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- <text id=94TT0122>
- <title>
- Jan. 31, 1994: The Arts & Media:Cinema
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1994
- Jan. 31, 1994 California:State of Shock
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE ARTS & MEDIA, Page 108
- Cinema
- Out Of Touch
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>Sharon Stone stretches, but Intersection never connects
- </p>
- <p>By Richard Schickel
- </p>
- <p> Intersection is--earnestly, self-consciously--a movie for
- grown-ups. It is made by veteran adults (director Mark Rydell;
- writers Marshall Brickman and David Rayfiel). It takes up a
- "mature" (if not exactly original) theme, that of a man torn
- between the responsibilities of marriage and the delights of
- a young mistress. It comes to an ending that is both tragic
- and neatly ironic. And it is a movie that does not for one minute
- draw you into its life, make you believe in its reality.
- </p>
- <p> Instead, it creates the curious impression that its actors worked
- against a blue screen projecting handsome views of a nameless
- Pacific Northwest city (actually Vancouver) and glamorous life-styles.
- They never seem to be in touch with their environment, their
- ostensible professions or, for that matter, one another.
- </p>
- <p> Richard Gere, playing an architect, doesn't act as if he could
- read a blueprint, much less draw one up. He's also supposed
- to be a loving father, but the scenes with his daughter are
- played as if he fears a charge of child molestation. His wife
- is meant to be a frigid businesswoman, but you can practically
- hear Sharon Stone's joints pop as she attempts the stretch.
- The other woman (Lolita Davidovich) is said to be a witty journalist,
- but looks as if she might need help booting up her word processor.
- </p>
- <p> It's not important, really--just another banal triangle. Though
- based on a 1969 French film, Les Choses de la Vie, Intersection
- made at least one viewer think of Blue, the 1993 French movie
- that's also about infidelity and life's sad ironies. There was
- a felt reality in the intimacy of Blue's textures, and its elliptical
- style kept the eye puzzled and alert. Not for the first time
- one wonders why American moviemakers can't get the hang of,
- the fun of, the higher trivia.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
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