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Show ()MCMe b.vIUcknrough Week's best film bets are 'Soffel' and'A Passage to India" ' Vv V j I "" ' ' ' v ' 1 ' ; V " ' t .it' - - i 1 v. - , nt ' J 1 " - ,..,.,,&. . ' '' ' V J J . t .. ' J -kVi f - ' 5V0 - ' X ' ' ' ' : : :':?' 'v - alert curiosity, half hypnotic gaze. Her mother-in-law-to-be, Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft) resents the colonialism shown by her son, a British official, and the rest of his set, but she is also enervated by a growing sense of her mortality. The Indian doctor Aziz (Victor Banerjee) forms an infatuation for both women and is puppy-dog eager to form a friendship with them both. But when he and Adela visit the dark, brooding Marabar Caves, Adela comes down the mountain in a hysterical plummet, and Aziz is charged with sexual assault. Maybe what we've got here is a form of the "heart of darkness"-in the cave depths, the Western visitor sees herself, but mistakenly thinks the fathomless dark is, really, the menace from the dark-skinned Third World. The trouble is the script tries to show the sexual tension between Adela and Aziz that leads to the incident. But you never feel the tension. In "Passage," the people are character studies, spinning in their own preoccupations and never really connecting with each other. The most successful performance is from James Fox, as teacher Fielding, the least self-centered of the characters. The most compelling relationship is his friendship with Aziz. The Englishman isn't domineering domi-neering with Aziz, nor does he try to change the Indian's Uncle-Tommish tendencies. He seems to stoically realize he can't drastically alter attitudes molded by a few centuries of colonial rule. The greatest triumph in "Passage" "Pass-age" is its depiction of the Marabar Caves. In these tight little rock burrows, the echoes build and charge down on the visitor like an oncoming train. (Kudos to the sound-effects department!) A Classic Recommended Good double feature material Time-killer For masochists only '2 Fast Forward "We've got to get awesome," says one of the heroes in "Fast Forward." Okay, the dancing is impressive enough, and well directed direct-ed by Sidney Poitier. But the story line is less than awesome. Eight hot-to-hoof youngsters from Sandusky, Ohio travel to New York to compete in a dance contest called the "Shoot Out." No problems here, except that (1 ) they have to room in a sleazy neighborhood infested by rapists and thugs, (2) the group's leader (John Peter Clough) is distracted from his dancer girlfriend (Tamara Mark) by a high-society cutie, (3) their old-fashioned style can't compete with the punk dancers in the neighborhood, let alone the talent in the big contest, and (4) the crooked talent agency has rigged the contest anyway. The musical numbers are likable enough, but they're also the only energetic relief to a predictable story line. The two male leads are engaging. Broadway actress Irene Worth is embarrassed playing a stereotype older than the lindy hop: she's a rich but spunky old dame who takes the group under her wing. The script's handling of the eight characters is interesting from an ethnicsexual viewpoint. The group includes a white male leader (Clough), his girlfriend (Mark), the black choreographer (Don Franklin) and an insecure blonde (Tracey Silver). The other four all , black : girls are indistinguishable in the story. Martin's Day Richard Harris stars as a mentally-disturbed prison inmate who tries to run back to his childhood. His character saves "Martin's Day" from being as soppy as you fear. Martin Steckert, who escapes from prison, has a hot streak that is partly whimsical, partly psychotic. It is perfect equipment for a Richard Harris role. He's trying to return to a lakeside cabin where, as a boy, he knew the only idyllic time of his life. When he seizes a young boy, also named Martin (Justin Henry), the kid becomes an ' outlet for his own yearnings for innocence. The incidents that follow sound like Disney for eight-year-old delinquents, delin-quents, as the pair rob a toy truck and "borrow" a train for little Martin to drive. But the charms of the two stars make it work Harris is all heart-rending hamminess and Henry (chubbier than in "Kramer vs. Kramer" his most famous film) is effective. Certainly, though, the film never escapes . the conventional. Back at the Establishment, policeman James Coburn wants to stop Harris with gunfire, while psychologist Lindsay Wagner favors a gentler approach. kVz Mischief "Mischief" is a dull, derivative film with hardly a decent laugh anywhere. any-where. Doug McKeon (the boy from "On Golden Pond") is a '50 s youngster who begins a Richie-and-Fonzie relationship with the macho guy (Chris Nash) who moves in from Chicago. McKeon seeks his friend's advice on wooing the girl of his dreams (Kelly Preston). The story and direction look like a mechanical compilation of every horny-teen movie ever made-the scenes at the drive-in, the "chicken" contest, the malt shop, the prom and the make-out scene interrupted by (of course) the parents. Meanwhile, Nash's story looks like a transparent steal from the Daryl Hannah movie "Reckless." He falls for a girl (Catherine Mary Stuart) and though she is courted by the town's rich jock, he eventually convinces her to ride off with him on his cycle into the sunset. "Mischief" is chiefly, a miss. Mrs. Soffel Has there been a movie so darkly photographed? Watching Gillian Armstrong's "Mrs. Soffel" you're tempted to turn a flashlight on, since it so strongly emphasizes oily dank interiors. But without that atmosphere, you wouldn't feel quite the same about the three main characters in their own darkness-two Biddle brothers, Ed and Jack (Mel Gibson and Matthew Modine), are sentenced to hang in an early-1900s prison, while the warden's wife, Mrs. Soffel (Diane Keaton), presides with strained cheer over her household. Mrs. Soffel comes to the men to provide Bible readings, but feels something more exciting in her contacts with Ed. (The direction accompanies this by stressing the bars, walls and floors that close in the characters. ) The story from there is fairly simple-she smuggles files to them and they persuade her to come along when they make their escape. Mrs. Soffel's life only occasionally allows her to relax into a beatific smile, but in these moments Keaton shows more warmth than in anything since the Woody Allen years. Mel Gibson's restless appeal is a natural for the role of Ed, and Modine is a callow, opportunistic Jack. However, the movie doesn't make you believe that Keaton changes so quickly from proper lady to renegade. And in her love scenes with Gibson the action and dialogue is unclear. It's as if the emotional play was lost in the dark too. 'z A Passage to India "Passage" is stately and thoughtul, as one might expect from director David Lean. But it's not affecting enough to make the story work. The story, taken from E.M. Forster, is about two Westerners coming to terms with themselves as they travel through India. Adela Quested (Judy Davis), traveling to , meet her fiance, looks over the country with an attitude that is half ' 1 Now showing At the Holiday Village Cinemas: Beverly Hills Cop 'iFast Forward . The Mean Season (not yet rated) ; 'Passage to India , Jonathan (Doug McKeon) and Marilyn (Kelly Preston) ' "experience one of life's awkward moments in "Mischief." |