Hollywood Watch

Never one to avoid confrontations, Udall takes pride in his ability to affront, repulse, offend and wound. He is a terror to all who come within his ambit. The only person who can exert some control on him is Connelly, who works in a restaurant where he devours an artery-hardening breakfast of bacon, sausages and eggs. In fact, the asthma problems of her son reveal the first signs of the"other Melvin".

Simon Nye (Greg Kinnear) has the distinct misfortune of living across the hall from Udall in a Manhattan co-op. A talented contemporary artist, he is the darling of New York’s art circuit and his art dealer friend Frank Sachs (Cuba Gooding Jr) is another person responsible in softening up the "crusty old author". And it’s all over a dog.

Mark Ardus’ screenplay is adequate with some caustic one-liners and director James L Brooks goes to town with the talent at his disposal, especially Nicholson. The film shows how one half of New York doesn’t know how the other half lives. The film has a good deal of heart and the transformation of the key characters is succinctly achieved. The ambience of that mad but glamourous city is also graphically recaptured. Cameos by Kinnear, Gooding Jr and Shirley Knight ( Carol’s mother) help this delightful romantic comedy. Of course, the film belongs to Nicholson and Hunt as is evident form the Oscars they walked off with the Best Actor and Best Actressawards.

If you’re a Nicholson fan you’ll love the film. If you aren’t, you will still love it and may end up as his fan. Don’t miss it.

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Summer time and the living isn’t easy. In fact it gets terrifying for these four friends teenagers who find their lives in a tizzy after they hit someone on the road. What’s more is that the person isn’t killed immediately after the accident but to hide this incriminating evidence, they drowm him.

And vow to keep it a secret. But murder has a tendency to rear its ugly head. I Know What You Did Last Summer is a tale about this murder most secretive.

Julie, Helen, Barry and Ray comprise this foursome. Helen has just been crowned beauty queen in this small North Carolina community so secrecy is a must for her. Boyfriend Barry is wealthy and decides to make money talk. So, he assumes leadership and Julie and Ray are forced to take a backseat in the decision-making.

Does the victim rise from the ashes? Or is it someone else whohas an axe to grind? Whatever the answer, an overcoat-clad man with a hook for a weapon is hot on their trail. And suspense and action almost Hitchcockian in character follows. Till the three-quarter-mark director Jim Gillespie keeps the story taut and engrossing. But in the last quarter, he runs out of ideas and a brilliant film nose dives to disaster.

Jennifer Love Hewitt is the best of a poor lot of comparative newcomers and Anne Heche has a brief enigmatic part but the biggest drawback of I Know What You Did Last Summer is that it doesn’t know when to stop.

ERVELL E MENEZES