Conference bookie::movies

647.0. "Little Odessa" by 58633::TRP109::Chris (prognosis negative) Tue Sep 13 1994 11:20

Another from the Toronto Film Festival

LITTLE ODESSA (***) N.A. Premiere

Before the movie began, we were introduced to the producer, Paul Webster, 
and two of the cast members, Edward Furlong (from TII) and Vanessa Redgrave. 
The lead role is played by Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs) and Maximiliam Schell 
was also cast.  Paul told us that James Gray, the director, was in Toronto 
but had to fly back to Venice to collect some awards the movie had won at 
the Venice Film Festival - The Silver Lion award for Best Picture, and Best 
Supporting Actress for Redgrave. Furlongs comments were that "I hope you cry 
your eyes out".  I guess at that point, my expectations for the film were 
fairly high and maybe that is why I was disappointed.  There were a lot of 
things about this movie I didn't like - the background music was overbearing 
at times, I found the directors style (very abrupt cuts) distracting and I 
hate when *every* scene of a movie shows somebody smoking. Also, I didn't 
really care for any of the characters and so had little sympathy - maybe 
it's because I was still caught up in the family of the movie I had seen the 
night before.  That being said, I will admit that the acting was very good 
(especially Roth). A bit about the story - Little Odessa refers to the 
Brighton Beach part of Brooklyn which the Russians have taken over.  This 
story involves a family of immigrants - Schell and Redgrave play the 
parents, Furlong is their youngest son and Roth is the son they disowned and 
believed to be dead. Joshua (Roth) is now a hit man and gets sent to Little 
Odessa to perform a "job".  He meets up with his younger brother, Reuban 
(Furlong)who adores and looks up to him and this results in Joshua trying to 
rebuild his life.  Oh yeah, I forgot, Moira Kelly (Cutting Edge, Chaplin) is 
also in the movie as the girl that Roth gets involved with - a real waste of 
time, I thought this was a "nothing role".  The rest of the movie deals with 
how the family becomes affected by the violent life that Joshua is involved 
in.  I'm curious to hear other peoples reactions to this film - the audience 
at my screening only gave it lukewarm applause (compared to other movies at 
the festival) so either I'm way off, or maybe the Venice Film Festival 
didn't have that many strong contenders.