Sunday 20 October 2002

"Wisegirls" such an insult it's criminal

All those who complain about the portrayal of Italian-Americans in HBO's "The Sopranos" should save their venom for "Wisegirls", a movie airing on HBO's sister network, Cinemax, tonight at 10. "Wisegirls" deserves to be attacked, and not just by people sensitive about their heritage. Anyone who values good writing, good directing and, especially, good acting, has reason to take "Wisegirls" as a personal insult. It's no wonder this Lions Gate film failed to find theatrical distribution prior to its Cinemax premiere.

Mariah Carey, already having won few friends and influenced no one as the star of "Glitter", turns in a performance here, as a brash Jersey waitress, that makes Madonna look like Meryl Streep. Mira Sorvino, as the naive woman who takes a job at a mob-owned Staten Island restaurant, is no better, even though she has an Oscar on her résumé for "Mighty Aphrodite". And Melora Walters, as the third female lead in this drama about friendship, murder and betrayal, is the least credible of all - which, trust me, is saying something.

These three women seem engaged in a contest in which the worst actress wins. It ends up as a three-way tie, although Carey's insult-athon of a drunken restaurant patron contains some of the clumsiest line readings this side of a high-school drama audition. None of the ladies is helped by John Meadows' script, which has plenty of laughs - all of them unintentional. It also, for reasons I can't begin to fathom, has a lot of spitting. Sorvino spits in a drink before serving it to a customer. Later, someone else spits on Sorvino. Still later, someone spits on a corpse.

"You would not believe the men in this place," Sorvino's character tells another waitress shortly after joining the staff. In fact, you don't believe them - or the women, either. You'll hear stories of albino squirrels and head-on collisions. You'll see shootouts and fistfights. What you won't find, anywhere, is any character who's believable, any performance that's passable or any cinematic moment that's tolerable. When it comes to movies set in an Italian restaurant, "Big Night" has stood at the top for about six years now. Starting this weekend, we now have "Wisegirls" as the absolute worst.

(New York Daily News)

Many thanks to MariahC.nu.



COMMENTS
There are not yet comments to this article.

Only registrated members can post a comment.
© MCArchives 1998-2024 (26 years!)
NEWS
MESSAGEBOARD