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AROUND THE BEND

Not even the combined star wattage of veteran scenery-chewers Christopher Walken and Michael Caine can save "Around the Bend" from being anything more than a standard-issue dramedy in which an estranged family winds up coming to terms with each other during an extended road trip. This time, Walken plays Caine’s wayward son, a junkie ex-con who walked out on his own son (Josh Lucas) three decades earlier and who has now suddenly returned. Lucas, who was raised by Caine and who now has a young son of his own, wants nothing to do with the old man but circumstances intervene that force them to get to know each other and dig up past secrets while driving through the Southwest in a restored VW van. The three leads are good-Walken is impressive in a low-key role that feels like a less-psychotic variation on his unforgettable turn in "At Close Range"-and there are a couple of nice moments here and there (including an effective use of Warren Zevon’s haunting "Carmelita") but for the most part, there is really nothing here that you haven’t seen before.

2 STARS RATED R

Written and directed by Jordan Roberts. Starring Christopher Walken, Josh Lucas, Glenne Headley and Michael Caine.

THE FINAL CUT

In the not-too-distant future depicted in "The Final Cut", modern technology has invented a device that can implanted in a person and record every single moment and meory in their lives; when they die, so-called "cutters" retrieve those memories and create a sort of biographical highlight reel that removes the darker material and is played at the funeral for the survivors. The best of the cutters, who-since they find themselves viewing people’s entire lives-are forbidden from having implants themselves, is Alan Hackman (Robin Williams), who quietly pursues his craft even as protests over the technology (led by former cutter Jim Caviezel) continue to grow in the outside world. Before long, Alan is hit with a couple of blasts from his past that force him to reconsider both his work and his life.

This is an enormously promising premise for a film, especially since writer-director Omar Naim has chosen to tell his futuristic story in a way that, like "Gattaca", "Alphaville" or the recent "Code 46", stresses the human elements over the technological. However, having created a provocative set-up that could go in any number of intriguing ways, Naim lets things fall apart with a second half that fails to live up to the first (especially with a thoroughly unnecessary subplot with Mira Sorvino as Williams’s sometime-girlfriend). There are some nifty moments and Williams is quite good in a performance that never calls attention to itself. A close call, but this is the kind of film that probably works better on video, where its modest charms will seem more at home.

2 1/2 STARS RATED PG-13

Written and directed by Omar Naim. Starring Robin Williams, Mira Sorvino and Jim Caviezel.

TARNATION

Using a collage of home movies, cassette recordings, arcane film clips and other found footage put together on a home computer (at an intial total cost of only $218), Jonathan Caouette has come up with "Tarnation", one of the most startling and unforgettable films of the year-an intensely personal documentary that charts the struggles in both his life (including drugs, abuse and abandonment) and his beloved mother (whose misdiagnosis at an early age following an accident led to shock therapy that all but destroyed her) in a work that is both technologically thrilling and emotionally devastating. Although much of the pre-release publicity hype for the film has focused on the miniscule budget, this is not simply a case of someone receiving excessive praise for making the most of their meager resources. Caouette really is a find, adept at putting together scenes that are alternately funny, heartbreaking and exceedingly strange (check out the clip of his high-school musical adaptation of "Blue Velvet") without ever missing a beat. I cannot imagine what he could possibly come up with for an encore, but I am already eager to see it.

4 STARS UNRATED

Written and directed by Jonathan Caouette. Starring Jonathan Caouette, Renee LeBlanc, David Sanin Paz, Rosemary Davis and Adolph Davis.

Copyright © 2004 Peter Sobczynski
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While the views expressed by Peter Sobczynski do not necessarily reflect the views of Criticdoctor.com, the Critic Doctor will occasionally examine Mr. Sobczynski's film reviews to bring forth an honest examination of those views expressed.