(1995)
2.5
Bruce Eder
Making a theatrical film out of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's The Fantasticks, the longest running play (and musical) in American history, seems like an improbable project. Devised for an off-Broadway production with a small cast, on a very small stage, The Fantasticks defies the conventions of cinema. The play, for 40 years a favorite of student and semi-professional companies, is something of a relic of the pre-1960s era that spawned it -- a teenaged girl and boy living in neighboring farm houses in some indeterminate time in the past are attracted to each other with help from their fathers who, in a triumph of reverse psychology, pretend to feud with each other in order to encourage the pair. Now it is time to end the feud, but how? Stage a kidnapping with help from a carnival entertainer and let the boy rescue the girl, thus providing a basis for the end of the feud. All goes well and their love is declared, and the second act deals with the couple's disillusionment and unhappiness with each other -- about losing innocence and falling out of love, and discovering a deeper, more enduring and mature form of love in the process.
Director Michael Ritchie has accomplished a nimble conjuring trick, helped by a delightful cast. He has elicited performances from Jean Louisa Kelly and Joe McIntyre (formerly a member of New Kids on the Block) of extraordinary charm and vibrancy, while Joel Gray and Brad Sullivan, as the fathers, make a delightful comic double act as charming curmudgeons with their children's best interests at heart. And Jonathon Morris as El Gallo -- a role that Jerry Orbach originated -- is the sparkplug of the piece, a wry-witted rogue who combines Errol Flynn-style bravado with charming, earthy seediness, and dominates every shot in which he appears. Music director Jonathan Tunick has expanded the score (including the hits "Try to Remember" and "Soon It's Gonna Rain") to fit the needs of the big screen and the expansive setting of Arizona's San Rafael Valley without losing sight of the simplicity of the original work.
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The Fantasticks (1995)
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Title/Studio |
Release Date |
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The Fantasticks
MGM
More
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February 27, 2001 |
