Predictable plot line
makes ‘Feeling’ hurt
By Gerry Beltz
Film Critic
Marriage. It brings together more
than two people.
It brings together feelings of joy,
happiness and — in “That Old Feel
ing” — it reunites a divorced couple
who hate each other with destructive
possibilities.
Gee, will they look past their in
sults and see they still have feelings
for each other?
The answer there is obvious, but
how soon it happens in the film is the
real surprise.
Molly (Paula Marshall, “A Fam
ily Thing”) is about to get married and
realizes she must invite both of her
parents, despite the probability that the
two will react to each other like a co
bra and mongoose.
Still, movie star Lily (Bette Midler)
and novelist Dan (Dennis Farina)
agree to put aside their differences for
one day so their daughter Molly may
have a pleasant wedding day.
(Get out your stopwatches, every
one. ...)
The cake has barely been cut be
fore these two start flinging the insults
and accusations at each other left and
right. After being physically removed
from the wedding, they start arguing
in the parking lot, then do the nasty
in a sports car.
(Now why can’t sane of MY ar
guments end like that?)
Their romantic fires are rekindled
and there’s no stopping these flames.
Lily and Dan leave their respective
spouses and go on a fling of dancing,
romancing and boffing.
In the meantime, everyone else is
going bonkers tryingto find these two.
Molly has linked up with sleazy tab
Please see FEELING oh 13
\ ■ - ■ ■
NEW YORK (AP) — Wynton
Marsalis won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize
for music on Monday and Frank
McCourt took the prize for biography
with his first book, a bittersweet mem
oir'of his childhood in the slums of
Limerick, Ireland.
Marsalis, a trumpet player with
eight Grammys, won for his “Blood
on the Fields,” an epic composition
that tells the story of blacks in America
through poems and songs.
\ He is the first jazz artist to win a
| Pulitzer.
f The Pulitzer for fiction went to
Steven Millhauser for “Martin
Dressier: The Tale of an American
Dreamer.”
There was no award given for
drama. Pulitzers administrator
Seymour Topping said the jury con
sidered three finalists but “the board
felt none of the three fulfilled the cri
teria for a Pulitzer.”
McCourt, 66, popped the cork on
a bottle of champagne with his wife,
Ellen, in a Cambridge, Mass., hotel
room to celebrate the win for his
“Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir.”
“This is an ecstatic moment,” he
said. “I don’t know if there’s anything
higher.”
Jack N. Rakove, a Stanford Uni
versity professor, won a Pulitzer in the
history category for “Original Mean
ings: Politics and Ideas in the Mak
ing of the Constitution.”
The poetry award went to Lisel
Mueller for “Alive Together: New and
Selected Poems.” Mueller, 73, a Ger
man immigrant, also won the National
Book Award few poetry. The Lake For
est, 111., resident has written seven
bodes of poems.
Richard Kluger received a Pulitzer
in general nonfiction for “Ashes to
Ashes: America’s Hundred-Year Ciga
rette War, the Public Health, and die
Unabashed Triumph of Philip Mor
ris.”
It was Kluger’s second nonfiction
book. Kluger, a former staffer at The
Wall Street Journal, has written six
novels.
The drama Finalists were: “The
Last Night of Ballyhoo” by previous
Pulitzer winner Alfred Uhry; “Pride’s
Crossing” by Una Howe; and “Col
lected Stories” by Donald Margulies.
DN
EL
LIAM NEESON (i
Tk0 fun’s cs-sl _,_ ___
This week s video releases
offer no shortage of variety
By Gerry Beltz
Film Critic
Another eclectic week, people! Medical
drama, romance, biographical adventure and
mystery abound on the new-release shelves,
so the pick-of-the-week will be one for the
comedy buffs,
“Romeo and Juliet”—Whew! This one
was, to say the least, not done in a way origi
nally pictured by William “Bud”
Shakespeare but was nominated for an Acad
emy Award this year for best art direction.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes
play the title roles in this tale of foibidden
love, but a great deal of the imagery and
snazzy editing style brings to mind an MTV
ish sort of thinking.
Still, DiCaprio delivers his usual better
than-average performance, and who says
love can’t involve gangs and guns? Give it
a shot... I mean, give it a try.
“Lone Star” — If you blinked, you
missed this one. It played for about a week
at the beginning of the semester at the Mary
Riepma Ross Theater and was nominated
for an Academy Award for best original
screenplay.
In another film that zips back and forth
from flashbacks to present day, a small town
sheriff tries to decipher exactly how deeply
his father (Matthew McConaughey) was in
volved in the mysterious murder of a cor
rupt law officer (played by Kris
Kristofferson).
It’s a little long, but definitely worth it.
“Michael Collins” — Director Neil Jor
dan (“Interview With the Vampire”) takes a
cinematic look at the man who forged the
beginnings of the Irish Republican Army.
The movie chronicles the tumultuous
split Ireland made from England after
Collins (Liam Neeson) secured an agreement
with the English Parliament to grant home
rule to the Irish Republic, though still leav
ing six counties under English control and
all citizens loyal to the crown.
This one only played in Lincoln for about
two weeks, so don’t feel bad if you missed
it. Good performances, sharp direction and
two Oscar nominations (best dramatic score
and best cinematography) make it a defi
nite must-see.
“Extreme Measures” — When is “an
ounce of prevention for a ton of cure” just
an ounce too many? “Extreme Measures”
tries to answer such a question.
A bushy-tailed doctor (Hugh Grant) is
working the emergency ward one night when
a homeless man comes in with some abso
Please see NEWVID on 13
