Jennifer Eight (1992)

It's Bruce Robinson time again on My 2011 in Movies. This was the last film before this year's (hope hope hope) The Rum Diaries, that Robinson directed in 1992. There doesn't seem to be a common thread in Robinson subjects of writing; Withnail was comedy autobio, How To Get Ahead...  was satire:he wrote screenplays for The Killing Fields and In Dreams too and this, Jennifer Eight is a standard serial killer mystery. Andy Garcia is a forensic cop who has relocated to a small town after his wife... I'm not sure if she died or just left-anyway doing the main thing you shouldn't do in any new job that anyone starts- he starts throwing his weight around and reopened an unsolved murder case, when someone finds a human hand at the dump ('... Dude, i could get you a hand by 3pm this afternoon...'). He also is so astute, he can tell this was a blind person's hand because of erosion to the digits from Braille (to be fair, I'm running through the story quickly and that seemed less of a stretch in the film) and through the basis of unsolved disappearances at the blind college, he goes to there and meets a young blind Uma Thurman, who for the sake of time and salient knowledge, is likely to be the next victim and looks exactly like Garcia's ex-wife.
I'm a massive fan of Withnail And I; this is a read but I've never been in a situation in pop culture where you like someone's one piece of work and everything else doesn't resonate at all. If anything this is like the anti-Withnail - it is stock, story-led, overlong and American. It's a serial killer plot from any number of tv detective shows in any number of countries and though the 'blindness' angle is fresh, there's nothing special done with it really; it's an average mystery yarn with red-herrings and disinformation.  But half-way through, i started thinking about interesting plot that might happen (that doesn't by the way)... what if blind Uma was the murderer? You never see any blinding killers do you? (No pun intended) Could be for any number of reasons- she was jealous of the other girls boyfriends, domination over bullies, thrill of the hunt... take your pick. Now that might sound exploitative but obviously this film makes a nod to Vertigo- Hitch never had a problem with landing that kind of story in a broadly pallitible way. One man's opinion.
Andy Garcia's fine in this, i guess... goes a bot overboard with the desk-smacking. I mean who doesn't enjoy a spot of desk-smacking but in moderation, guy. Sheesh. John Malkovich pops up for an extended cameo. No reason for him to be in this but he neither adds or subtracts to the proceedings. Oh yeah, Lance Henriksen is in it too as a friendly old cop buddy type, Garcia's pal- now I'm sure Lance is a pro,  a lovely generous man but no one wants to see him being understandable or nice. The thought of him being affection to a woman creeps me out like an uncle kissing you. It's weird.
So I do look forward to The Rum Diaries but only because of the prime BOOOOOZE element...

I watched Jennifer Eight (1992) on DVD via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Limitless (2011)...

Private Road (1970)

I only wanted to watch this movie for one reason- Bruce Robinson. 
The man made one of the finest films ever made on Gort's grim Earth- Withnail And I, a love-letter to the male of the species and one of the funniest films ever made. Never met a person who didn't love it. 
This means that the man has earned my interest in anything he's made but unfortunately his writing and directing is not as prolific as one might hope, so that means I have to widen my search to anything he's been involved in. 
So when I saw that the BFI had released Private Road, on their forgotten curiosity home video label, BFI Flipside and that it starred Bruce- it peaked my interest.  Before directing, Robinson had been an actor in the 60's and 70's. He was in Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet (where apparently the character of Uncle Monty was based on his own experiences with Zefferelli!)
In this movie, he shares the lead with Susan Penhaligon as a young couple in London, in the present-day (1970's) - learning how to live together and be all grown up and stuff. I'm sure even at the time, this concept had been done to death but this is a film of few resources- so the ramshackle nature of young life incidentally compliments the tone of the film. Like I say, it's a tale as old as time-will these two kids stick together in spite of their world and maybe this film was forgotten for because it doesn't have much to add to the formula but it's quite a light and charming watch, like a less ambitious Wed Anderson sorta thing; less stylised or comical. Incidentally it is funny how the way young people dressed in the early 70's is strikingly similar to how people dress in the early 2010's.
Susan Penhaligon is pretty good and delightful but I struggled to get past the idea that Bruce Robinson was acting well enough to necessitate him not spending that time write his future comedy masterpiece. I mean, yeah he was a cute good looking guy and passively, disarmingly charming buuuut he was no young Olivier and i have no right to say this but...  I think he did too. Hey, his best work was ahead of him. It's strange how bits of this film foreshadowed his later work like, there's a part where they go to the rural countryside, to a desolate house and they struggle to eat and kill their own food. Familiar? And then our your man goes to work in an advertising agency, pitching inane products like what's in How To Get Ahead In Advertising.
I don't usually talk about soundtracks but this film has a lovely collection of folksy songs running through it.  They date the film but in a good way; it reminds you sentiment of the time...  Private Road doesn't have much to say but it's very earnest about what it does. 
But then..  that's the youth for you...

I watched Private Road (1970) on BluRay via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Rope (1948)...