are told that this is not a <I>love</I> story but rather a story <I>about</I> love. Luis chooses an American wife because that country is about the future and Julia chooses moving to Cuba because she does not want to face the future. They have a celibate marriage until they have meaningful conversations with one another and soon their relationship is one of love as well as lust. In love you give and give more…in lust you take and take more. Luis wants to do both.</div> <bR> <div> The lusty mood is well established as Luis and Julia spend time making love in bed and other places. There are a number of scenes showing Jolie nude from the waist up and full rear nudity of Banderas from head to toe. The word titillating comes to mind (pun intended). These scenes are important to establish why Luis acts as he does when Julia steals his money and deserts him. He is so angry that he seeks her out to kill her, but the question is, is he strong enough to do it?</div> <bR> <div> <B>Tell Me More About It</B>: The acting by Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie in this film is exceptional. In my view, they give the best performances I've seen either of them give in any film they have been in before. They are even excellent when the film starts to go south on us about 1/3 of the way into the story.</div> <bR> <div> The movie establishes momentum until Luis chases after Julia for her love and his money. Walter Downs (Thomas Lane) is a private investigator hired by Julia's sister Emily (Cordelia Richards) to find out why she has not heard from Julia since her arrival in Cuba and her marriage to Luis. Then Emily receives a letter from Julia in a different handwriting and with disturbing passages. If there is any lingering doubt that this Julia has a dark side and a criminal past, it is erased at this point. Luis is about to join this woman he's let into his life in a special kind of hell. </div> <bR> <div> Luis's housekeeper is Sara (Joan Pringle), whose answer to him as he tells her that Julia is gone is "...she was never here." Julia may have fooled Luis, but not others in the household. Luis sells his plantation to his friend Alan (Jack Thompson) for a pittance when he thinks he is on the run for murder.</div> <bR> <div> It's at this point that the film implodes. We are asked to believe events that just don't make sense. OK, it is a movie but if something is presented to us that we are expected to accept, then it should be done in a manner that is reasonably plausible, or blatantly implausible, as in a fable. When a man is shot three times in a small private hotel, no one on the staff seems to notice. Immediately after that Julia tells Luis to go buy train tickets so they can leave the next morning; but she cautions him not to walk too fast so that he will not be noticed!? We are asked to believe that someone walking at a fast pace will cause alarm, but not a series of loud gunshots!</div> <bR> <div> Another example is during a card game when the signals for cheating are so amateurish that pre teens would know better than to try it. The filmmakers want to portray slick and cunning but it looks childish. And last there is a prison escape that is the equivalent of the Immaculate Conception. </div> <bR> <div> Usually a flawed film does not make me want to read the book, but this may be an exception. I really like the first part of the film and I'm guessing that the changes from the book upon which it is based,  <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140269770/reelmoviecriticc">Waltz into Darkness</A>  , show us the dark side of a personality that could bring out both love and lust in another person. It's a kind of film noir that I'd like to see tried again…more successfully.</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="591" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> R (strong sexual content and some violence)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> George O. Singleton © 2001</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> <A HREF="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com"><U><U>George@reelmoviecritic.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> Mini Filmography </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="286"><div> Michael Cristofer: Gia- TV</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Antonio Banderas: <I><B>Spy Kids</B></I></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Angelina Jolie: <I><B>Tomb Raider</B></I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="286"><div> Thomas Jane: <I><B>Magnolia</B></I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 38 WIDTH="286"><div> Jack Thompson: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Cordelia Richards: <I><B>Erin Brokovich</B></I></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="286"><div> Joan Pringle: Gia- TV</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="286"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="286" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>