Cast: Christina Ricci, Johnny Depp, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Oleg Yankovsky, Harry Dean Stanton, Claudia Lander-Duke
Director: Sally Potter
Producer: Christopher Sheppard
Screenplay: Sally Potter
Cinematography: Sacha Vierny
Music: Osvaldo Golijov
U.S. Distributor: Universal Pictures
In English, Russian, and Yiddish with subtitles
Apparently, director Sally Potter did not see Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, the first movie to co-star Christina Ricci and Johnny Depp. Although both are charismatic, capable actors, there was no evidence of chemistry between them. In The Man Who Cried, these two once again play lovers, and, in a case of recent cinematic history repeating itself, they generate no heat and little interest. Fortunately, there's more going on in this film than a love story, otherwise it would represent a sterile and uninvolving 100 minutes.
As in her previous films, Orlando and The Tango Lesson, Potter elects to tell the story more through images than by using traditional narrative means. As such, dialogue takes a back seat to long, lingering shots of Christina Ricci's elfin features and Johnny Depp's brooding countenance. A little over-the-top bombast is provided by Cate Blanchett and John Turturro, although neither of them has many speaking lines, either. The approach is successful in that it continuously gives the audience something interesting to look at, but it also fails to forge an emotional link between the viewer and the characters. Whether intentional or not, Potter's style becomes distancing, draining her film of energy. Only the final, cathartic scene has any real impact.
Much of the story is told in flashback, with more color leeched from the images the further in the past they occur (so that the earliest scenes, transpiring in 1927, are nearly sepia-and-white, while the more recent ones have only slightly muted hues). Fegele (Claudia Lander-Duke) is a young girl growing up in Russia under the care of her father (Oleg Yankovsky) and grandmother (Hana Maria Pravda). One day, fearing a bleak future in the Soviet Union, Fegele's father leaves for the promise of wealth and opportunity in America, intending to bring his daughter over later. However, after he has left, a band of raiders attacks Fegele's settlement, and she is bundled off in the middle of the night by her grandmother. She ends up living in a foster home in England.
More than a decade later, Fegele, who has been re-named Suzie (Christina Ricci), leaves England to become a dancer in Paris, with the goal of making enough money so she can go to America to locate her father. She keeps her identity as a Jew a carefully-guarded secret - only her roommate, Lola (Cate Blanchett), her roommate's famous opera-singing lover, Dante Dominio (John Turturro), and her landlady know the truth. She becomes involved with a handsome gypsy, Cesar (Johnny Depp), and gradually abandons her plans for finding her father in favor of staying with him. But the winds of war are blowing, and, as the Nazis approach Paris, Suzie discovers that the truth of her ancestry places her in jeopardy.
Although clearly made on a low budget (when a scene calls for a large group of people or a special effect, Potter shows the characters' reactions, not the actual event), The Man Who Cried looks good. The camerawork is crisp and all of the actors are photogenic. Depp, in full "strong, silent type" mode, cuts a dashing figure. Ricci, who has shed her baby fat and developed refined features, is luminous, looking much like a '40s starlet. And neither Blanchett nor Turturro is hard on the eyes. It is also worth noting that Claudia Lander-Duke, the girl elected to play Suzie/Fegele as a child, bears an uncanny resemblance to Ricci as she looked at that age. As a collage of images piecing together a story, The Man Who Cried works. Unfortunately, there's no warmth between the characters. In addition, there's no evidence of chemistry in any of the relationships. Suzie and Lola are supposed to be best friends, but they don't seem to do more than tolerate each other. The passion between Suzie and Cesar is tepid at best.
Those looking to The Man Who Cried to provide a sweeping romance will be disappointed. On the other hand, the movie is effective in depicting the odyssey forced upon one woman as a result of her heritage and birthright. Her creed ends up being, "It is better to run and live than to stay and die." For this reason, the film takes her from Russia to England to France to America, always seemingly only a step ahead of those who wish her ill. There's nothing groundbreaking about telling the tale of such a journey along a road paved by persecution, but, despite the familiarity of some of the elements, the movie never threatens to become boring. In the process, we get to know a little about Suzie's character, but not as much as we might like to. She becomes "half real"; a more accomplished film would have fleshed her out completely. The Man Who Cried is a mixed bag - reasonably well-made and of some interest, but not the kind of movie to truly engage the viewer.
© 2001 James Berardinelli