Endstation Malibu

THE SHADOW BOX is a film with some very good actors (Plummer, Woodward)and directed by Paul Newman, about three terminally ill patients who spend their last days in an experimental retreat. Sounds corny? Well, it's not corny, but the biggest problem is that it's all too obvious that this is derived from a play. The actors do their best, but...well, they're just acting and not creating real-life characters. Paul Newman is a very good actor (understatement!), and I think he should stick to that. His direction is very sober, almost clinical and we don't get to care about these characters. And that's a real pity, given the premise. 6/10

Paul Newman's directional central piece (his fourth, after almost eight years of silence) is, by far, the best American film of the decade. Not only for its very controlled, moving, unusual tone and rhythm, nor for the exceptional actors and actresses, but mainly for the treatment of such a theme like this, the easiest to fall into a stupid tear jerker. "The shadow box" is like Naruse Mikio's "Midareru", the definitive proof that a great director (and Paul Newman is one of the best of his time) can make wonders with any argument, even with the most boring ones, the less "important", even if the plot is tedious and the ending predictable. A gem