- Inspired by the true story of tobacco billionairess Doris Duke and her devoted Irish butler Bernard Lafferty, the touching HBO Films drama Bernard and Doris stars Oscar? winner Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking) and Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient). After failed relationships with her previous waitstaff, Doris meets Lafferty, fresh out of rehab and without a penny to his name. She takes him on a
WHITE PALACE - DVD MovieGlenn Savan's depressing and self-loathing novel about a 27-year-old upper-class Jewish widower mired in self-pity after his beloved wife dies, and who finds love and sexual rebirth with a trailer-trash older woman, was brought to the big screen by the competent director Luis Mandoki (
When a Man Loves a Woman,
Message in a Bottle). But the savage irony in Savan's book has been face-lifted by screenwriters Ted Tally (
The Silence of the Lambs) and Alvin Sar! gent (
Ordinary People) into something else entirely: what passes for low-rent "slumming" in Hollywood means hiring sexy Susan Sarandon to play Nora Baker, the poor, uneducated 43-year-old waitress in a White Palace burger joint who strikes up an unlikely relationship with sad Max Baron (James Spader). Widower Max attends a bachelor party for best pal Neil (Jason Alexander) and discovers that the local White Palace has stiffed the boys a whopping six burgers. Max barges into the joint, bent on getting his money back, and meets a testy Nora, who is bemused at the young man's insolence. While driving home, Max stops abruptly at a bar for a drink. Inside, Nora is nursing a vodka and takes a shine to the tuxedo-clad, handsome, and morose younger man. He gives her a lift, she seduces him, and the rest of the movie examines how two such opposites in manners and morals can find happiness. The only common bond they have is great sex and a private tragedy.
White Palace ! nudges at the dark journey and the smashing of illusion that w! as at th e heart of the novel, but there is still a fairy-tale element to the film that negates the earthy essence that distinguished the book. In Mandoki's vision,
White Palace is about overcoming class, family, and outside opinion to find true love. In Savan's book, Max wastes into decline while Nora ultimately thrives in the quest for truth, redemption, and self-forgiveness. She becomes his salvation only after he stops hating himself. But mainstream Hollywood shuns making "protagonists" so mad, bad, or sad, and as such, too much glitter is tossed on Spader, while Sarandon, as usual, is the only one who seems to embody and understand her character's angst. She deserved her Oscar for Nora, not the nun in
Dead Man Walking.
--Paula NechakSettle in. Take a deep breath. Hold tight. The best screen version yet of a novel by John Grisham (The Firm, The Pelican Brief) delivers all-out, moment-by-moment suspense! Headliners Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones join newco! mer Brad Renfro in The Client, a whirlwind thriller that "starts like a house afire and keeps on blazing" (Chicago Tribune). Renfro plays Mark Sway, an 11-year-old torn between what he knows and what he can never tell. A hitman will snuff him in half a heartbeat if Mark reveals what he learned about a Mob murder. An ambitious federal prosecutor (Jones) will keep the pressure on until Mark tells all. Suddenly, Mark isn't a boy playing air guitar anymore. He's a pawn in a deadly game. And his only ally is a courageous but unseasoned attorney (Sarandon) who risks her career for him...but never imagines she'll also risk her life.The exceptionally fine cast--Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, J.T. Walsh, Mary-Louise Parker, Anthony Edwards, William H. Macy, Anthony LaPaglia, Ossie Davis, and Brad Renfro--goes a long way toward making
The Client one of the more solidly enjoyable screen adaptations of a John Grisham southern gothic legal thriller. Teen-hearthrob Renfro is a n! atural, playing a kid whose life is in jeopardy after he witne! sses the death of a Mob lawyer. Susan Sarandon is the attorney who decides to look after the boy; nobody can match her when it comes to playing strong and protective maternal figures (
Thelma and Louise,
Lorenzo's Oil,
Dead Man Walking). Sarandon won her fourth Oscar nomination as best actress for this role, before finally winning the following year for
Dead Man Walking. Author Grisham was so impressed with former window dresser/fashion designer/screenwriter-turned-director Joel Schumacher's work on this movie that he later asked him to direct
A Time to Kill.
--Jim EmersonThe exceptionally fine cast--Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, J.T. Walsh, Mary-Louise Parker, Anthony Edwards, William H. Macy, Anthony LaPaglia, Ossie Davis, and Brad Renfro--goes a long way toward making
The Client one of the more solidly enjoyable screen adaptations of a John Grisham southern gothic legal thriller. Teen-hearthrob Renfro is a natural, playing a kid ! whose life is in jeopardy after he witnesses the death of a Mob lawyer. Susan Sarandon is the attorney who decides to look after the boy; nobody can match her when it comes to playing strong and protective maternal figures (
Thelma and Louise,
Lorenzo's Oil,
Dead Man Walking). Sarandon won her fourth Oscar nomination as best actress for this role, before finally winning the following year for
Dead Man Walking. Author Grisham was so impressed with former window dresser/fashion designer/screenwriter-turned-director Joel Schumacher's work on this movie that he later asked him to direct
A Time to Kill.
--Jim EmersonInspired by the true story of tobacco billionairess Doris Duke and her devoted Irish butler Bernard Lafferty, the touching HBO Films drama Bernard and Doris stars Oscar® winner Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking) and Ralph Fiennes (The English Patient). After failed relationships with her previous waitstaff, Doris meets Laffert! y, fresh out of rehab and without a penny to his name. She tak! es him o n as her butler and he is put in the unenviable position of having to convince the notoriously demanding Duke to keep him in her employ. Directed by Bob Balaban (Gosford Park), the film effectively captures the elegance of a bygone era and is scored with countless musical standards, such as Peggy Lee's "The Best Is Yet To Come". Bernard and Doris tells the witty and endearing tale of an unconventional bond between a society "princess" and her flawed "pauper" of a butler. Bravura turns by Ralph Fiennes and Susan Sarandon in the title roles carry
Bernard and Doris, director Bob Balaban̢۪s 2007 film about the long relationship between zillionaire tobacco heiress-philanthropist Doris Duke and her butler, Bernard Lafferty. These are two fine actors (Sarandon has been nominated for five Oscars, winning for
Dead Man Walking, while Fiennes has been nominated twice) at the top of their games. That̢۪s a good thing, as they are on screen almost constantly; and the truth! is that other than the evolution of the Duke-Lafferty bond, not a lot actually happens. Sarandon delivers a measured, almost casual performance as Duke, a woman who seems relatively unpretentious (if clearly entitled) about her vast fortune, despite have done absolutely nothing to earn it. Duke barely even acknowledges her various employees, except to fire them (or occasionally sleep with them; the twice-married heiress has a predilection for studly, much younger men)--until Lafferty comes along, that is. Stone broke and fresh out of rehab (his alcoholism is an ongoing theme), the shy Irishman gradually ingratiates himself with his demanding employer until he becomes as much a companion as a servant. It helps that as a gay man, he has no interest in seducing her; moreover, unlike the many others who are out to get their hands on her money, Lafferty seems to genuinely value loyalty and friendship over more venal concerns ("I just want to take care of you," he says in one of! several poignant scenes), and he̢۪s rewarded with several mi! llion do llars and full control of her estate after her death (in 1993). Fiennes is also admirably restrained in a role that could have been meretricious and over the top; combine that with a fine script (by Hugh Costello) and some great songs by Peggy Lee, and a splendid time is guaranteed for all.
--Sam Graham
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