"101 Dalmatians" (General) Savoy, Virgin, Omniplex, UCIs, Dublin
Disney's endearing and enduring 1961 animated cartoon feature is given a spirited and abundantly entertaining live action treatment by Stephen Herek in the new 101 Dalmatians which, though it is set in the present, harks back to a bygone era in cinema in its lovingly captured sense of innocence and its appealing and evocative visual images.
It is set in London where, as the movie opens, the instant attraction between two Dalmatians named Pongo and Perdy literally throws together their owners Roger (Jeff Daniels), an American video games designer and Anita (Joely Richardson), an English fashion designer. Before you can say "woof", the humans are married and living an idyllic life with their equally blissful Dalmatians, and Anita and Perdy become pregnant.
The only cloud over their lives is Anita's employer, the unscrupulous Cruella De Vil - played in an adventurous, no holds barred performance by a wide eyed, sharpongued Glenn Close - who swishes and swaggers her way contemptuously among lesser mortals. She has one passion in life: "I live for fur," she purrs. "I worship fur." Having hired a pair of craven lackeys (Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams) to steal a rare tiger as the material for her latest coat, she sets her sights on Pongo and Perdy and their imminent litter as the makings of yet another coat.
Herek's live action treatment is essentially faithful to the original movie, although, surprisingly enough in post Babe cinema, the dogs do not speak in this version. Nevertheless, the principal Dalmatians are distinctive and expressive enough to make their individual mark, and only the most keen eyed viewers will be able to distinguish between the real and animatronically created Dalmatians in the large supporting cast of animals.
The humans take a back seat when Cruella's lackeys kidnap Pongo and Perdy's 15 puppies, along with a further 84 puppies from other homes, and all manner of animals and birds combine forces to thwart the dastardly De Vil scheme. The signature of the movie's screenwriter and producer, John Hughes, becomes evident in the closing sequences when Cruella's lackeys are subjected to an ordeal of slapstick violence which evokes the Home Alone movies, which Hughes also devised. Michael Kamen's jaunty score accompanies this delightful film which is crisply photographed by Adrian Biddle, who received an Oscar nomination for Thelma & Louise and most recently lit Neil Jordan's film The Butcher Boy.
"When The Cat's Away/Chacun Cherche Son Chat" (members and guest only) IFC, Dublin, from Monday
Animal lovers are alerted to the absence of explicit feline footage by the English language title of this charming and diverting French comedy from writer director Cedric Klapisch. Set in the run down 11th arrondissement of Paris, it features Garance Clavel as Chloe, a lonely make up artiste who decides to take a week's holiday. Her gay flatmate (Oliver Py) is too distraught after the breakup of a relationship to take care of her adorable black cat, Gris Gris, and she finally entrusts him to the eccentric elderly widow, Mme Renee (Renee Le Clam) who already is caring for at least six cats.
In Klapisch's minimalist scheme of things, Chloe's holiday is condensed into a fleeting shot of her swimming in the Mediterranean, before he brings her back to Paris - and to every cat lover's nightmare, the shocking revelation that Gris Gris has disappeared. She puts up chat perdu posters all over the area, competing for poster space with political advertising in the run up to the last French presidential election, and she is joined in her quest by a naive and admiring young Arab (Zinedine Soualem).
Meanwhile, Mme Renee has gathered a whole network of equally supportive older women in search of Gris Gris, and as the quest continues we learn that many of them are facing eviction and their neighbourhood is targeted for gentrification. Ktapisch's warm and affectionate film distinctly captures their strong sense of community, which is about to disappear with their old buildings. Keenly observed and featuring winning performances from its naturalistic cast, this subtle and keenly observed movie is full of agreeable little surprises.
"The Secret of Roan Inish" (General) Screen at D'Olier Street, Dublin
The first film made outside the US by the gifted American independent film maker, John Sayles, The Secret of Roan Inish finally arrives here three years after it was filmed on location in Co Donegal. It tackles themes of myth and identity through an adaptation of a 1957 Scottish novella - Secret Of The Ron Mor Skerry by Rosalie F. Fry - transposed to an Irish setting.
Set in a small fishing village in the mid 1940s, it features vivid, warm performances from Mick Lally and Eileen Colgan as displaced islanders whose young grand daughter (Jeni Courtney) is sent to live with them. The girl becomes convinced that her brother, who disappeared as a baby, is being raised by seals off the mysterious nearby island of Roan Inish.
This initially intriguing tale slackens in its later stages and, despite its evident sincerity, it registers as unusually slight and even dull cinema from the director of such robust films as Lianna, City Of Hope, Matewan, Eight Men Out and the excellent recent Lone Star - and its misfired attempts at magic realism are at odds with the gritty realism of those earlier Sayles movies.
"Steal Big, Steal Little" (12) Virgin, UCIs, Dublin
Directed by Andrew Davis in between making his pursuit pictures, The Fugitive and Chain Reaction, this week's other belatedly arrived release is the trite and over extended morality fable, Steal Big, Steal Little. It features Andy Garcia as estranged twin brothers - one honest, decent and socially concerned, the other wealthy, grasping and corrupt - who were adopted as Mexican orphans by a wealthy Santa Barbara artist (Holland Taylor).
It took as many as six writers to assemble this slender yarn and the film employs the tired, lazy device of relating the story in flashbacks to a report he conflict between the brothers inevitably comes to a head when their adoptive mother dies and the finale is as protracted as it is predictable. The cast also features Alan Arkin, Rachel Ticotin and Joe Pantoliano.
