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Game 6 By Harry Forbes Catholic News Service NEW YORK (CNS) -- For a film dealing with the glamorous world of the New York theater, against the nail-biting backdrop of a historic World Series game, director Michael Hoffman's adaptation of a screenplay by novelist Don DeLillo, "Game 6" (Serenade), looks and feels remarkably lackluster. The story concerns one dreary day -- Oct. 25, 1986, to be exact -- in the life of philandering Broadway playwright Nicky Rogan (Michael Keaton), whose latest play is set to open that night, and who is certain of failure. When he's not stuck in perennial traffic jams -- thanks to cabbies with exotic Russian or Middle Eastern names -- he's having various revelatory encounters. There's his daughter, Laurel (Ari Graynor), who berates him for his neglectful behavior, and informs him her mother, Lillian (Catherine O'Hara), is planning to divorce him. There's also his attractive producer, Joanna (Bebe Neuwirth), with whom he's conducting a torrid affair. Later, he runs into his sad-sack playwright friend, Elliot (Griffin Dunne), hair disheveled and sickly, a sorry shell of his former self, his creativity impaired by notorious drama critic Steven Schwimmer (Robert Downey Jr.), who years before had savaged his play. Elliot reinforces Nicky's anxieties, warning him that Schwimmer comes to plays in disguise and even armed because he is so despised by the theater community. Elliot also introduces Nicky to a waitress friend, Paisley (Shalom Harlow), who provides further insight into the venal critic. The star of Nicky's play, Peter Redmond (Harris Yulin), can barely remember his lines because he's somehow picked up a memory-impairing parasite. The positive aspect to Nicky's day -- generating far more anticipation than his own impending opening -- is that his favorite team, the Boston Red Sox, might win the World Series for the first time since 1918, as they play the Mets at Shea Stadium. If so, there might actually be hope for him. Hoffman has assembled a fine cast of mostly New York actors. Besides those mentioned, there's Roger Rees as the play's director, Tom Aldredge as Nicky's ailing father, and Lillias White as a warm-hearted African-American taxi driver who gives Nicky some uplifting -- if simplistic -- advice, "life is good" and "people are dependable," among them. But "Game 6" feels artificial from start to finish, the showbiz ambience particularly hollow, despite location shooting at Broadway's Music Box Theater. Is it the rock-bottom indie budget, or stylistic choice that New York has been filmed to look so seamy and unappealing, even beyond the extended sequence of a messy pipe explosion spewing asbestos into the air? The ending is reasonably redemptive, and there's a positive message about confronting our fears, but even those aspects fails to balance the preceding 83 minutes of sordid tedium. The film contains a few instances of profanity, rough and crude language, two nongraphic sexual encounters, though with rear and upper female nudity, premarital sexual encounters, sexual discussions, and a violent brawl. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. - - - Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. END Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed. CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250 |
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