This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Look Before You Leap
Plot Overview
An old story has been recounted by author John Fowles:Mal is an Old English borrowing from Old Norwegian and was brought to us by the Vikings. It originally meant “speech,” but since the only time the Vikings went in for that womanish activity was to demand something at axeblade, it came to mean “tax” or “payment in tribute.” One branch of the Vikings went south and founded the mafia in Sicily; but another—and by this time mal was spelled mail—were busy starting their own protection rackets on the Scottish border. If one cherished one's crops or one's daughter's virginity one paid mail to the neighborhood chieftains; and the victims, in the due course of an expensive time, called it black mail. (211)
Vito “The Butcher”
Graziosi (Burt Young) emigrated from Sicily to found a crime family
in New York. His son Johnny Graziosi (John Ventimiglia) just finished
six years in Sing Sing for loansharking. Vinnie “The
Shrimp” D'Agostino (Joe Viterelli) did twenty years for double
murder. Frank Vitale (James Caan) did eight. Frank's son Ritchie (Paul
Lazar) has an IQ of 174 and is an idiot. Frank's daughter Gina (Jeanne
Tripplehorn) is a princess. Though she'd been taught kick-boxing
and how to handle a weapon, she's been kept from the rough stuff.
She and art-house auctioneer
Michael Felgate (Hugh Grant) have fallen in love after going together
three months. When word of his imminent marriage proposal reaches Gina's
father, Frank being a man of first impressions magnanimously welcomes
him (and his business) into the family. Gina has serious misgivings but
they agree to be wise as serpents, harmless as doves to avoid the family's
corruption. It's a slippery slope best not started down.
Ideology
A chinese restaurant date has one of the
patrons receiving a fortune cookie reading: Good fences make good neighbors. Yes, they do.
Mrs. Horton (Beatrice Winde,) Michael's colored neighbor in 6D, goes
about to deliver a cake to Michael in 6B through his door left ajar. The
body on the floor may prove problematic. She doesn't want any involvement
with these shady honkies. By way of analogy I cite, (2Cor. 6:15) “what part has he that
believeth with an infidel?” Nothing to do with the lady in 6D.
In the Bible the application
is expanded to not mixing unbelievers into church ministry, (2Cor. 6:14) “Be ye not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers.” In the movie the theme is
expanded to Gina teaching at an integrated school that did “pretty
good” for having only two shootings the previous week. In Sonia
Maasik & Jack Solomon, Signs of Life in the USA, Stuart Buck
“explains how the well-intentioned policies of desegregation
eventually led to … a reversal of intention” (Maasik
637),
because desegregation undermined one of the traditional centers of the black community: the school. In the segregated schools, black children had consistently seen other blacks succeeding in the academic worlds. The authority figures and role models—that is, the teachers and principals—were virtually always black. And the best students in black schools were black as well. ¶This ended with desegregation. (Maasik 639)
As John McWhorter points out, the “demise of segregation” helped “pave the way for the ‘acting white’ charge. With the closing of the black schools after desegregation orders, black students began going to school with white ones in larger numbers than ever before, which meant that whites were available for black students to model themselves against” (McWhorter 64–65).
In integrated schools if a black kid
started getting good grades, his peers would accuse him of “acting
white.” With such a disincentive to achieve, that kid would
go back home on the bus undereducated. After school we see Gina
in a pseudo adult interaction with white students, but with the
blacks they just show off their moves in the parking lot.
We are shown a
workable instance of de facto segregation. The mob uses its own kitchen
staff from their restaurant for food prep at the wedding. The black member
spends half his time looking around. He has dreads & an earring.
The drug test and background check meant nothing to hoods employing
hoods. But the FBI fake kitchen crew in the next room were all
white. One has to be squeaky clean to be hired by them. Nothing further is
made of the race issue, this being a comical offering, not political.
At one point the flow is interrupted by “Jehovah's bloody Witnesses” (“They must be very devoted.”) The JW's strictly forbid their members from marrying non-Christians or forming business partnerships with them. They base that on the “be not unequally yoked” passage ignoring the case of the second person pronoun, which is plural in the Greek and in the reliable KJV (“ye”), but undistinguished either singular or plural, you (or you-understood), in others. It's a command applying to groups, specifically corporate worship. I've expanded it to public schools here but not to individual mrriages. Furthermore, Paul said he's defrauded nobody (2Cor. 7:2), which some fathers back then would undoubtedly take issue with had he put the kibosh on favorable ($) wedding arrangements in the works.
Conventional wisdom has it that if a body is already married to a non-Christian when the former converts, she is allowed to stay with him and try to save him. He's a nice guy to begin with, otherwise she wouldn't have married him. But a Christian girl should not select a non-Christian for a mate, because he's an ogre. I can't help but think we're not comparing apples with apples here. We can do better.
In answer to the
Corinthians' questions regarding the
mixed marriages they were entering into during his preaching, the
apostle Paul writes of same as an occasion for Christian influence
on the unbelieving spouse, (1Cor. 7:16)
“For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy
husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy
wife?” Paul was not doing any matchmaking, but let us try
ourselves for an apple-to-apple comparison. A man has two daughters,
say, and being just and fair he lines up matches of equal integrity
for them both. Daughter A is to get married in June and daughter B
June the following year. This is during the two year stint when Paul
is preaching nearby. Before B is wed, though, the sisters attend a
meeting and become Christians. A is obligated to try to convert her
spouse, and B wanting to follow suit determines to go ahead and marry
her guy, too, and try to convert him as well. He isn't any worse to
start off with than her sister's husband was for her. They are like
two peas in a pod, one sister following in the other's footsteps.
The apostle's authority was already
expressed in: (1Cor. 3:21-22)
“For all things are yours; Whether … the world, or …
things present, or things to come; all are your's.” Sister A's
husband of the world is hers to keep (“things present”)
and so is sister B's husband “to come,” as long as they
are willing as we suppose they are. By apostolic decree, then, a Christian
is allowed to enter a mixed marriage if that's what they want.
Likewise, in this high living movie the sky is the limit.
Christianity has now permeated our culture since Paul's day and most
Christians naturally want to marry each other, but we do find the
occasional exception (“I've waited all my life to find someone I love as much as I love
you. And I'm just not going to let this or anyone come between us.”)
Frank is at a loss for words to describe
his “idiot” son. The word I would choose is
throwback. He hangs between two persons like a monkey.
He forms a threesome sandwich with a couple others. He does
monkeyshines on stage. Gina his sister has a talking gorilla
teddy bear (“I have an opposable thumb.”) It is compared
to us (“Humans and gorillas are primates.”) Compared favorably
(“Other primates fear the gorilla.”) And of course Michael
has a second identity as Mickey Blue Eyes. These two-by-twos reflect
on the rightly divided word of God.
Jehovah's Witnesses are very strict about
not letting their members be business associates of non-JW's. Regular Bible believers
are more lax. In 1st Corinthians Paul tells us that we can compromise
with the heathen in the workplace—Criswell Study Bible preface to First Corinthians:
“Some Christians needed to know whether or not they should attend
the meetings of their trade guild, meetings held in the idol temples
and involving meat offered to the idols (1Cor. 8:1-13)”—as
long as we work it out in faith and do not stumble someone. Michael
has it worked out that a painting has only the value someone is willing
to pay for it, so his conscience is clear auctioning phoney-baloney
paintings to clear mob debts. When however a half blind spinster (Helen
Lloyd Breed) who's come into some money starts bidding on one as
if it were “an investment,” Michael must take a different
tack to protect her.
Production Values
“” (1999) was directed by Kelly Makin and Carl Gottlieb. It was written by Adam Scheinman and Robert Kuhn. It stars Hugh Grant, Jeanne Tripplehorn, James Caan, Joe Viterelli, and Burt Young. The cast is great, following the lead of an indefatigable Grant. “Goon” actor Joe Viterelli had his moment, too.
MPA rated it PG–13 for brief strong language, some violence and sensuality. The humor was consistent miscues and normalized stereotypes, but the writers didn't stint on mixing in other memes as well. Actually, once we get started laughing everything is funny. Moreso on a second viewing. Runtime is a mad 1¾ hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
There's an elaborate church wedding timed
with an FBI bust, which must be coordinated with
an Italian order of service—a nail-biter, that. But don't worry;
the priest is packing and Jesus has a machine gun. Don't expect a
lot of reverence, just plenty of laughs.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Well done action flick. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Five stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software, print.
The Criswell Study Bible. Authorized King James Version. Nashville | Camden: Thomas Nelson Pub., 1979. Print.
Fowles, John. The French Lieutenant's Woman. Copyright © 1969 by John Fowles. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Print.
Maasik, Sonia and Jack Solomon. Signs of Life in the U.S.A.. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. Print.
McWhorter, John. Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America. (New York: Gotham, 2006), As quoted in Maasik.
bibles.n7nz.org