Specials: Sarris on where "Brokeback" is broken. Pretty woman, Gump may join Mike Nichols. CNN on religious media.
Wednesday's specials:
SARRIS DARES TO SHRUG OFF BROKEBACK MOUNTAINCourageously stating some of the obvious problems with Brokeback Mountain, Andrew Sarris demonstrates that he's willing to swim upstream against the tidal wave of hype:Besides, the problem of the economic disparity between lower-middle-class Ennis and upper-middle-class Jack isn’t sufficiently addressed in Brokeback Mountain, even though Ennis is rendered virtually immobile by his pressing need to keep his job to support his kids. By contrast, Jack has the means and the time to hop down to Mexico to sleep with male prostitutes. In this, he follows a pattern of promiscuity that raises doubts about the stability of any more lasting day-to-day relationship between him and Ennis.
And just for the record, none of the classic women’s pictures that I mentioned actually made me cry. They were too good for that. All they did was create an aching feeling of loss in the pit of my stomach. I never felt that ache in Brokeback Mountain, despite all the artful acting, writing and direction devoted to that end.
Speaking of Brokeback, here's a photo featured today at Jeffrey Wells' Hollywood Confidential...
Julia Roberts may join Tom Hanks in a Mike Nichols film about "Charlie Wilson, the rogue Texas congressman who oversaw the covert funding of the Afghan rebels in their battle against the Soviet Union."