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Show Ete Marisa Tomei Carries Weight of Criticism Over Cuban Role ByPaul Willistein (c) 1995, The Allentown Morning Call Many actors work out daily with a personal trainer and maintain strict diets — evervigilant to preserve that all-importantstage, sereen and television image. Not Marisa Tomei For the movie, “The Perez Family,” in which she plays Dottie Perez, a voluptuous, buoyant Cubantrying for U.S. citizenship after the 1980 Mariel boatlift, Tomei gained about 20 pounds. ‘Rightafter I got the partI just ate every two hours,” Tomeisaid. This included high-calorie items like doughnuts and pizza. Tomei admitted that after completing filming for the romantic comedy “[ kept eating all summer.” She hassince slimmed down Tomei said adding the weight was “very helpful for the process” of getting into the role. “Youkind of get into the character. I could see myself changing.” She said she wasstriving to gain what she considers a highly re- ‘Perez’ Better Without Tomet? By Chris Hewitt Knight-Ridder Newspapers Does anyonehave cure for Tomei poisoning? “The Perez Family” suffers from a bad caseofit. Sporting a wretched ‘“OK-by-me-in-Am-eRI-ca”’ accent, Tomei is a spunky Cuban hooker who comesto Florida. She’s about 25 years old (or “25 jears old,” as Tomei would say), full of life and determined to find a husband so she can become a US. citizen. Shelatches onto Alfred Molina, a Cuban ex-con has come to Miami to reunite with his CubanAmerican wife, Anjelica Huston. Tomei’s zest for life translates into lots of inappropriate behavior. She’s forever walking into lakes and lawn sprinklers fully clothed, like a wet T-shirt buff crying out for a support group. Tomeishowsoff her unshaven underarmsand shakesherhipsa lot to indicate she’s a hot tamale, but she reminded me moreof a beheaded chicken. And, despite all the coochi-cooing, we never get a handle on her character — we're intimately acquainted with her armpits, but who is she? Huston, on the other hand, is completely convincing. She’s so confident and graceful that it’s initially disconcerting to see her playing an uptight, timid woman. Her heart, like her husband, has been locked away in a Cubanjail for 20 years, and Huston’s very specific choices — her pinched walk, the way she clutches a glass of lemonadefor dear life — make the character funny, touching and real. Unfortunately, much of what she’s given to dois unreal. She's also careless with the kindsof details that would make us buy into her characters. Surprisingly, that part works. “The Perez Family” has a beginning and an unexpected ending thatfeels just right, but Nair’s attempt at zany romantic meddling makes a muddleof the middle. And Nair misguidedly devotes most of the movie to Tomei’s annoying harlot, who says, “I am like Cuba — used by many, conquered by no one.” “The Perez Family” is more like Castro — hated by many, admired by almost no one. vered aspect. “I mean, I have a nice ass, but I wanted moreof it,” Tomei said bluntly Thecasting of “The Perez Family” has again raised the issue of non-Latinos playing leading roles in the movies “T think that there’s a curse to political correctness,” Nair said, adding that screenings of “The Perez Family” have been well-received by the Cuban community in Miami where the film was made. Alfred Molina plays Juan Raul Perez, Cuban political prisoner and husband of Carmela Perez (Anjelica Huston). Juan Raul and Dottie fallin love. Molina, whois Spanish-Italian, called allowing only the casting of ethnicsto portrayethnics “cultural racism. “T think what Latino actors are saying is that we need to have an equal opportunity to play Latin parts. I think the idea that only Latinos can play Latinosis a bit ridiculous. It’s like saying only Danes can play ‘Hamlet.’ ” Chazz Palminteri, who plays Lt said, rherrmela Perez’s suitor in “The Perez Family,” has his own take on ethnic roles: “A studio says that‘I can’t put $15 million in the film with unknowns.’ * Tomei wore tan makeup “head to toe” as Dottie. “She just painted me,” Tomeisaid, rher makeup person's daily on-set task. Regarding Dottie’s accent, Tomeisaid, “I do it mostly instinctively, I think, because of growing up in NewYork. It’s just something that comes to me.” Shesaid she also used a reference tapeto stay “in accent.” Leftto right, Marisa Tomei, Alfred Molina and Anjeliea Huston star in “The Perez Famly.’ The 1988 Christine Bell novel upon which thefilm is based was larkyandbustling and crammed with folksy-phony epigrams. But director Mira Nair has taken Bell’s salsa rhythms and jacked up the volumea deafening full notch. Director-Writer Resists Hollywood Pressures to ‘Whiten’ Her ‘Bride’ By Glenn Lovell Knight-Ridder Newspapers SAN JOSE, Calif. — Callit “The Mutiny on the Bounty Syndrome.’ WheneverHollywoodvisits the Pacific islands, the results are usually lush and exotic, but havelittle to do with the indigenous population, usually exploited asbit playersin their ownstory. It happened this way in the big-screen version of James Michener's “Hawaii.” It happenedthis way duringall three standoffs between Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian on the HMS Bounty. Director-writer Kayo Hatta was determined history wouldn't repeat itself when, after seven years of developing a script with her sister, she arrived on Oahuto shoot a low-budget period piece called “Picture Bride.’ Hatta, a third-generation JapaneseAmerican born in Hawaii, was after something morepersonal and authentic, a pre-statehood drama told from the perspective of a Japanese mail-order bride and her laborer husband. Potential Hollywood backers wanted something more mainstream, something they could sell at the neighborhood multiplex. In short, there needed to be a role for a wellknown white actor, a Dennis Quaid or a Tom Cruise. “People kept saying the film isn’t commercial enough,” Hatta recalled during a stopoverin San Jose with oneofherstars, Tamlyn Tomita of “The Joy Luck Club” and “Come See the Paradise.” “They said, ‘You don’t have enough star power You don’t have a central white character.” The quick-fix, according to studio contacts: a romantic subplot betweenthepicture bride (to be played by popular Japanese TV star Youki Kudoh) and a sugar cane plantation owner (to be played by someone bankable and white). “In other words, another Hollywood potboiler, along the lines of ‘Hawaii’ and “The Hawaiians’ (with Charlton Heston),” said Hatta, wholived in San Jose’s Japantown in the early '80s, when she attended Stanford University. The filmmaker — knownprimarily for the satirical short “Tomboy ” — had some heavy-duty soul-searching ahead. Would she stand pat and providea different look at her homestate as it was in the early part of this century, or would she compromise — just this once — and give the money-people what they wantjust to get herfirst feature credit? Shelistened to her conscience, and the 20 aged picture brides (some of whom have since died) who had consented to interviews. (Hatta’s maternal grandmoth- ByKenneth Turan (c) 1995, Los Angeles Times “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain” is an ungainlytitle for a light romantic trizie. It is, fortunately, the only cumbersome thing about this genteel crackup of a comedy, both deft and daft, that knows exactly howto do exactly whatit is doing. Cumbersomethoughit is, that title is fitting, becauseit reflects the quirky character of the Welsh village (here called Ffyn- non Garw) where writer-director Christopher Monger grew up. It was a place where most everyone had appellations attached to their names, like Williams the Petroleum, who owned the garage, Davies the School, who taught therein, and Tommy Twostroke, who had possession of the town’s only motorbike How then, young Monger once asked his grandfather, did a certain Mr. Anson cometo be called the Englishman Whoetc., ete.? The story he wastold, a cherished localtale, is slight of plot, but so much wit and polish has gone into thetelling that at its best “Englishman” recalls such cherished Ealing produetions as “The Lavender Hill Mob” and “The Ladykillers’’ that made the 1950s the golden age of British comedy. Set in 1917, when World War to Hawaii in the '30s.) “T felt that I was the guardian of the stories these women hadtold me,” said Hatta, in her mid-30s. “To sensationalize or to trivialize their experiences by inventing some melodramatic ubplot would have been a betrayal I felt I couldn't do that.” So began another fouryears of script revisions, fund-raising and casting (the great Toshiro Mifune agreed to an appearance as “the Benshi,” a legendary Japaneseactor). The bulk of the $1 million budget came from the NEA, the American Film Institute and other I was at its height, the film be- gins with the arrival of not one but two thoroughly English gentlemen in Ffynnon Garw George Garrad (Ian MeNeice) and Reginald Anson (Hugh Grant) are a team of cartographers, intent on measuring any andall mountains but not particularly eager to be where they are. “Pleasant enough plac says Anson, with Garrad reply- Thethreat of being dis-moun: Meaney), who has taken unfair romantic advantage of the vil lage’s wartimelack of able-bod. Tara Fitzgerald, left, and Hugh Grant, right, star in thefilm wt) Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.’ 4 vorable, sons, This isa very different story. I d “She was our little heroine in more than one way recalled Tomita, whose othercredits include KarateKidII" and ‘ComeSeetheParadise.” Shecalled up a clothing companyin Japan and asked for a donation to complete production. A rough assemblageof “Picture Bride” Miramax is doing: They're playing up the love story, which is really at the core of the film. It's about two people who come together under unusual circumstances With the ordeal behind them, Hatta and Tomita concur that it was most worthwhile, professionally and spiritual- ly Lots of Bacon Frying This Summer ByMichael Janusonis Providence Journal I'mnot sureifit's something in the air or maybe the year of the pig, but “Gordy” is the first of two pig movies due in the next three months, I hope that “Babe,” the other one, scheduled for early August can pull the bacon out ofthe fire. Not that “Gordy” is bad. It's just that I’m not sureit will appeal to anyone over the age of 5 It starts out cute, promisingly andevenalittle sad. Gordy’s father is being taken away “up north” to a place from which porkers never return and Gordy is bereft He runs after the truck carting his hefty dad away, crying for him to come back. (Gordy andall the other farm animals can talk, at least to each other, and probably couldget jobs on television if hu- mans could only understand them.) After witnessing Gordy’s anxiety, you may never be able to look at another pork chop Soon Gordy discovers that his mother and five piglet siblings have likewise their been taken from home at Meadowbrook Farm in Arkansas. There are ru sausage factory So plucky little Gordy decides leads to a raft of pint-sized adven tures. Unfortunately, those adven tures soon involve lots cf humans ranging from a traveling band of country singers to a boy billion: aire Theplot eventually gets hung “Gordy” is a sweet little movie, ideal for youngsters, about the adven tures of a pig so adorable that he could turn us all into vegetarians, Hanky's gratitude by saving him from drowning Once that story hits the head lines, Gordy becomes a national hero Gordy’s newfound fame wins corporate skunk, in this case one about a himajob as corporate spokesman for the food company and his own who's trying to wrest control of a ken word to the feast of know huge T'V commercials, Because Hanky can understand what the little pig ing looks andsmilesits charac ters indulge themselves in Movies like this must be done just right to succeed, and, ex from a boy named Hanky (Mi chael Roescher) who has inherit ed it from his billionaire grandfa “English but I still don’t like the com ak of e story. ei Ee oo be a B asically what the pleasure it takes in language title, the editing Joy Luck Club of all types, from the witty spo: man” has everything under the best kindof control tunin film as a cross between Jane Campion’s The Piano and Wayne Wang's “The in as little as $5). In exchange for a credit to hit the road and rescue mom and her brood, something that cept for that another $1.2 million people donated food, sewing skills and other in-kind services. Then there fakes were hefty ; post-production k ath fees. Teen star Kudoh saved the day by of the Englishmen until Ffyn: proved a revivifying experi ence Englishman" is notable for anted 1 room. The company is now selling the 5 comparisons, while flattering make Hatta and Tomita wince People are saying, ‘Oh, a Japanese ‘Pi ano,” Hatta said. “I see that as v mors of — gasp! — a Nebraska Although writer-director Monger has worked in Holly wood without creating a stir, re turning to his native Wales has Fiction n Cannes, andit's afford(the 11-minutescroll at the end of thefilrn pays tribute to those who kicked ied men Theideais to do everything possible to delay the departure non Garwcan be somehow re configured and then remea sured ated for reshoots andf attracting a major investor in Japan sources looking to award grants to minor- tained even unites the unlikeliest allies, the fiery Rev. Jones (Kenneth Griffith), the guardian of local morality, and the biggest sinner around, innkeeper Morgan the Goat (Colm hour roughcut in the can. The filmmak- landers to chip in whatever they could ity women. The film was shot primarily on the north shore of Oahu “during the ing with equal dryne: P: poseso, given that it's Wales.” This constant English/ Welsh sniping goes both ways, for the villagers are not particularly pleased to welcome theseinterlopers, especially when theyrealize they have come to measure the nearby summit, also named Ffynnon Garw, a source of intense local pride for being the first mountain inside the Welsh border. Whenit turns out, as drama dictates it must, that Ffynnon Garw is just a tad short of the 1,000 feet necessarytobeclassified a mountain on official maps, a fury envelopes the town. ‘‘How could weface those whosurvivedthe war,” one man passionately puts it, “if welost the mountain?” was shownla: there that Mira US distributi ers would have wrappedearlier had they not run out of funds midwaythrough the shoot. The cash shortfall resulted in what Hatta calls ‘‘a real grass-roots effort With the help of a fund-raising video. they begged, borrowed and cajoled is- er was also an inspiration. She emigrated ‘Englishman’ Has Way With Comedy wettest summer onrecord.” Its climactic plantation fire “looked like a bunchof people running around at a barbecue and hadto be reshot on thebig island In all, it took eight weeksto get a three- up onthat tired old peg food-processing company ther, (A variation of this theme w used already this year in Tommy Boy."') Fortunately for Hanky, he has an ally in the pig who has won 4‘ says, it also gives Gordy influence in creating new and more healthful line of food products for the food company, Gordy being something of a nutritionist as well asa certified lifeguard AN thi charming eems more inane than as the little farmyard fantasy takes on new dimensions of corporate greed and market ing Gordy even gets to be inter viewed on “Wall Street Week” by Louis Rukeyser and the sight of the aging financial whiz talking to a pig demonstrates nothing more than that the man will do anything for money Little kids will no doubt love the pig, who is a delight But the plot is hackneyed, filled with coincidences and not easy to follow that or swallow If only everyone had stayed on the farm |
