[ThisWeek] Enduring Love at the Kenworthy

[thisweek at kenworthy.org]

This week at the Kenworthy-

Enduring Love (R)
Friday, January 14
7:00 PM
Saturday & Sunday, January 15 & 16
4:30 PM and 7:00 PM
$5 adults  
KFS passes accepted for Sunday movies
(See Review below)
* * *

January - February 2005 at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre . . .

The Motorcycle Diaries (R)
Jan 21 at 7:00PM
Jan 22 - 23 at 4:15 and 7:00PM

Stage Beauty (R)
Jan 28 at 7:00PM
Jan 29 - 30 at 4:30 and 7:00PM

Being Julia (R)
Feb 4 at 7:00 PM
Feb 5 - 6 at 4:30 and 7:00 PM

Yes Men (NR)
Feb 11 at 7PM
Feb 12 ­ 13 at 5:00 and 7:00 PM

House of Flying Daggers (R)
Feb 18 at 7PM
Feb 19 ­ 20 at 4:15 and 7:00 PM

UI Architecture Dept presents
Will Bruder lecture
February 25 at 5:00 PM
FREE

Dig (NR)
Feb 26 at 7:00 PM
Feb 27 at 4:15 and 7:00 PM

Regular Movie prices:  $5 adults, $2 children 12 and younger.
KFS passes accepted for Sunday movies

508 S. Main Street, Moscow, Idaho
For more information, call 208-882-4127 or visit www.kenworthy.org
* * *
This week¹s review-

Enduring Love (R)

Directed by Roger Michell; written by Joe Penhall, based on the novel by Ian
McEwan
''Enduring Love'' is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult
guardian). It has an upsetting accident, a grisly casualty, knife violence
and adult language.
Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

As reviewed by James Christopher writing for the London Times

Picture this: a picnic on a leafy hill on a warm summer¹s day. The clink of
glasses, the popping of corks. Suddenly a red hot-air balloon bumps sleepily
into view, comically attached to an elderly gent desperately tugging on the
rope. 

Inside the basket, a panic-stricken young boy. A gentle gust threatens to
sweep both to disaster. Four total strangers rush to help. They grab the
basket to stop the balloon floating away. A puff of wind lifts them all off
the ground. Three of them let go of the tow ropes. One of them bravely hangs
on. About a mile away he falls to his death.

Welcome to one of the most startling opening chapters in contemporary
fiction. It was written by Ian McEwan. Now Enduring Love is a film by Roger
Michell. 

The scenario is a gift to any film-maker with a flair for the unexpected.
But how Michell films the consequences is the true measure of his skill. The
book is a comic, mad, philosophic quest to understand love and sacrifice.
The film has to persuade us that the characters are worth the effort.

The brilliance of Michell¹s film is how lightly he wears the book. Joe
Penhall¹s adaptation is one of those rare collectible items: a script that
carves wonderful dramatic sense out of a complex literary crisis. Not easy
to do when the hero behaves as if he¹s delusional. I¹m in awe of the novel.
I love the film. Might this be the best way to enjoy two frightening and
subtly altered worlds?

As reviewed by Manohla Dargis writing for the New York Times

Based on the novel by the English writer Ian McEwan and directed by Roger
Michell, an Englishman who is probably best known for the grating romantic
comedy ''Notting Hill'' and should be known more for the pulp thriller
''Changing Lanes,'' ''Enduring Love'' is a serious movie about love,
principally its petty cruelties and monstrous disguises. Soft, tender love,
the kind that wraps you in comfort and warmth, much less the kind that sends
you over the moon, is almost nonexistent in this curious, lachrymose story.
The film takes it as an article of faith that the only answer to pain isn't
a gentle hand, but yet more pain, which Mr. Michell and the screenwriter Joe
Penhall apply with much the same dedication Laurence Olivier brought to
dentistry in ''Marathon Man.''

The novel was published in 1997 and, to their credit, the filmmakers haven't
tried to contemporize the story by giving it some unearned and ill-fitting
political resonance. Yet for me what gave this story force, what carries it
beyond Mr. McEwan's unremarkable meditations about the perils of the
rational mind, is how Mr. Michell captures the grief and helpless rage of
those who witness calamity about which they can do nothing.

Because Mr. Penhall's screenplay is heavier on action than thought and
because Mr. Michell keeps things moving fast enough so that it takes a while
to grasp that this is essentially ''Fatal Attraction'' with posh accents and
no boiled bunny. 

That doesn't make the film or the work of its very fine ensemble any less
enjoyable. The story's literary pedigree and its trappings, the
arty-intellectual milieu, the seemingly knowledgeable chatter, all that red
wine quaffed over candlelit dinners, suggest something more rarefied than
what materializes on screen or, for that matter, in the novel. But Mr.
Michell is a bona-fide entertainer, and he knows how to do Hollywood as well
as any high-ticket Beverly Hills hire, as ''Changing Lanes'' proved (yet
another diverting stalker movie trying to pretend it's something it's not).
In ''Enduring Love,'' Mr. Michell whips the camera around too much and cuts
into his scenes too quickly, but he pumps juice into this thin story and,
together with his performers, keeps a movie going that might otherwise
crash-land. 

As reviewed by Ruthe Stein writing for the San Francisco Chronicle

Transporting Booker Prize-winning novelist Ian McEwan's dense prose and
complicated ideas onto film has tripped up several directors, even the
esteemed John Schlesinger, who made a mess of "The Innocent.'' But Roger
Michell ("Notting Hill'') has done right by "Enduring Love,'' McEwan's
haunting case study of a romantic obsession.

The movie's ace in the hole is Rhys Ifans, whose scraggly looks and ability
to play daft make him perfect as the delusional Jed. His object of desire is
a college professor named Joe whom he meets during a freak ballooning
accident in the English countryside when a Good Samaritan dies attempting to
rescue a young boy. Michell artfully captures how what's meant as a fun
outing can turn into a disaster.

Jed begins stalking Joe (Daniel Craig), deluded into thinking that his love
is reciprocated and that every time Joe opens his living room curtains, he's
secretly summoning Jed for a rendezvous. Ifans is at his creepiest
serenading Joe with the Beach Boys' "God only knows what I'd be without
you'' to his supposed loved one's great distress.

"Enduring Love'' is far more complex than the usual thriller. But it does
have a hole in its plot, typical of the genre. After realizing what a sicko
he's dealing with, why doesn't Joe call the police?

But the movie effectively bypasses this obvious question with its lofty
discussions on the nature of love, which happens to be Joe's field of study.
Until his fateful chance encounter, Joe, the ultimate scientist, believed
love to be mostly the result of a biological need. "Enduring Love'' shows it
can be more complicated and spooky than that.

Film reviews are researched and edited by Peter Haggart
* * *

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PAMELA PALMER, Volunteer
Mailto:ppalmer at moscow.com
Film and Events Committee
Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre

http://www.kenworthy.org
To speak with a KPAC staff member,
call (208) 882-4127
Mailto:kpac at moscow.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

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