The Man Who Cried

The flaws in Sally Potter's ambitious film begin with the casting: not just John Turturro as Dante, a hammy Italian opera singer, but Christina Ricci as Fegele, a/k/a Suzie, a Russian Jewish girl whose father heads to America in 1927 to find a better life for his family. Their village is torched in a pogrom, and Fegele ends up first in London and then in Paris, where she tries to pursue a career as a singer. There she meets fellow Russian Lola (the always superb Cate Blanchett) and sullen Gypsy Cesar (the usually fine Johnny Depp, here combining his river rat from Chocolat with his role in Don Juan DeMarco). While Lola takes up with sugar daddy Dante and his fascistic ways, Suzie returns to her roots, and a fiery finale looms. The acting is uneven, the plot erratic, and the grasp of history wispy, but Potter's musical structure (highlighted by an exquisite soundtrack that includes such gems as Dido's Lament from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas) achieves climaxes that are genuinely moving. At the Cable Car Cinema.
-- Peter Keough