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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1993-04-08
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REVIEWS, Page 75SHORT TAKES
CINEMA: Eddie and The PAC Rats
Eddie Murphy is an unlikely front man for a bald satire of
political action committees. But THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN
has the star updating Mr. Smith Goes to Washington with heaps
of '90s cynicism and '60s righteousness. Thomas Jefferson
Johnson (Murphy) is no saintly Jefferson Smith from the Frank
Capra classic; he is a shakedown artist improbably elected to
Congress who is tempted, then troubled, by corrupting PACS and
perks. A pity that director Jonathan Lynn (My Cousin Vinny)
lacks the daredevil touch for a blend of 60 Minutes and Saturday
Night Live. Murphy still has his supernova smile and a gift for
acute accents -- Chinese, Yiddish, white-bread, soul-food -- but
this frail, do-gooder comedy seems a holding action until Fast
Eddie regains his stride.
TELEVISION: Battle Royal
Marital separations, a fire at Windsor Castle and now
CHARLES AND DIANA: UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER -- it has been a rough
year for the royal family. ABC's new docudrama (Dec. 13) starts
with the 1981 royal wedding and goes downhill from there. Its
sympathies are plain: Diana is the down-to-earth outsider
forced to endure a stuffy new life-style (when she pops into the
palace kitchen for orange juice, the staff is horrified).
Charles is merely a wuss; the real heavies are his priggish
parents, forever sniffing about royal propriety. Despite the
oversimplification, this TV movie is surprisingly likable,
thanks mainly to Roger Rees and Catherine Oxenberg, who portray
the couple with more verve and warmth than they perhaps deserve.
BOOKS: That Deadly Charm
For eliciting the menace that lurks in familiar
surroundings, there's no one like Patricia Highsmith. RIPLEY
UNDER WATER (Knopf; $21) is her fifth novel featuring the
fastidious, charming murderer Tom Ripley, now living the life of
a country gentleman in France. But this time Ripley plays the
mouse; the cats are two creepy new American neighbors who seem
to know his darkest secrets. Part of the pleasure of reading
High smith comes from her evocative descriptions of place,
whether small French villages or Tangier or London. Even so,
they are but momentary diversions from the sense of foreboding
and the most terrifying question of all: Why do we hope the
psychopathic Ripley will prevail?
MUSIC: New Delights from An Old Master
For listeners who think of Vivaldi as merely the composer
of The Four Seasons and several hundred indistinguishable
concertos, VIVALDI'S FAVORITES, VOL. 1 (ESS.A.Y) could be the
most pleasurable, sensibility-cleansing surprise in a long
time. The performers are the Philharmonia Virtuosi, who, since
being founded in 1974 by their protean conductor, Richard Kapp,
have blended a changing ensemble of players from the New York
Philharmonic with talented younger musicians in a common
pursuit of polished eclecticism. These six concertos, for
diverse combinations of instruments, are utterly distinctive
and absorbing. Favorite Favorites: the exuberant Concerto in C
Major and the poignant Largo in the G Minor.
MUSIC: Diva Does Dolly
Well, of course Whitney Houston is No. 1 on the charts
again. Listeners are parched for the pretty art of
balladeering, and Houston's rich soprano intelligently mines the
emotions -- romantic or spiritual, strong and subtle -- in her
power-pop arias. The album for her new film, The Bodyguard,
includes choice cuts from Curtis Stigers, the S.O.U.L.
S.Y.S.T.E.M. and Joe Cocker, but mostly it's a showcase for
Houston's mature vocalizing. Her triumph is a reading of Dolly
Parton's I Will Always Love You, which she builds into a
deathbed declaration of tenderness and release; you can hear
life ebbing as the passion to bid farewell soars. The voice is
a musical instrument too. Houston's is a Strad.