KATE AND LEOPOLD
Meg Ryan didn't have much luck in the past century with men, so who could blame
her for checking out the 19th? Only those who prefer movie heroines not to
spurn the few gains women have made over the past 125 years. Ryan's Kate is a
successful New York ad executive -- which makes her, in Hollywood terms, a
miserable failure. No wonder she has no boyfriend and has only harsh words for
her ex, Stuart (Liev Schreiber), and his wacky dreams of inventing time travel
(actually, she has harsh words for everyone).
But Stuart has found the secret of journeying back into the past, to 1876, when
people can still proclaim, without sniggering, that the newly built Brooklyn
Bridge is the world's greatest erection. Inadvertently, however, he brings back
with him his distant relation Duke Leopold (Hugh Jackman, who may have peaked
as Wolverine). Charmingly useless, with dreams of his own, Leopold seduces Kate
into embracing a bygone world where aristocrats enjoyed wistful idleness and
women were baubles -- as opposed to our modern madness where people work and
tell lies about butter substitutes. Unnoted is a glaring case of
multi-generational incest -- you'd expect better from director James Mangold.
After a promising start (Heavy, Cop Land), he's regressed beyond
nostalgia and into inanity, the same way this film does. Opens Christmas Day
at the Flagship, Hoyts Providence 16, and Showcase Cinemas.
Issue Date: December 21 - 27, 2001
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