Zoë Tamerlis is a mute seamstress who is raped twice in one day. She manages to kill the 2nd rapist in her apartment and takes his gun, going on an escalating spree of killing men who come on to her in public or otherwise treat women badly.
In some ways, this is a fairly typical gritty New York exploitation outing, but it distinguishes itself in a few ways. The regular dynamics of the rape/revenge genre are somewhat upended by focusing…
Goddamn I love this movie.
I don't there's a better Elmore Leonard adaptation, at least in terms of capturing the tone of his prose. This film's a joy. It has a fairly intricate plot, but it's all grounded in wonderful character work.
This is really the film that made stars out of George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, and it should have. Both do phenomenal work, and their chemistry is off the charts.
I love Albert Brooks in this film ... and somewhat surprisingly Steve Zahn.
In one sense I really think this movie is a little indefensible. It's so earnest and guileless in it's counter-culture portrayal of St. Francis that it should fail completely ... especially with a score by Donovan for heaven's sake. It's a very superficial treatment of quite a serious subject. However, there's something about the stunning painterly cinematography and meditative pace of the film that really works for me, although I'm quietly kicking myself for being taken in the whole time I'm watching it.
A D.W. Griffith Christmas movie. A man abandons his family in a state of drunken misery. After he leaves, his wife inherits a fortune and the family moves to a new house. On Christmas Eve, the kids set a trap to catch Santa Claus ... and they trap their Dad attempting to burglarize the house not realizing his family lives there. Merry Christmas!
