"The Hunchback Of Notre Dame" (General) Savoy, Virgin, Omniplex, UCIs, Dublin
Today's principal new releases are both decidedly liberal treatments of 19th century French literary works - Edmond Rostand's Cyrano De Bergerac is reinvented and stripped of its prominent proboscis in The Truth About Cats & Dogs, while Victor Hugo's much filmed The Hunchback Of Notre Dame gets the Disney animated treatment in a beguiling and visually remarkable adaptation. Did - any of the detractors who carped at the licence taken by Disney honestly expect a rigorously faithful adaptation of Hugo's novel?
The Disney film features the voice of Tom Hulce as Quasi modo, the lonely young bell ringer kept in the isolation of the cathedral's bell tower by the evil and racist judge Frollo (Tony Jay), who murdered Quasimodo's mother. This time Quasimodo is befriended by three singing and dancing gargoyles - named Victor, Hugo and Laverne - and by the gypsy dancer, Esmeralda, who emerges as an unusually strong, feisty, and even sensual female character in a Disney animated feature after the wimpy, anodyne heroines of Aladdin and Pocahontas. Esmeralda's speaking voice is provided by Demi Moore, whom the character physically resembles, suggesting that the film makers knew exactly what they doing. Even more audaciously for a Disney animated feature, Esmeralda brings out lustful feelings in the hypocritical puritan, Frollo - which he expresses in the song, Hellfire, as he fantasises about her belly dancing surrounded by flames.
The result may well prove too scary for very young children, but anyone over six or seven should have no problems with its imagery and will find much to admire in the depth of the animation, especially in the large crowd scenes seen from overhead angles, and in the energy of its busiest sequences. The songs, by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, are stronger than usual and topped by A Guy Like You which is sung by the gargoyles to Quasi (as he is known in the movie) a song which dares to rhyme Adoni with "croissant is".
A moral fable preoccupied with the recurring Disney theme of the treatment of outsiders in society, this Hunchback, directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, makes its points unerringly and with a good sense of humour, and it builds to a spectacular finale.
"The Truth About Cats & Dogs"
(12) Savoy, Virgin, Omniplex, UCIs, Dublin
Having made a stylish debut in 1989 with the black comedy, Heathers, director Michael Lehmann slid his way on the downward slope with Meet The Applegates, Hudson Hawk and Airheads, before making a welcome return to form with what is, for Lehmann, an unexpectedly sweet romantic comedy. The movie takes its title from the Los Angeles radio show presented by Abby (Janeane Garolfo), a veterinarian dispensing animal welfare advice. However, for all her understanding of animals, Abby is on more unsure ground with men, mostly because she is so shy and she underestimates herself so much.
Ben Chaplin plays Brian, a handsome and good natured English photographer who phones her show with an urgent problem when he is photographing a Great Dane on rollerskates - the dog is on skates and Brian has to get them off. Attracted by Abby's flatural radio personality. Brian asks her out but she runs scared and gets her neighbour, a model named Noelle (Uma Thurman) to stand in for her.
In this spin on Cyrano De Bergerac, the sexes are reversed and the two women who switch roles are both at their most confident when performing Abby on the radio, Noelle at a photo shoot. "You and I combined make the perfect woman," Noelle tells Abby at one point as their little scheme extends out of control. The consequences rely on a certain suspension of disbelief - to accept that Brian fails to detect the difference between the two women in person, especially as his telephone relationship with the real Abby extends to long and tender phone sex.
Based on a screenplay by former disc jockey Audrey Wells, The Truth About Cats & Dogs has enough charm and wit to carry the day and its appealing nature is enhanced by the chemistry of its very likeable cast: Janeane Garolfo, who played the talent booker on the scathingly humorous Larry Sanders Show; Uma Thurman, in a rare role as a relatively normal character; and the agreeably low key Ben Chaplin, who has shown considerable promise in several British television series.
Hugh Llnehan adds:
"Angus" (12) Savoy, Virgin, Omniplex, Dublin
It's tough being a teenager, especially if you're overweight and shy, as young Angus Bethune (Charlie Talbert) finds in this well meaning but dull adolescent fable. Shunned and bullied at high school, he takes refuge in his science projects and romantic fantasies, supported by his protective mother (Kathy Bates) against the outside world. When his abrasive grandfather (George C. Scott) urges him to stand up for himself, Angus finally finds courage to confront the bullies trying to humiliate him at his school's Winter Ball (judging by the movies, the psyches of Amen can teens would be immeasurably improved by a ban on all dances).
It's all quite sensitively done, in a TV movie kind of way, and Talbert is convincing in the main role, but Bates and Scott are wasted and all the other characters are cardboard cut outs. More like The Wonder Years is than Carrie (which it resembles in plotline, it nothing else), Angus may prove a little too bland and low key for its target audience.
Happy Gilmore (12) Virgin, Omniplex, UCIs, Dublin
Saturday Night Live comedian Adam Sandler plays an aspiring ice hockey player who discovers an aptitude for golf in this dimwitted and remarkably unfunny sports comedy. Saturday Night Live types seem to have a recurring urge to make golfing comedies, but even the feeble Caddyshack was better than this.
