Charlie: A Fair, But Inferior Remake
The Truth About Charlie is that it has all the ingredients to be a top-notch romantic caper, but just can never get it together enough to deliver. Based on 1963's Charade, which starred Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, the new version by director Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs) has given the classic a contemporary, stylish sheen while using the framework of the original as inspiration. Call it a "reimagining" of the source material.
The movie is very good looking, taking advantage of Paris' many personas—modern metropolis, tourist mecca, tradition-bound cultural center. Demme's sense of pacing and Tak Fujimoto's excellent cinematography keeps the picture interesting even while the plot, which centers on Regina Lambert's (Thandie Newton) quest to find the whereabouts of a fortune her dead husband (the Charlie of the title) stole from several unsavory characters (Joon-Hoon Park, Lisa Gay Hamilton and Ted Levine). Mark Wahlberg plays an international man of mystery Joshua Peters/Alex Dyle who may or may not be on Regina's side. Throw in the French police, an officer of the Office of Defense Cooperation (Tim Robbins) and a mourning and slightly deranged mother, and Regina should be in a world of trouble.
But that's part of the problem with the movie. For all of its pluses—a great cast, a great director, great source material, terrific cinematography and probably one of the best scores of the year—the biggest negative is that when you come right down to it, you really don't care whether or not Regina or anybody will find the missing money. And that might not be a big problem if the film was at least fun or exciting. It's neither. Regina is just not in enough danger or having enough fun for all of Demme's genius touches like flashbacks, fast forwards and fantasy sequences to work.
And this brings us to the biggest problem. Newton just doesn't have the charm or the sex appeal to pull off the damsel in distress role. She's the worst thing an actress can be in a romantic thriller—bland and vaguely stupid, until the very end when she becomes surprisingly and unexpectedly intelligent. On the other hand, Wahlberg is quite good as Peters/Dyle. As I've suspected for a long time there's a great actor trying to escape his Funky Bunch past. He just needs to find the right vehicle to do it. Robbins also acquits himself well, even though he's essentially phoning it in.
I suspect audiences who've never seen Charade will enjoy this romp, but those who hold great affection for the original as I do will want to head to the video store as soon as they leave the theater to reacquaint themselves with the source material.
The movie is very good looking, taking advantage of Paris' many personas—modern metropolis, tourist mecca, tradition-bound cultural center. Demme's sense of pacing and Tak Fujimoto's excellent cinematography keeps the picture interesting even while the plot, which centers on Regina Lambert's (Thandie Newton) quest to find the whereabouts of a fortune her dead husband (the Charlie of the title) stole from several unsavory characters (Joon-Hoon Park, Lisa Gay Hamilton and Ted Levine). Mark Wahlberg plays an international man of mystery Joshua Peters/Alex Dyle who may or may not be on Regina's side. Throw in the French police, an officer of the Office of Defense Cooperation (Tim Robbins) and a mourning and slightly deranged mother, and Regina should be in a world of trouble.
But that's part of the problem with the movie. For all of its pluses—a great cast, a great director, great source material, terrific cinematography and probably one of the best scores of the year—the biggest negative is that when you come right down to it, you really don't care whether or not Regina or anybody will find the missing money. And that might not be a big problem if the film was at least fun or exciting. It's neither. Regina is just not in enough danger or having enough fun for all of Demme's genius touches like flashbacks, fast forwards and fantasy sequences to work.
And this brings us to the biggest problem. Newton just doesn't have the charm or the sex appeal to pull off the damsel in distress role. She's the worst thing an actress can be in a romantic thriller—bland and vaguely stupid, until the very end when she becomes surprisingly and unexpectedly intelligent. On the other hand, Wahlberg is quite good as Peters/Dyle. As I've suspected for a long time there's a great actor trying to escape his Funky Bunch past. He just needs to find the right vehicle to do it. Robbins also acquits himself well, even though he's essentially phoning it in.
I suspect audiences who've never seen Charade will enjoy this romp, but those who hold great affection for the original as I do will want to head to the video store as soon as they leave the theater to reacquaint themselves with the source material.
