March 15–22, 2001
movie shorts
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Jean-Jacques Annaud, who previously perpetrated Seven Years in Tibet and The Lover, returns to test our collective patience with this ludicrously overstuffed yarn. Yoking the corniest of love stories to the scrawniest of historical pack mules, Enemy stars Jude Law as a Soviet sniper whom propagandist Joseph Fiennes chooses to elevate to hero status as a way of boosting morale in Stalingrad during the final days of WII. Cementing the Fiennes’ place as the first family of screen smarminess, J.F. turns in a flat, self-important performance which does nothing to elevate the movie's somber, self-aggrandizing mood. Law relies on his cheekbones to do the acting for him — he’s capable of more, but Annaud clearly only wants him to pose — and mud-spattered love-object Rachel Weisz bounces around like a hurt puppy. Some individual scenes work fine on their own, but Annaud discards any interest in connecting them together; it's like looking at a picture book for two hours, except everything's been covered in shit.
