Reel Critics: Little merit in this ‘Hot Pursuit’
Reese Witherspoon took a giant leap onto the A-List last year with her Oscar nominated performance in “Wild.” This year she reverts to producing and starring in a standard Hollywood hack job, “Hot Pursuit.” It’s a formula female cop/buddy/road trip movie that’s been done before and done better.
The film wants to reprise the pratfall comedy of Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock in “The Heat.” Witherspoon plays an inexperienced cop assigned to guard the voluptuous wife of a Columbian drug kingpin and deliver her to court.
Hot shot actress Sofia Vergara of TV’s “Modern Family” fame plays the wife as a bubblehead character. She is all glitz with no substance while Witherspoon’s cop is a by-the-book straight arrow.
This premise leads to assorted mischief, pranks and silly shenanigans that become more predictable and unfunny as the lame plot wears on. The foolishness requires both women to play the dumbest possible version of their roles. The comic talents of two fine actresses are completely missing in action in this crazy, stupid farce.
—John Depko
*
A Sure ‘Crowd’ Pleaser
“Far From the Madding Crowd” is every bit the sweeping epic you could wish for. Based upon Thomas Hardy’s novel of a headstrong woman in Victorian England, it is better than the 1967 version thanks to a modern-tinged screenplay and a sparkling lead performance.
Carey Mulligan is Bathsheba Everdene, whose beauty and independent style catch the eye of a big strong farmer, Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts). After only a few flirtatious smiles, he asks her to marry him. Bathsheba bluntly declares she doesn’t want to be anyone’s possession and his heartbreak is palpable.
Gabriel’s fortunes undergo a tragic downturn at the same time as hers soar. She inherits a large farm and vows to “astonish you all” in running it. In another twist of fate, Gabriel is offered a job as her sheepherder, and the friendship has a chance to deepen.
Wealthy neighbor William Boldwood (Michael Sheen) becomes similarly smitten with our heroine. The over-anxious bachelor proposes and she keeps him on edge by not flat-out refusing. Does she just like the idea of men dancing attendance for her vanity?
Apparently so. For Bachelor No. 3, the dashing Sgt. Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge), only has to dazzle Bathsheba with his, er, swordplay for her to totally give herself over to passion.
Mulligan is excellent at playing a confident woman working in a man’s world. But for all her brains and beauty, she has much to learn about the foibles of the heart.
With its gorgeous costumes and lush country landscapes, “Crowd” is a romantic’s delight with enough sass and class to keep us enthralled.
—Susanne Perez
JOHN DEPKO is a retired senior investigator for the Orange County public defender’s office. He lives in Costa Mesa and works as a licensed private investigator. SUSANNE PEREZ lives in Costa Mesa and is an executive assistant for a company in Irvine.