The Boston Phoenix
Review from issue: September 9 - 16, 1999

[Boston Film Festival]

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Guinevere

A Phoenix pick

Not many raised an eyebrow when geezers like Michael Douglas, Sean Connery, and Clint Eastwood had their way with nubile young co-stars in recent Hollywood movies, so it's refreshing when a picture takes seriously this male-dominated December/May phenomenon. Audrey Wells's debut feature has its laughs as well, though a too cutesy dénouement nearly does it in. Sarah Polley, whose unaffected integrity extends to her orthodontically untouched teeth (they never look the same from one smile to the next), is a protean delight as 20-year-old college graduate Harper, who's being pressured into law school by her well-to-do, deeply unhappy family. Enter boozy rescuing knight Cornelius (Stephen Rea), a 40ish photographer who convinces Harper of her worth and talent ("You must be mistaking me for someone with potential," she demurs) and convinces himself that she is one more in a line of "Guineveres," underaged, inspiring muses. Both leads shine in bringing tenderness and grotesquerie to the doomed liaison, and Polley is especially adept in tracing Harper's rise from grievous insecurity to rueful poise and wisdom, passing Rea's deluded loser on his way down. Screens at the Copley Place Tuesday, September 14 at 7 and 9:45 p.m. and Wednesday, September 15 at 12:15, 2:30, and 4:45 p.m. Star Stephen Rea will appear to introduce Tuesday's 7 p.m. showing.

-- Peter Keough


Film Festival Feature Films

| The Minus Man | The Tavern | Black Eyed Dog | The Last September | A Wake in Providence | Man of the Century | Pups | Dreaming of Joseph Leeds | Wisdom of Crocodiles | That's The Way I Like It | American Beauty | Mifune | Black Cat, White Cat | Hit and Runway | All the LIttle Animals | Me Myself I | The Alchemist and the Virgin | Trash | Old Man River | The Poet and the Con | Snow Falling on Cedars | Guinevere | East is East | American Movie | Rivers of Babylon | Two Ninas | Rats | Keepers of the Frame | The Runner |


More Boston Film Festival information, film descriptions, and show times



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