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Reviews
The White River Kid (1999)
A consummate disaster that should be avoided at all costs
This is surely the worst film I've seen in the last decade or two. It is difficult to imagine that there is a book on which it was based because there are no characters, no plot and no purpose whatsoever. It is a master class on how NOT to write a script and on how NOT to direct a movie. Arne Glimcher had given us in 1992 "The Mambo Kings", with the same Antonio Banderas. This was a very pleasant film and we could expect for a similar result here. But due to the chaotic situation shown it is difficult to say what went wrong here. Of course, the main fault is with the script that amasses a bunch of loose characters and incidents that never relate to each other in any meaningful way. People come and go out of the film without stating what they are doing or what they were called for. If any praise should be bestowed upon anyone at all, that should go to the actors and actresses involved for the bravura and conviction with which they deliver their lines even if these lines don't mean a thing at all. A consummate disaster that should be avoided at all costs.
The Proposition (1998)
whole cast imbue their characters with a great degree of dignity
Someone once said that it is impossible to extract a good film out of a bad script. Well, I believe this is one of the exceptions to that rule. The script is really very weak, beginning with the absurd situation of Kenneth Branagh telling the story to Robert Loggia when it was Loggia who witnessed the initial facts, Branagh not being present. Besides there are several "intellectual" dialogues, including a Virginia Wolf citation, that are said on the most improbable occasions, as on the second encounter between Madeleine Stowe and Neil Patrick Harris. Notwithstanding this, the direction manages to hold a firm grip on the proceedings throughout the whole film, avoiding it falling into ridiculousness. Most of all, the whole cast led by William Hurt and Kenneth Branagh imbue their characters with such a high degree of dignity and seriousness that makes us think of one of those good Bette Davis vehicles.