October 1–8, 1998

movie shorts

The Impostors

Perhaps it's time for Fox to start a spin-off of When Animals Attack called When Actors Direct; put a thespian behind the camera, and the results can be as horrifying as any bestial mutilation. Stanley Tucci, who made an assured debut with Big Night, seems to be learning in reverse; he makes the mistakes this time he avoided before. Indulgent, precious and utterly fatuous, The Impostors is a woeful attempt at screwball comedy without any of the precision timing essential to the genre, substituting self-consciousness for skill. With a nod in the direction of Grand Hotel, the film is set on a cruise ship full of would-be zany characters, from a bemonocled, goose-stepping Teuton (Campbell Scott) to an egocentric Shakespearean ham (Alfred Molina—who, sadly, is merely the only one who knows he's overacting). Populated by loads of Tucci's actor friends—including Lili Taylor, Hope Davis, Tony Shalhoub, Isabella Rossellini, Billy Connolly and Steve Buscemi—the whole affair has the feel of a collegiate production: lots of technique without a single ounce of direction or purpose. Tucci and Oliver Platt play unemployed actors who take refuge on the ship to escape from the law, and end up using their heretofore untapped skills to avoid capture. But if gratuitous time-wasting were a jailable offense, they'd both be off to the slammer.

—Sam Adams