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Slaves of New York >> Love lessons lost in Great Expectations by JOANNE LATIMER
But what anyone says in "Expectations '98" is beside the point. Cuarón's film is all about ogling. As if intimidated by the original text, Cuarón threw all his muscle into the images. That's why Francesco Clemente's name should be moved way up the credit list--his paintings save what could be a cliché-ridden two hours of contrived heartache. Cuarón wisely puts the paintings in almost every scene, so there's always something good to look at--once you become immune to the über-skinny Paltrow and the forced naïvété of Hawke. The story is about two kids from different sides of the tracks who are forced to play together. Ms. Dinsmoor (Anne Bancroft) pays the gardener's son to play with Estella, so she can teach Estella how to be a man-eater. Dinsmoor, you see, was abandoned at the altar 30 years ago and doesn't want Estella to feel that kind of loss when she grows up. Instead, Estella grows up to be a boring bitch--on screen, anyway--and the Ice Princess number gets old pretty fast in Great Expectations. Finn's story is mildly more compelling. He lives with his restless sister, Maggie, and her boyfriend Joe, helping him do odd jobs around town. When Maggie splits for a better life, Joe raises Finn and encourages him to paint. Clemente is a self-taught painter like Finn. His artwork in the film has more real emotion, pound for pound, than any of the scenes. I don't think Clemente would respect the heavy-handed cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki, though. Dressing Estella and Finn only in green isn't enough to make them soul mates, and playing loud music while she sits nude for a painting doesn't bind them in his art. The only thing they share is their tendency toward self-pity and melodrama. Bancroft is a gutsy dame, allowing them to film her in less than flattering makeup and lighting. This grand drama of art and love needs her, as it needs De Niro's bit part playing an escaped criminal who resurfaces decades later. Time-travelling across the age line as easily as ever, De Niro is like a quality-control check for authentic experience on screen. The New York art world won't cringe at its damning portrayal in Great Expectations, simply because it's been done better before. The film world, however, may have its own reasons to gripe. Great Expectations opens this Friday, Jan. 30. See film listings for showtimes
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"I do love the way you dance," says a post-coital Estella (Gwyneth Paltrow) to Finn (Ethan Hawke). That's the kind of dialogue you can expect throughout Great Expectations, Alfonso Cuarón's screen version of the Dickens classic, which he relocates from London to contemporary New York.