Review of The Girl on the Bridge (1999) by Jerome W — 27 Mar 2005

Going to my aunt's for Easter dinner today, I got stuck watching most of "Head Of State", the Chris Rock comedy where he runs for President. That reminded me why I avoid most "urban" comedies like the plague.

This thing was demeaning and trashy in a way that makes "Song Of The South" and "Amos & Andy" look like the collected works of James Baldwin. According to movies like this, every black person in America listens to nothing but hip-hop, does the Electric Slide and dresses in tracksuits. In a scene where black people take over Rock's campaign headquarters, they take down pictures of George Washington and Ronald Reagan and put up pictures of...no, not Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, pictures of Mary J. Blige and Allen Iverson. That's it. Our heroes are soul singers and basketball players, not statesmen, scientists or any other black person who's trying to create a better world. Movies like this make you think the rest of us don't give a shit about improving ourselves. It's not just unfunny, it's disgusting.

Then again this movie's contempt for people went farther than just blacks. Stephanie March is a beautiful blonde actress who played the part of a prosecuting attorney on "Law And Order: SVU" for several years. What does "Head Of State" cast her as? A high-class hooker.

Fortunately the other movies I've seen lately have been a lot better, all on the Sundance Channel by happenstance. "The Girl On The Bridge" and "Madame Bovary" had great performances from Daniel Auteuil and Isabelle Huppert respectively, but the real kicker was "Rick". This was an updated version of the story of the opera "Rigoletto", a nice change from watching "Hamlet" or "Carmen" get modernized again. It had an air of nightmarish dread worthy of "The Twilight Zone" and Bill Pullman was great in the lead role.

This week I don't know if I'll get back to renting DVDs or not. And then there's "Sin City"...:D.