Gotham

Rating:
Summary: A noir gem
Review: Seems like no one has ever heard of this movie, and that is a shame. It is chilling, stylish and funny, all in the same moment. Really a fun movie!

Rating:
Summary: Stylish and brilliantly acted
Review: This is one of my favorite movies, and it's a mystery to me that it isn't more popular. I am waiting patiently for it to appear on DVD - I already have it on laserdisk.

Virginia Madsen portrays the dead wife of a wealthy man who has hired Tommy Lee Jones (a barely-competent private eye), to get her to leave him alone. Jones plays along with the wealthy client, whom he assumes is a nut case, because he needs the work. As things develop, Jones starts to fall in love with Madsen.

Gotham is an extremely stylish detective/ghost story that includes Virginia Madsen's best acting performance. She should have won an Oscar for her performance here. Her piercing eye contact with the camera at the very end of the movie is both hypnotizing and electrifying. There are many other scenes that really take your breath away - like when she listens to a street musician sing "Danny Boy."

This movie gets my strongest recommendation. If you are a fan of Virginia Madsen, you MUST have this movie.

Rating:
Summary: What REALLY happens inside a man when he "falls in love"?
Review: What REALLY happens inside a man when he "falls in love"? If you want to begin to get a clue, or - better yet - if you are tearfully trying to grasp what on earth has happened to you in particular, you should see "Gotham" - again and again. It is an American classic of the Inner Landscape.

I wonder how much idea Tommy Lee Jones and company had of just what they were enacting. Only as much as writer/producer/director, Lloyd Fonvielle, was able or willing to tell them. Siskel & Ebert, etc., totally missed the point. Why? Because people in our culture are not prepared for a movie whose plot/premise barely holds together as a tale of what occurs in the world but which, as an inner story, dream- or myth-like, works quite beautifully. (In that sense the movie's plot is rather like our lives!)

Your enjoyment/comprehension of this movie will be much enhanced if you have at least some familiarity with the Jungian Anima (I mean conceptually - we men all do experientally, although depressingly few know much about, or acknowledge, Her!). If you don't, I don't want to put you off. It will do quite nicely if a woman's image has - in whatever way - just devastated you, or some man you know, inside. I've never seen a movie where this is so graphically depicted. The decline and Fall. "How will I find you?" Eddie quaveringly asks. "Don't worry," she replies, with a smile that is simultaneously sweet and diabolical, "I'll find YOU." Oh, yes.

This movie is incredibly rich in symbols and insight, and really repays multiple viewings. Even if you don't understand why Eddie's name is Mallard; why Rachel's face has suddenly become chalky white as she turns and emits her spine-chilling anger when challenged by Eddie on a matter of historical accuracy; the Doorman; why it is death to "sleep with a ghost"; what the pirate's sword is all about (re-read your Tristan & Isolde, the chapel); why She MUST emerge from the mist, at the brazier, to warn Eddie not to embark on his own destruction, before herself taking the executive role in bringing it about ("I've KILLED you, Eddie...and I'm GLAD I did!"); the role of the psychic detective (that's you - or could be); the splitting of the male psyche into Charlie and Eddie, as separate disastrous approaches to Her; the jewels (and this IS pretty murky!); the themes of watery immersion, pugilism, paganism vs Christianity, etc., EVEN THEN...something will tug at you as watch this movie.

As you can probably tell, I'd love to bend your ears with a full-scale analysis, but the 1000 word limit protects you from people like me! Feel free to e-mail me if you want to talk about Gotham, I never found anyone on my wavelength.