|
 Are
you ready for Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo? Don't panic: Frida's famous
mustache has been dispensed with, though the unibrow remains. For
years, Jennifer Lopez and Madonna were also pushing their own Kahlo
projects, so I suppose we should be grateful that Hayek won out,
although a Madonna version might well have been deliciously bad.
The Frida we have, directed by Julie Taymor, is neither terrible
nor excellent; Hayek, who also co-produced, may have obsessed for
years about this project, but the result is a fairly standard this-happened-and-that-happened
biopic about the Mexican artist, spiced by occasional moments in
which Kahlo's paintings are made to morph into live action. Taymor,
who made her movie-directing debut with the startling Titus,
takes a disappointingly conventional approach to character, and
except for the luscious palette she employs, her visual approach
is pretty flat, too. Hayek is a bundle of energy, but her torridness
has few emotional levels. Alfred Molina plays Kahlo's husband, the
great muralist Diego Rivera, and Geoffrey Rush, looking like a revolutionary
billy goat, plays Trotsky. They could have worked a bit more on
their accents. Actually, Hayek's accent, which is authentic, sounds
phony, too. She was probably just being hospitable to her co-stars.
(2 hrs. 2 mins.; R) — PETER RAINER
Opens October 25
• Showtimes
& tickets (movietickets.com)
|
