CULTURE CLASH IN `FOOLS RUSH IN'.Byline: Amy Dawes Daily News Film Critic Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, movie loses focus, audience loses interest. That could happen in ``Fools Rush In,'' a lightweight romantic comedy that upends the typical formula by having boy and girl get married immediately, only to discover how wildly mismatched they are. Matthew Perry (TV's ``Friends'') plays Alex, a nightclub executive transplanted from Manhattan to Las Vegas Las Vegas (läs vā`gəs), city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. with a job to do, only to get immediately distracted when he meets a flirty Latina in a Mexican restaurant and ends up in the sack with her. Salma Hayek (``Desperado'') plays the girl, Isabel, who slips away from Alex but shows up three months later to tell him she's pregnant, which sets up their speedy nuptials and backward courtship courtship paying attention to a member of the opposite sex with a view to mating; occurs in farm animals but is not highly developed other than estral display by the female and seeking by the male, activities that are rather more pragmatic than implied in the definition. . They soon discover how much they don't have in common. He wants to go back to Manhattan, she loves the sun and the desert. He's boring and regimented, she's colorful, hot-tempered and spontaneous. He never talks to his parents, she talks to hers constantly. A premise this slight requires the performers to work overtime filling in the blanks. Perry, who's always good at chasing down a laugh, fares best with his polished mugging and well-honed schtick schtick n. Variant of shtick. Noun 1. schtick - (Yiddish) a little; a piece; "give him a shtik cake"; "he's a shtik crazy"; "he played a shtik Beethoven" schtik, shtick, shtik . Hayek has the more open, challenging role and the more unstructured style. She gamely gives it her all, and when it doesn't quite work there's at least her sweetness and effervescence ef·fer·vesce intr.v. ef·fer·vesced, ef·fer·vesc·ing, ef·fer·vesc·es 1. To emit small bubbles of gas, as a carbonated or fermenting liquid. 2. To escape from a liquid as bubbles; bubble up. 3. to make up for it. The movie's most promising twist is the cross-cultural one, which heats up when Isabel's boisterous Mexican clan and Perry's repressed re·pressed adj. Being subjected to or characterized by repression. parental units try to get to know each other. The difference between Anglo and Latino cultures is a rich subject that remains underexplored in the movies. ``Fools Rush In'' avoids some of the stereotypes while indulging in others, but makes a few good points about the differences in family relations. But while the performers provide some pleasures, the movie has a contrived con·trived adj. Obviously planned or calculated; not spontaneous or natural; labored: a novel with a contrived ending. con·triv quality that it never really overcomes. When a childbirth scene takes place (dramatically we suppose), outdoors and in public, the mother-to-be isn't the only one who's straining. A coup for Hayek is that she gets to pretty much keep her clothes on throughout, which will require some of her fans (from ``Desperado'' and ``From Dusk Till Dawn'') to notice her from the neck up. On the other hand, ``Fools Rush In'' makes a bit of a shaky platform for that transition. Jill Clayburgh Jill Clayburgh (born April 30, 1944) is a twice Academy Award-nominated American actress of stage, motion pictures, and television. Biography Early life does a smart comic turn as Perry's mother, and the actor who plays his father, John Bennett
John Bennett may refer to:
The movie is attractively designed in bright, saturated colors (Optics) a color not diluted with white; a pure unmixed color, like those of the spectrum. See also: Saturated that make the most of the Vegas setting, and the filming is top-notch for the genre. THE FACTS The film: ``Fools Rush In'' (PG-13; implied sex). The stars: Matthew Perry, Salma Hayek and Jill Clayburgh. Behind the scenes: Directed by Andy Tennant. Screenplay by Katherine Reback. Produced by Doug Draizin. Released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: One hour, 46 minutes. Playing: Citywide. Our rating: Two Stars. |
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