Prince of Central Park

One of two movies that Steven Seagal produced with Julius R. Nasso that he didn't actually star in and is more of a curiosity than anything. It actually has a decent supporting cast that includes Harvey Keitel, Danny Aiello, Kathleen Turner, and Cathy Moriarty, however the material they were given to work with was hackneyed at best. The "star" of the film is one Frankie Nasso. I'll give you one guess as to how he got the job... Other than being miscast, he just didn't have a great screen presence. Beyond that, there were occasional glimpses of something compelling beneath the surface, with major plot themes involving the foster care system and homelessness. But again, they weren't dealt with adequately. This was a remake of an obscure 1970's TV movie, and this felt very much like something that should also have gone straight to TV (or video). Still, it wasn't all bad. There was some decent music on the soundtrack, and the supporting cast did a lot to make this hokum go down a little easier than it might have without them.

I like the semi-eccentric guardian. He is like the father JJ never had. I like JJ's relationship with Sophie, it's was pure; full of love and care for each other, what every romance should be. I like the scene where he knocked the abusive woman unconscious and then placed an iguana there, that really was a good idea. I like the fact Rebecca let go of her son, and learned to love JJ as his own person, not a body to fill a void. I especially like the fact Noah loved "Reb" so fully, that he saw it enough reason to love JJ as his own. It is a beautiful and timeless story of love, if you can get past the human tendency to be critical of anything dispensed to a mass of people. Though I may not be the most eloquent or know much of film directing, I do know movies are made mainly for entertainment, enlightenment, or tradition. I believe a film only needs to leave a person a little more fulfilled than when they first saw in order to be worthy of viewing, and I am more fulfilled every time I watch it.

The only reason I even stumbled across this film is because one of its young stars, Carmen Moreno who plays Sofia, was one of my students this past year. I know the film had a theatrical showing in New York, but it does not appear that it was ever picked up for national theatrical distribution. After finally seeing the film, this is not surprising; it's a film that cannot quite make up its mind what it wants to be JJ (Frankie Nasso) lives with an abusive foster mother Mrs. Ardis (Cathy Moriarty) in present day Staten Island, NY. He dreams of finding the mother who left him, and one day he leaves Staten Island for Manhattan with hopes of finding her. In a parallel story we meet Rebecca (Kathleen Turner) and Noah (Danny Aiello) as a well-to-do Manhattan couple whose marriage is inexplicably crumbling. In JJ's journey to find his mother he also encounters The Guardian (Harvey Keitel) an eccentric New York "character" who lives under a bridge in Central Park. Along the way we also discover that JJ is a musical prodigy who can play any melody he hears, well, not only play it, but turn it into a full blown musical piece. Once JJ and Rebecca meet (she has a grand piano that nobody has played for a long time) the film heads toward its inevitable conclusion. The producers claim that "Prince of Central Park" is a modern day retelling of Huck Finn. Okay . . . There are also borrowed plot elements from such diverse sources as "Oliver Twist" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". The problem is these exemplary literary sources don't really mix very well. Consequently, the film has a patchwork feel, the sum of the parts don't really equal an engaging whole. Still, there are pleasures to be had here. Frankie Nasso gives an engaging performance as JJ. There is an inherent sweetness to his performance which goes a long way toward helping the audience get by some of the gaping holes in the plot. We come to care about this character despite some of the situations that the filmmakers throw him into. Screen stalwarts Turner, Aiello, and Moriarty give fine performances even if the script does not always support their best efforts. Harvey Keitel (admittedly not one of my favorite actors) has a harder time with a character that strains credulity to its limits. Also of note are the performances of Carmen Moreno as Sofia and Tina Holmes as JJ's mother. Both are quite affecting. The film has a nice score as well.

I don't see why all of you are saying this movie was horrible, I thought it was very good. It was a good movie to teach you what happens when you're homeless, and you have to live in a park or just on the streets. All that I have to say is that it was a great movie!!

Remakes are bad news. There have been many examples of this in the past decade. From movies like Bedazzled and Sabrina to TV-to-movie repurposings like Beverly Hillbillies and McHale's Navy, the field is littered with failures. One can only hope no director will ever have enough gall to remake Casablanca or Citizen Kane.

I saw this movie only because an online TV listing misidentified this as the 1977 movie that I enjoyed so many years ago. That movie had a youthful joy and sense of innocence that was refreshing in the crime-ridden NYC of the '70s. Alas, apart from the boy's name and the fact that he ran off to Central Park, nothing else was even remotely similar. This JJ is not likeable at all. He's irresponsible and selfish and backed by a host of characters that I care little about, least of all the absurd Guardian, something of a second-rate Fisher King.

It would have been nice to celebrate Central Park's sesquicentennial this year with a DVD of the first movie. For now, I'll have to continue searching and waiting for it to air.