A LIFE LESS ORDINARY (60)

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Cameron Diaz, Delroy Lindo, Holly Hunter

The Pitch: An unemployed janitor kidnaps a capricious rich girl, egged on by a pair of Cupid-playing angels.

Theo Sez: A mess - especially in its final stages, when scenes just seem to be grafted on without consideration for what came before ; then again, that's not entirely surprising in this kind of cross-cultural experiment. Like ARIZONA DREAM (if a lot less wondrously), it's a take on bizarre Americana - survivalist mountain-men, absurdly helpful gas-station attendants, redneck bars where "local boys" give renditions of "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" - that remains determinedly European in sensibility, rather like "The Loved One" flavoured with essence-of-Tarantino and garnished with dollops of romantic comedy. Boyle and Co. try to travel the (archetypally American) pathways of screwball and Preston Sturges but never even manage to get started, partly due to lazy writing - why is the Diaz character so wildly inconsistent? - and partly because they never quite shake off their very British penchant for humour based on distance rather than action : it's a film where violence - assault, kidnap, bank robbery - is constantly undercut by justifications and apologetic verbalisms ("Is that not a little irregular?"), all the burdens of being civilised. It's like watching brief glimpses of Id followed by frantic stretches of agitated Superego, the arch verbal quasi-violence - or, more accurately, substitute for violence - popularised by Monty Python (think the parrot sketch, or Brian caught in mid-graffiti by the Roman patrol in LIFE OF BRIAN). That it doesn't quite work - though it's often very funny - may be because (as befits its detached sense of humour) it doesn't bother, unconcerned with plausibility (how can the angels know eviction will prompt our hero to storm the millionaire's office? how do the couple go on a date without a car?), or even with comic tension : it sets up a potentially embarrassing situation (our hero, impersonating a rock star, has to sing in public) then cheerfully ignores it, going for a feelgood dance number instead. Small pleasures remain, albeit imperfectly assembled ; those who think of Maury Chaykin, or Tony Shalhoub or Dan Hedaya (let alone all three together) as reason enough to see a movie - or who find something irresistible in details like the "Firm But Fair Eviction Agency" - may not mind too much.