Intermission

by Jim Wunderle

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"

Directed by: Terry Gilliam

Starring: Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro

Rated: R

On paper, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" looks like a near-perfect triangle of creative beauty. At the base we have Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, a man whose writings defined the Vietnam/Watergate-era counterculture.

Drug-induced paranoid ramblings? Maybe, but the machine-gun-paced prose that Thompson composed (and, in fact, is still composing) was as hilarious as it was twistedly insightful.

Along the second side of the triangle is director Terry Gilliam. A member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, Gilliam did the bizarre animations that were a staple of the TV show, and he later became the de facto director of several of the Python films. Upon branching out on his own, Gilliam carved a niche for himself as one of the most visually exciting directors of modern times.

"Brazil," "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" and more recently "12 Monkeys" were all slightly askew tales that were highly visual pieces of work.

Finally there's the film's star, Johnny Depp. Depp sidestepped the attempts to turn him into a teen heartthrob "movie star" and opted for a career in "acting" instead. He has consistently made brave choices, choosing challenging roles rather than going for the sure-fire, big-bucks, box-office smash. He played the lead role in John Waters' "Cry Baby," made a couple of films with Tim Burton "Edward Scissorhands" and "Ed Wood" and starred as the title character in 1995's small masterpiece "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" Never one to follow the beaten path, Depp has a long career ahead of him.

So, with this perfectly formed triangle of talent, "Fear and Loathing" should be a blast of creative entertainment, right? Well, "should be" and "is" are two different matters.

The film is a one-joke story, and while Gilliam supplies some of his trademark visuals, they are mostly drug hallucinations that begin to wear a bit thin after a while. The narration, supplied by Donald Morrow, is just not the same as the voice of Thompson that plays in your mind while reading his work.

There are some funny parts, some insightful parts and some downright twisted parts, to be sure, but the only reason I liked this film even a little bit is because Thompson is one of my all-time favorite writers/culture figures. A lot of fans of the good doctor will be disappointed, though, and those unfamiliar (or unenthralled) by his work will be turned off completely.

"Sliding Doors"

Directed by: Peter Howitt

Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, John Lynch, John Hannah, Jeanne Tripplehorn

Rated: R

The summer mega-giganto-bigger-than-ever season is under way, and while the giant Japanese lizard was stomping around screens everywhere, a few smaller movies managed to be released, as well. One of those, Peter Howitt's "Sliding Doors," sneaked into town last week.

"Sliding Doors" is a fairly light love story, but one with a nice twist on the narrative form.

Helen, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, gets fired from her job, leaves work, catches the subway and arrives home to find her boyfriend in bed with another woman. That's one version of the tale.

In the other, which takes place parallel to the first, Helen misses the subway (the doors slide shut just as she approaches), she tries to catch a cab, is mugged and taken to the hospital, and arrives home long after her boyfriend's mistress has departed.

In the first story, Helen meets an interesting man on the subway and they begin a cautious romance. In the other universe, she slowly begins discovering telltale signs that her lover may be an unfaithful one. In the end, the plots converge in a most plausible fashion.

I liked "Sliding Doors" a lot and found Howitt's form interesting. We always wonder "what if" this or that had (or hadn't) happened, and this film plays out the possibilities in an entertaining way. If you're looking for a nice "date" movie, this is it.

(Jim Wunderle works at Associated Video Producers and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.)

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