Original Sin is one the most laugh-out-loud funny movies I've seen all year. However, it's not being billed as a comedy by the studio.
First of all, you have to buy into the fact that a man who looks like Antonio Banderas needs a mail-order bride. Then, you have to believe that the woman who responds to such an advertisement in turn looks like Angelina Jolie.
Original Sin is based upon Cornell Woolrich's ("Rear Window") novel, Waltz Into Darkness, which Francois Truffaut adapted in 1969 and titled Mississippi Mermaid. It starred Jean-Paul Belmondo as a tobacco planter whose mail-order bride, played by Catherine Deneuve, turns out to be an impostor. This time around, the steamy story is adapted and directed by Michael Cristofer, who helped poise Jolie for stardom in the HBO-flick, Gia.
In Original Sin, Banderas ("Spy Kids") is Luis Vargas, a 19th century Cuban coffee mogul, and Jolie ("Tomb Raider") is Julia Russell, a young American who wants to make a change in her life. She steps off the boat, pouting and vamping, and affecting a Madonnaesque English accent for no apparent reason. Just hours later, the couple are wed. Extreme close-ups on naked bodies, smoldering brown eyes, massive lips, and arty post-coital contortions follow (I was looking for the game of Twister under the sheets, but didn't see those telltale colored dots).
Before long, the bride not only steals his heart, she cleans out the joint bank account and disappears (pouting and vamping as she goes). Luis begins to suspect that perhaps his bride isn't who he thought she was after all. American PI Walter Downs (Thomas Jane, "Deep Blue Sea") shows up to investigate at the behest of the real Julia's sister, Emily. Luis decides that, since he can't live without his conniving wife, he wants to be the one to kill her. So he hires Downs, too (even though he only has $11 left in his bank account). But instead of killing her, he ends up killing *for* her. (When Banderas says, with an admirably straight face, "I have killed for her. And I would do it again," I felt like raising my hand, "Me, me! Pick me!")
The dialogue is so corny, I kept looking for a Niblets product placement. I think I got Jello instead, when one of Julia's would-be suitors, standing outside her bedroom door as she undresses, declares, "My heart is pudding. I will go, but my pudding is all broken!" Of course, this screenplay *does* come from the same man who wrote this dialogue for Gia: "I do be da pittiest pittiest girl, I do be dat."
The cinematography is under-lit and as one-dimensional as the screen, at times blending the actors' heads into the dark backgrounds. Not only do the actors fade into the woodwork (maybe they were *trying* to), Jolie actually looks flat-chested. That's a mean feat. In addition, Banderas's pores were bigger than life and the bulging veins in Jolie's hands, arms and forehead were so blue, I checked my press kit to see if the makeup was by Stan Winston. The loud, irritating soundtrack is upstaged only by some of the oddest editing I have ever seen, jam-packed with jump-cuts, step-zooms, blurry pans, incongruous dolly shots, and floating crane perspectives. The only wannabe arty shot I *didn't* see was "kitchen-sink."
Prior to seeing Original Sin (which was supposed to come out in November of last year, then February... for some reason, can't imagine why, this film's release was repeatedly delayed), I read that Jolie's brother, James Haven, would be appearing onscreen. I looked and looked, then concluded that unless he was Banderas's body-double for the love scenes, he wasn't in it. I waited for the end credits and saw that he played a masked character in the stage-play scene. He probably took one look at the dailies and volunteered for that role. He's smarter than I thought.
But kudos have to go to Jolie and Banderas -- who allow themselves to have their mouths spat into and be mano-a-mano soul-kissed, respectively -- for fully immersing themselves in this tawdry tete-a-tete and for playing their roles to their fullest folly (while pouting and vamping, of course).
I don't know if Original Sin will become a contemporary camp classic like Showgirls, but there is nothing original in it and the only sin is, this movie was finally released. At any rate, if you decide to shell out your hard-earned dough, you will certainly keep watching to see what outright outrageousness will be thrust upon you next.
The original sin was murder -- and so is this movie!
First of all, you have to buy into the fact that a man who looks like Antonio Banderas needs a mail-order bride. Then, you have to believe that the woman who responds to such an advertisement in turn looks like Angelina Jolie.
Original Sin is based upon Cornell Woolrich's ("Rear Window") novel, Waltz Into Darkness, which Francois Truffaut adapted in 1969 and titled Mississippi Mermaid. It starred Jean-Paul Belmondo as a tobacco planter whose mail-order bride, played by Catherine Deneuve, turns out to be an impostor. This time around, the steamy story is adapted and directed by Michael Cristofer, who helped poise Jolie for stardom in the HBO-flick, Gia.
In Original Sin, Banderas ("Spy Kids") is Luis Vargas, a 19th century Cuban coffee mogul, and Jolie ("Tomb Raider") is Julia Russell, a young American who wants to make a change in her life. She steps off the boat, pouting and vamping, and affecting a Madonnaesque English accent for no apparent reason. Just hours later, the couple are wed. Extreme close-ups on naked bodies, smoldering brown eyes, massive lips, and arty post-coital contortions follow (I was looking for the game of Twister under the sheets, but didn't see those telltale colored dots).
Before long, the bride not only steals his heart, she cleans out the joint bank account and disappears (pouting and vamping as she goes). Luis begins to suspect that perhaps his bride isn't who he thought she was after all. American PI Walter Downs (Thomas Jane, "Deep Blue Sea") shows up to investigate at the behest of the real Julia's sister, Emily. Luis decides that, since he can't live without his conniving wife, he wants to be the one to kill her. So he hires Downs, too (even though he only has $11 left in his bank account). But instead of killing her, he ends up killing *for* her. (When Banderas says, with an admirably straight face, "I have killed for her. And I would do it again," I felt like raising my hand, "Me, me! Pick me!")
The dialogue is so corny, I kept looking for a Niblets product placement. I think I got Jello instead, when one of Julia's would-be suitors, standing outside her bedroom door as she undresses, declares, "My heart is pudding. I will go, but my pudding is all broken!" Of course, this screenplay *does* come from the same man who wrote this dialogue for Gia: "I do be da pittiest pittiest girl, I do be dat."
The cinematography is under-lit and as one-dimensional as the screen, at times blending the actors' heads into the dark backgrounds. Not only do the actors fade into the woodwork (maybe they were *trying* to), Jolie actually looks flat-chested. That's a mean feat. In addition, Banderas's pores were bigger than life and the bulging veins in Jolie's hands, arms and forehead were so blue, I checked my press kit to see if the makeup was by Stan Winston. The loud, irritating soundtrack is upstaged only by some of the oddest editing I have ever seen, jam-packed with jump-cuts, step-zooms, blurry pans, incongruous dolly shots, and floating crane perspectives. The only wannabe arty shot I *didn't* see was "kitchen-sink."
Prior to seeing Original Sin (which was supposed to come out in November of last year, then February... for some reason, can't imagine why, this film's release was repeatedly delayed), I read that Jolie's brother, James Haven, would be appearing onscreen. I looked and looked, then concluded that unless he was Banderas's body-double for the love scenes, he wasn't in it. I waited for the end credits and saw that he played a masked character in the stage-play scene. He probably took one look at the dailies and volunteered for that role. He's smarter than I thought.
But kudos have to go to Jolie and Banderas -- who allow themselves to have their mouths spat into and be mano-a-mano soul-kissed, respectively -- for fully immersing themselves in this tawdry tete-a-tete and for playing their roles to their fullest folly (while pouting and vamping, of course).
I don't know if Original Sin will become a contemporary camp classic like Showgirls, but there is nothing original in it and the only sin is, this movie was finally released. At any rate, if you decide to shell out your hard-earned dough, you will certainly keep watching to see what outright outrageousness will be thrust upon you next.
The original sin was murder -- and so is this movie!