Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

'Wrong’ endings have ruined several recent blockbusters BY JAMIBERNARD NEW YOKE DAILY NEWS (EHT) ’ Movies have happy endings (thq hero finds true love or a.suit case stuffed with cash) and un happy endings (the hero dies in the course of doing something valiant). There are also endings that are just plain wrong because nothing in the film supports the conclusion. These endings cheat audiences. Several recent films — “Bad Santa,” “The Last Samurai” and “Something’s Gotta Give” among them — have flagrantly wrong endings. (Warning: this column is chock-full of spoilers.) In “Bad Santa,” Billy Bob Thornton plays a drunken, wom anizing, child-hating burglar who moonlights as Santa Claus so he can case department stores for fu ture break-ins. The funniest mo ment is when the cops shoot him in the back as he is trying to be nice to a kid for once. A hail of bullets cuts him down as he crawls along in his Santa suit, outstretched hand holding a cud dly toy. This Santa is so bad it is fitting he should die, despite his change of heart. Instead the movie cuts to a hap py ending with Santa’s voice-over reassuring us that he survived the “Butch Cassidy”-like gunfire. The movie thus pretends to have a “happy” ending, even though this Santa is far from reformed. In “The Last Samurai,” Tom Cruise plays a burned-out American military adviser who embraces the samurai code of hon or, even though that way of life is about to hit the historical dustbin. He and his newfound samurai pal (Ken Watanabe) wind up as the only survivors on a battlefield. In the Japanese tradition, there is nobility in failure, and the samurai does the correct thing under the circumstances —he commits seppuku, the rit ual (and honorable) act of sui cide. But Cruise’s character seems to forget the samurai values he so recently em braced. He walks off the battle field unscathed. Audiences may not want to see America’s No. 1 box-office star kill himself, but the char acter’s arc would be better served by a noble suicide after a life lived in guilt and misery. “Something’s Gotta Give” sets itself up as a bracing anti dote to movies in which an old er guy gets the younger babe. Here it’s a middle-aged di vorcee (Diane Keaton) who is the protagonist, and she has a choice of two suitors: a lecher ous Jack Nicholson or a re spectful Keanu Reeves. If this movie really wanted to turn things upside-down, it would end with Keaton in the arms of the younger man, not running at the last minute into the arms of the ambivalent Nicholson. “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” my fa vorite movie of 2003, does not have a wrong ending, but sev eral endings. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it hedges its bets, but it gives audiences too many options of how best to remember Frodo and his friends. AN HISTORIC RESIDENCE Efficiency ' $525 One Bedroom $585 Two Bedroom $620 Rent includes all utilities and cable TV. All rates quoted are month to month* (Leases available, prices subject to change) Located across from the University Of South Carolina Horseshoe and the State Capital, Cornell Arms offers the premier location for downtown living. (803)799-1442 1230 PENDLETON STREET Movie. Review r PHOTO SPICIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Julia Roberts plays a liberal teacher at an all-female college in “Mona Lisa Smile’. The film provides a unique perspective on gender barriers in the mid-twentieth century. ‘Mona Lisa ’ addresses equality amidst biased 1950s academia “MONA LISA SMILE” *★★★ out of BY MEG MOORE TIIK (JAMECOCK Julia Roberts’ character, Katherine Watson, has come to Wellesley, Mass., in pursuit of a dream. Having harbored a long-held hope to one day teach at presti gious Wellesley College, she leaves her position at liberal minded Berkley and accepts a job with Wellesley’s art history de partment. So long So. Cal., hello uppercrust New England. Tossed into a conservative world where tradition still defines one’s educa tion and expectation, she quickly learns that it will take more than from-the-textbook lectures to en lighten and change minds. The women that live and learn amidst the ivy-colored walls of Wellesley lead privileged lives. With their prim appearances and Harvard boyfriends, they epito mize the future of the conserva tive upper class. Played by a cast of notable young stars including Julia Stiles, Kirsten Dunst and Maggie Gyllenhaal, the Wellesley girls clearly aim to assume their par ents’ blueblood traditions and roles. Yet they remain definitive college students, strong-minded and determined to succeed at whatever it is they are pursuing. Much to Professor Watson’s dismay, success, to many of the students, means marrying rather than pursuing a career. Society has engrained in them the neces sity of becoming a homemaker, a faithful wife and mother. America’s future, in Watson’s eyes, is all too focused on the out dated values of America’s past. Roberts’ chair acter goes so far as to accuse theWellesley stall u running a “finishing school” rather than a college. Yet, in her feminist zeal Katherine Watson fails to realize that not all of these young scholars want the life that she envisions for them. The aim’s attack on the 50s era views of a woman’s role in society is balaiced by its assertion that equality also entails supporting those vho do choose the tradi tional jath. Seeiringly critical of Wellesley ideals, tae film does use the school as an arti-model of changing fem inist idols. Clearly, however, so cial atttudes remain the subject of the name's criticism. The jrls that graduate in 1954 are chaining, well-rounded ir-1^ viduals vho appear to have t P oughly njoyed their years at the all-femae school. They emerge at the filmS end as women well pre pared fo; a successful future—re gardlessrf what sort of roles they are enccaraged — or choose — to pursue. Robers’ character ultimately undergffis the biggest change. She is fiially able to see beyond her libeal, California-bred no tions of ?hat it takes to be an in dependflt woman. She educa tionallyexpands her students’ minds a; they encourage her to reevaluae her own ideas. There is a whoe lot of learning going on — abmt art, about values, about drams. ^ “MonaLisa Smile” uplifts f invigoraes — and yes, is a deti nite chic lick. Although it has its contrivel moments, the movie succeeds .t portraying the 50s era woman n>t as a simple-minded housewif, but as an intelligent, idealistic ndividual forced to jug gle confomity with the push to as sert her e<uality. Commentsm this story?E-mail gamecockjatures@gwm.sc.edu ! The Stadium \ Restaurant Home Cooking Away From Home (Under New Ownership! New additions to menu. Fresh Vegetables Cooked Daily. Mention this ad and receive a FREE Tea with Meai! Home cooking: Fried Chicken, Pork Chops, & BBQ and Much More! www.thestadiumrestaurant.com I 799-4445 | 1100 Bluff Hoad Hours: Monday - Friday: 7 - 2:30 | WHAT IS YOUR DREAM? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. WANTS YOU! HAVE YOU REGISTERED YET FOR THE 6th ANNUAL USC MLK DAY OF SERVICE? DON'T DELAY...REGISTER TODAY!!! 11am - 2pm JANUARY 12-15 Greene St./Front of Russell House http://www.sa.sc.edu/ocsp/ Email: uscmlk@yahoo.com Phone: 803.777.5780 Fax: 803.777.7396_ We’ve got your ticket + /foodS \ Fashion^ .Fun al roads : ead to,/ ^