Notes on 'Scandal,' 'Venus' and 'Sparkle'
Burbank, California—Judi Dench and Peter O'Toole power a couple of movies about conniving geriatrics and both of them elevate the material. Miss Dench stars as a wicked old spinster in Notes on a Scandal, the better of the two, and Mr. O'Toole plays an 80-something stage actor with the morals of a Golden Retriever in Venus.
Both pictures are worth seeing once, though barely in the case of the foul-mouthed Venus, a dragging, dreary affair best dared by Mr. O'Toole's bravest fans. He plays an insatiably horny old ham who designates an uncouth young female as his last sexual conquest, spewing the F word, the C word, and still dominating the screen. Don't say you weren't warned.
Haughty Miss Dench is another old-timer relegated to darker roles. In the heralded, immensely watchable Notes on a Scandal, she is a repressed lesbian teacher hunting Cate Blanchett's blonde colleague—who has certain preferences of her own—for sport. It's another sordid affair, with Miss Dench and Miss Blanchett playing parts with superficial similarities to their characters in a previous picture they both appeared in, The Shipping News.
At least Judi Dench and Peter O'Toole make the most of an older actor's limited role choices. Somebody should put these two together in a movie and watch the sparks fly.
Television Notes
You can catch a few of the professional dancers in ABC's Dancing with the Stars—Karina Smirnoff, Nick Kosovich and Tony Dovolini—before they were famous in Peter Chelsom's delightful spritz of ballroom dancing romanticism, Shall We Dance.
The colorful 2004 remake starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Jennifer Lopez—also featuring Bobby Cannavale and Stanley Tucci—airs on Lifetime on Jan. 13, Jan. 14 and Jan. 15 at 9 p.m. each night. It is the perfect movie to ring in the New Year.
DVD Notes
With a movie version of the musical Dreamgirls finally out in theaters, Warner Bros. released Sparkle this week on DVD, with the picture's three gorgeous singers decked in blue dresses they never wear in the 1976 movie. The picture's not awful, though it lacks cohesion, and it features early work by the talented Irene Cara (Coco Hernandez in Fame), writer Joel Schumacher (Phone Booth) and a stick-thin, pre-Miami Vice Philip Michael Thomas—his character's name is Sticks—in the best performance, a nicer cousin to the Jamie Foxx role in Dreamgirls.
The 98-minute movie appears with a trailer on the disc—a second disc is a mini-album with the movie's songs performed by Aretha Franklin—and fans of harmonious Nineties group En Vogue will recognize a scorching version of "Givin' Him Somethin' He Can Feel."
Sparkle, which refers to the Cara character's name (seven years before Cara wrote and sang "Flashdance…What a Feeling"), is as thin as Dreamgirls. The trio are sisters from Harlem—not unrelated Detroit girls—whose mother, Effie (angelic Tony Award-winner Mary Alice), watches over her daughters' troubled rise to success. Compared to glitzy Dreamgirls, it's downright gritty.
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RELATED LINKS
• Index of Scott Holleran's Columns
• 'Shall We Dance' on DVD
• 'Sparkle' on DVD
• Irene Cara Official Web Site
Both pictures are worth seeing once, though barely in the case of the foul-mouthed Venus, a dragging, dreary affair best dared by Mr. O'Toole's bravest fans. He plays an insatiably horny old ham who designates an uncouth young female as his last sexual conquest, spewing the F word, the C word, and still dominating the screen. Don't say you weren't warned.
Haughty Miss Dench is another old-timer relegated to darker roles. In the heralded, immensely watchable Notes on a Scandal, she is a repressed lesbian teacher hunting Cate Blanchett's blonde colleague—who has certain preferences of her own—for sport. It's another sordid affair, with Miss Dench and Miss Blanchett playing parts with superficial similarities to their characters in a previous picture they both appeared in, The Shipping News.
At least Judi Dench and Peter O'Toole make the most of an older actor's limited role choices. Somebody should put these two together in a movie and watch the sparks fly.
Television Notes
You can catch a few of the professional dancers in ABC's Dancing with the Stars—Karina Smirnoff, Nick Kosovich and Tony Dovolini—before they were famous in Peter Chelsom's delightful spritz of ballroom dancing romanticism, Shall We Dance.
The colorful 2004 remake starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Jennifer Lopez—also featuring Bobby Cannavale and Stanley Tucci—airs on Lifetime on Jan. 13, Jan. 14 and Jan. 15 at 9 p.m. each night. It is the perfect movie to ring in the New Year.
DVD Notes
With a movie version of the musical Dreamgirls finally out in theaters, Warner Bros. released Sparkle this week on DVD, with the picture's three gorgeous singers decked in blue dresses they never wear in the 1976 movie. The picture's not awful, though it lacks cohesion, and it features early work by the talented Irene Cara (Coco Hernandez in Fame), writer Joel Schumacher (Phone Booth) and a stick-thin, pre-Miami Vice Philip Michael Thomas—his character's name is Sticks—in the best performance, a nicer cousin to the Jamie Foxx role in Dreamgirls.
The 98-minute movie appears with a trailer on the disc—a second disc is a mini-album with the movie's songs performed by Aretha Franklin—and fans of harmonious Nineties group En Vogue will recognize a scorching version of "Givin' Him Somethin' He Can Feel."
Sparkle, which refers to the Cara character's name (seven years before Cara wrote and sang "Flashdance…What a Feeling"), is as thin as Dreamgirls. The trio are sisters from Harlem—not unrelated Detroit girls—whose mother, Effie (angelic Tony Award-winner Mary Alice), watches over her daughters' troubled rise to success. Compared to glitzy Dreamgirls, it's downright gritty.
$
RELATED LINKS
• Index of Scott Holleran's Columns
• 'Shall We Dance' on DVD
• 'Sparkle' on DVD
• Irene Cara Official Web Site
