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Show Provo. Utah Friday, October 18, 2002, THE DAILY HERALD, (www.HarkTheHerald.com), Page C5 Take trip to Wonderland with 'Spirited' By ERIGDrSNIDER "r The Daily Herald There is spiritualism and weirdness aplenty in "Spirited Away," an animated film that is among the most delightful, imaginative stories I've seen all year. I, (j It is the highest-grossin- g film in Japan's history, V 4 . , ; Ai f which may be due more to a quirk of public opinion than to actual, legitimate greatness, but the film is certainly worthy of note. What to say about a movie that has a mind-controlli- x huge-heade- 'Formula Chihiro (voice of Daveigh Chase), a smart, lonely who is sad to be moving to a new city. On the way, they are distracted by what appears to be an old amusement park, where Mom and Dad are turned into pigs, Pleasure Island-stylTurns out it's not an amusement park but a sort of resort spa frequented only by spirits and other supernatural beings. Humans are mistrusted and disliked, making Chihiro the odd girl out. e. She is befriended, though, by Haku (Jason Marsden), who tells her that in order to save her parents and return to the human world, she must get a job working for the peo ple who run the bathhouse. Haku does not explain why the indentured servitude is necessary, but he seems to speak with authority. Chihiro first tries the crotchety, to-d- no-fac- and entertainingly Film Review hodgeRonny podge (Guy Weapon," anyone?) teams Jackson's Elmo with a fidgety English hood named Felix (Robert Then there's Dakota (Emily Mortimer), a "Femme Nikita"-typ- e who used to go out with Felix and has now been hired by a guy named the Lizard (the thespian, Meat Loaf) ed Ritchie-does-"Leth- bemused. The actor looks like he's having a good time dodging bullets and bad guys, and that's something, anyway. Starting in L.A. but quickly hopping the Pond to grimy Liverpool, this hit-wom- Oscar-calib- -- r. - .. j-- . ' . .... j r ...ana enjoy we ease oj 1. A i r by five guys. Zooey Deschanel, who was such a comic dynamo in "The Good Girl," contributes a mockingly intelligent take on a girl who's too worldly wise for her own good. 304-INF- Charlie Hunnam, HollyIt Boy, exhibits some heathledgerdemain in a performance that's nakedly hormonal. And Melanie Lynskey ("Heavenly Creatures") is either brilliant or way off base as a college nerd who's hilarious, whether she's meant to be or not. All of those people are caught in a movie that's less deadly than deadly dull, because writerfirst-tim- e director Stephen Gaghan is so busy setting up the final twist that he fails to establish a story to 1) kill Elmo and 2), no, never mind, kill everybody around him. Much blood splattering, d bowel mass evacuations and commentary on the cultural distinctions between Americans and Brits ensue. 2 stars drug-induce- none-too-fun- min.; R for lence, profanity, drugs, sex 1 hr., 32 vio- 1 ni3.ifRicE J x5J 4 eg NvviT' x v-v- xs and el Loft-Sty- le m . Homes ls Ckntik anii Modki Homi Open to iim to 6 pin MiWilay-Stiiuri- (8oi) W III VII il Xonh Hdgeuwd 10 - 852-21- 00 WW 1.IVIAI Next s ky ''' Shox tti 5 lMif. "M Wit, Suite wj at Ki vt: finrnwKvis PHI Si'.TI irt HIW MAHMflV. . "S ; Weekends g7 xA FREECallWailing S TWO i:Vxr Sr& ""mmm k & a kwoods Soulitom xmm VUerU Vtoftom Kvm CoDonwodUd . NiwgdiMd mam laytaHfelM UnivmlyMal . lo idnnrnnnn rn OFF1 jAUtddumtd, Igyton HOs wccttpon IGo . WMMNiMihritMiiKMMrtMbkiii rHS!. mv.v taa ktti4MMlWilibMkiiimilirfWnliiiP)irflM anMwMirtiirikim4MarMtTMM - pem5nnei' siudenis and Seniors mmm fmoTmto - Government Employees, mMri semce BHWMI ifcMiwiiiiiiii.fc 'l' 'Mobile' I ' m. mi mM tofH & Mobile x NX ii mvrniH Nationwide ID - I'V --k FREE wkf IIfjjKin U rsMfi fel J'?! "v. Call Unlimited Mobile NT 4. FREE Long Distance Roaming F. t Phones vJ," HLd Nationwide FREE rKCC :' in a Contemporary Urban Village. Located in the Elegant rlverrottoms neighborhood k the mouth of provo canyon. Sai parents will be ; put off by two scenes of casual drug use f 5f Oct. 31st W-cY- It PG-13- ; ill,.... , rZJk x t . 1 star er ( i Single-Lev- low-ke- y lusted-afte- 321-031- -- f , - Townho.mus, line for the twist to twist off of Is this a ghost story? Not really. A doomed romance? No. A gothic chiller? Nope. A tale of romantic obsession? No again. Gaghan throws all of these things at the screen and none of them sticks in a movie that's so it feels like glumly it's on barbiturates. The script is a muddle that can't decide whether to focus on Holmes or Benjamin Bratt, as a cop investigating a disappearance. And you won't know what to make of the cop, whose alcoholism is offensively tacked onto the script as if it's an intriguing accessory ("What shall I wear today? The brown suit, with the brown loafers and belt and, oh yes, my chronic disease"). What's the point of this? About 45 minutes into the listless "Abandon," I was still wondering what the movie was about. About 55 minutes in, it occurred to me that it might not know, either. 1 Abandon hope, all ye who enter "Abandon." Its only asset is a bunch of young actors who will undoubtedly turn up in better movies soon: Katie Holmes, currently doing time on "Dawson's Creek," anchors the movie with warmth, brains and a sun- -' niness that's surprising, given that her character is stalked, assaulted and Playing at Tower Theatre, 876 E. 900 South, Salt Lake City, (801) and at Jordan Commons, 9335 S. State St., Salt Lake 3390 . Film Review Knight Ridder Newspapers 2 hrs., 4 min.; PG for some scariness and violence City, (801) HEWITT By CHRIS . . - j&ii'W tv al Car-lyle- ). This Holiday season, forget the snowy chores. r an ing with the stink spirit, saving Haku, rescuing this person, reversing the spell on that person; you know the drill. Throughout it, there is much wry humor and sympathetic characterization, aided by some excellent voice work. It's a full half hour longer than most animated films, but it's worth every minute. A- - full of action, but little else gangland romp, is that Elmo McElroy is a character. As played by who Samuel L. Jackson also takes an executive producer credit on the film McElroy is brainy, brawny Muppet of "Sesame Street" fame, the Elmo of the "Formula mayhem-fuele- d 51" is a strapping underworld drug chemist who keeps his hair in natty cornrows, likes to wear a kilt and never goes anywhere without his golf clubs. The most interesting thing to be said for "Formu spiderish old coal (David Ogden Stiers), then goes right to the top: Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshete), the aforementioned aged spinster. Chihiro signs a contract and gets a new name, Sen. Some o is made over the idea of losing one's name as a metaphor for losing one's self, but only for a minute. Then the film takes another puff and it's back to monsters and enormous talking toads. Then it's one grand episode after another: deal- - la 51," a messy ed "' Disney Studios wood's next 51' Not to be confused with - Walt ld Knight Ridder Newspapers Jr. h 'Abandon' big on stars, short on plot Film Review , ... Bad memory: A girl named Chihiro remembers falling into a river and nearly drowning in this scene from Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away." By STEVEN REA ,'. Pictures JONATHAN WENKHaramount Talent: Katie Holmes and Charlie Hunnam star in "Abandon." black slug in it, not d to mention a grandmother figure who rules a countryside bathhouse with an iron fist? And does "Spirited Away" also feature something called a "stink spirit" that has bicycles, wrenches and other miscellaneous parts lodged in its blobby exterior? Yes. Yes it does. "Alice in Wonderland" comes to mind, especially if Lewis Carroll had smoked more opium than he already did. Yet "Spirited Away" manages more than just goofy imagery and odd characters. It has a classical heroine on a quest, epic adventure, and some real gravity, too. You can see the writerdirector, Hayao Miyazaki ("Princess Mononoke"), occasionally wiping tears of laughter from his eyes and saying, "OK, OK, let's get serious here for a minute." The heroine is young the fuzzy, A f V , , md M mm m mft i win be m hm b Tw iM atil mm km |
