BEFORE: This will wrap up the Richard Gere chain, just in time for his Birthday SHOUT-out, as well as the month of August - it's been a very strange month for movies, an odd mix of psychics, thieves, oddballs, cowboys, killers, spies, and a Mothman. September may end up just as disjointed, however.
This is a film made in 1984 about the Jazz Age of the 1930's - jazz was retro in the 80's, just as 80's music is retro now. I was reminded of this after tuning in to the MTV Video Music Awards this weekend - now, back in the day the VMA's were a big deal. We'd gather around the television box (no DVRs to make it easy for us) and anxiously await news of which video masterpiece from Dire Straits, Peter Gabriel or Def Leppard would take home the top prize. And perhaps some young upstart like Herbie Hancock or Howard Jones would pull an upset. That's how I remember it, anyway.
But perhaps it was a mistake for me to tune in the VMA's now, since I'm turning 39 this year (for the 5th time, but who's counting?). I barely knew a quarter of the nominated acts - yeah, I'm aware of Lady Gaga and this Bieber kid, but what the heck is a Nicki Minaj? And then they gave some kind of Lifetime Achievement Award to Britney Spears - that sound you heard was my bones creaking. I've never felt so old, but that's OK, since if you think about it, I've never been as old as I am right now.
THE PLOT: The story follows the people that visited the Cotton Club, those that ran it, and is peppered with the Jazz music that made it so famous.
AFTER: The movie follows a number of musicians, dancers and mobsters associated with the famous Harlem club, but their storylines seemed very disjointed to me, like they didn't all come together to form a coherent whole. Mostly it focuses on Gere's character, Dixie Dwyer, who starts out as an unassuming cornet player (nice attempt to ugly him up at the start, he looks like Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove) but gets caught up in the rackets, and eventually makes his way into the movie business.
(Most people don't realize that this was how the mob recruited back in the 1930's, by picking people from the orchestra pit. I think Al Capone started out on the flugelhorn.)
Along the way he romances a nightclub singer, played by Diane Lane (last seen in "Jack"), but she's also involved with gangster Dutch Schultz - so I can't see how that could possibly go south at all, by all means, proceed with the relationship.
As in "Amelia", there's an over-reliance on those spinning newspaper headlines whenever something big happens, or the timeline needs to advance a few months. But they also seem to represent story gaps, for scenes that maybe didn't get filmed? Remember, a movie should Show, not Tell. Newspaper headlines are a narrative crutch.
This wants to be a big, all-encompassing story about every character they can find - but for all of its complicated storylines and relationships, it tends to OVER-explain everything. Is this for the benefit for the audience, to help us keep track of everyone's troubles?
Sample dialogue: "Come on, we've got to practice for our dance audition at the Cotton Club, so we can get jobs as dancers at the Cotton Club! Then everyone will know us as those dancers from the Cotton Club!" Jeez, enough already, we get it. Or how about, "We know some people in Hollywood, you know, where they make movies?" Yeah, I think we've heard of it. Do you think we're stupid? Nobody talks like that!
The movie just seems like a vehicle for the elaborate production numbers, but I'm not really a jazz fan, so although impressive, they weren't really up my alley.
There's an attempt to highlight racial inequality, by pointing out that black people were allowed to perform at the Cotton Club, but not allowed to attend the shows as paying customers. But this message gets muddled somewhat, because the performers would get in for free, right? They'd have to, in order to perform - so what's the complaint? Who would rather pay admission than get in for free?
Also bothering me was the bizarre ending, which seemed to merge scenes at a train station with a musical number on stage at the club that featured train conductors and porters. It just proved to me that someone really didn't know how to wrap up the narrative - and it messed with the dramatic reality of the film. Was this a metaphor akin to "All the world's a stage"? Or just an attempt to be "arty"?
Also starring Bob Hoskins as the world's only Jewish gangster with a British accent (?) (last seen in "Michael"), Gregory Hines (last seen in "Deal of the Century"), Laurence Fishburne (last seen in "Armored"), Nicolas Cage (last seen in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"), Tom Waits (last seen in "Ironweed"), Fred Gwynne (ditto), with cameos from Gwen Verdon (last seen in "Cocoon: The Return"), Diane Venora (last seen in "The Jackal") and Jennifer Grey (last seen in "Dirty Dancing").
RATING: 3 out of 10 tap shoes
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