Tempo

Melanie Giffith,(Sarah),"Tart",'01, played an excellent role of a very complicated gal with all kinds of mixed emotions about her life and her past relationships with men. However, Sarah is very much sexually involved constantly with Hugh Dancy,(Jack),"Shooting Days,",'05 who is very young looking and is a mixture of gigolo and con artist. There is wild graphics and great wild sounding music in the background along with a car chase all around Paris, France; which had me thinking about Princes Diana and her car crash for some unknown reason. Rachael Leigh Cook,(Jenny Travile),"My First Wedding",'04, plays a very young inexperienced American gal who left her family and got a job in Paris and happens to run into Jack; who manages to take her "CHERRY" away from her and she goes ballistic in Love with him and can't wait to get his clothes off whenever they meet. Melanie Griffith gave a great performance, however, her addictions have taken a great toll on her beautiful face, she is showing plenty of Crows Feet around the eyes and a burned out look.

In France, Sarah (Melanie Griffith) is a courier of illegal pieces of arts and antiques, living in a borrowed apartment with Jack (Hugh Dancy), a man younger and younger than she. While Sarah is traveling to Munich to bring a rare coin to the criminal Walter Shrenger (Malcolm McDowell), Jack meets Jenny Travile (Rachel Leigh Cook), a silly and irresponsible American girl, who works a fancy jewelery, and they have an affair. Jenny falls in love for him, and exposes the code and the secrets of the store to Jack. Meanwhile, Sarah is stolen in the train in her travel back to Paris, and has to raise US$ 80,000.00 in two days to pay for the lost. She convinces Jack to rob the jewelery with her to raise the money. However, things do not happen how planned.

The premise of "Tempo"is not bad, and it could be a good thriller. However, there are many flaws in the screenplay. The character of Sarah is not well developed, and the viewer does not know why she has this type of life, their motives for such a dangerous work, and it is impossible to sympathize with her. Further, the face of Mellanie Griffith is completely destroyed after plastic surgeries, and affects her expressions. There is one site (awfulplasticsurgery.com) relative to awful plastic surgeries in famous people, and unfortunately the surgeries of Mellanie Griffith are mentioned there, showing her lovely and gorgeous face before the plastic surgery, and how she is now. I do not understand how a woman so beautiful like she was can be so deformed! With regard to Jenny, how such a stupid woman can work in a fancy place, being responsible for expensive jewels? How the store does not have cameras for surveillance? How can a woman work in such fancy jewelery wearing jeans, instead of elegant costumes? Rachel Leigh Cook is also horrible in this movie, with long curled hair and ugly clothes. The costume designers were very negligent with the character of Jenny. Last but not the least, the sexual attraction of two women for Jack is a key point in this story. However, the sex scenes are not erotic, and could be better and better. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Tempo – Um Questão de Sobrevivência" ("Time – A Question of Surviving")

I used to love Melanie Griffith. She was so sexy and lovable in "Fear City", "Body Double", and "Something Wild", yes even in the rotten "Cherry 2000" I still loved her. In Tempo I lost my love, to the knife! Tempo shows the waste of money that is plastic surgery all over Melanie's face. A horrible waste of money and the ruin of a beautiful talent. Disgusting!

So is this movie. All that eurotrash money can buy is a deeply flawed script with mediocre performances by many involved. Rachel Lee Cook is as good as she could be given the circumstance of her character. She plays an American student on sabbatical in Paris who, although she does not speak French, is hired by and then immediately given the keys and codes to a jewelry store to satisfy the plot! When the store is robbed the Parisian police open fire on the thieves during a car chase inside the city. Besides the fact that they have not established the car contains thieves or criminals I doubt any modern Western police force would use guns in the situation exposed. The rest on the script is filled with many other unbelievable occurrences, all while expecting the viewer to take it seriously! Looks big budget but never opened theatrically in the US. The DVD release was announced for Summer 2003 but has now been delayed indefinitely, lucky for you! I wonder if Ms. Griffith's surgeons are bidding to keep it off the market? It certainly does not show their work in the best light.

As an alternative I would suggest a fun and light film that knows what it is- all fun! "The Guru" is now on DVD in case you missed it in the theaters!

This film, directed by Eric Styles, has the distinction that it has reversed the emphasis from a woman, to a man, for being the object of sexual desire. Otherwise, it doesn't make much sense. The best redeeming factor is some of the great views of Paris.

Sarah, as played by Melanie Griffith, is annoying. That little girl voice in a grown up woman is a turn off. This is a mature woman that has taken up with a much younger, and attractive young man who is seen naked, and or, in different stages of it, in the film. Sarah makes a grave mistake in taking the train back to Paris and holding the precious coin in her hand while she falls asleep! Hellooo! She could have hidden in some other part of her body!

Jack, the young man about town, is attracted to the newly arrived American ingenue, Jenny. They immediately fall in love and are seen having sex without any protection. Sorry, but has anyone heard of AIDS? Jenny is made to look terribly provincial with that horrible permanent and her even uglier pigtails.

The film doesn't go anywhere, as we figured what was going to be the outcome early on. The direction doesn't help matters at all. Other than a vacation in Paris, what is Malcom McDowell doing in this movie? He only appears in one scene and is seen in another! This film could have been cast with lesser known actors and probably would have been better than what one sees on the screen.

Better luck to Mr. Styles next time out.

I'm quite sure that many movie watchers have seen this type of plot before, but it is always intriguing to see how the actors and actresses bring it into being. The structure is lacking, which we can heap on to the writer. The interesting thing, however, is the irony that becomes apparent within the character development.

There is a girl portrayed by the lovely Rachael Leigh Cook, who looks at herself as the portrait of American apathy and rebellion. She admits to having commited a crime while in school, and also finds herself insanely attracted to the real badass, the car booster. She is the perfect picture of what Ben Folds sings about in "Whatever and ever, Amen." The only problem is that she really isn't prepared for what bumming around with a badass brings.

Through the plot, we are allowed to watch her mature, or at least we are left with a hope that she does. Her penchant for ditching responsibility lands her in France, but then she begins to take on more and more responsibilities as time goes on. She offers to house the guy, she remembers that she forgot to lock up the shop and returns to do so, and in the end, gets rather shaken up for having been attracted to the dark side of things.

The acting is good. The actors make the pain that they suffer seem very real. Frustration, fear, anger, jealousy, and passion are all imparted to the audience. The movie didn't get boring.

The direction of the movie is rather bland, however. The shots were not spectacular, and the lighting was not memorable. There were no interesting angles, and sometimes it seemed that everyone was a little out of place.

So, in the end, this movie is more of a character study of the youth of America; how the youth like to think that they're bad, even though they probably can't handle things that are really evil.