Reviews

A program about a M>F transsexual hit woman has enough to explore right there. By the third episode the creators had tacked on enough byzantine subplots to sink a 70's disaster movie. Many of them aren't developed at all- think of the Levi/Eddie relationship and those packages, or why Liam enters the story (no: poignancy is not a qualification). Too many things happen, almost always badly, to too many people in this series. Sometimes it's best to step back, let characters develop and make their lives the focus of a drama, rather than inventing plot twists and adding new characters (NB: the FINAL EPISODE's carnival family).

I stuck with this show to the end and admired a lot about it, but I was cringing about the creator's need to complicate, entangle and embellish.

Samantha Morton is one of the most beautiful women on earth and a stunningly consistent, engrossing and vital actress. "Under the Skin", however, is a sad contradiction: wonderfully produced and shot, with fine performances from all involved (including the director and cinematographer), but all supporting a thin and obvious story which resolves so quickly as to be unsustainable.

I'm all but sure they shot two endings, and went for the 'safe' one late in production without making that ending's dynamics clear or believable.

About a third of the way into the film you begin to realize that you're watching a gloss on "Waiting for Mr. Goodbar" and start to fear for Iris' future. No worries there: in a snap everything that's been going on is reversed, Iris' future is secure and her psyche restored.

Again: real and substantial talent all around. Arguably worth the watch, even with its flaws.

So many weird and disastrous things about this movie-

• That Foster's character plays an artist who's work is so clearly modeled on Jenny Holzer's only to read in the credits that the art was actually created for the film... by Jenny Holzer.

• How many actresses get to do more than one film with lambs as major plot elements?

• That score: 12 Roland D-50's puffing away like a house on fire, and a single saxophone from hell. (Takes you back to the 80's, but not in a good way.)

• Worst editing and looping I've ever seen, -IN THE DIRECTOR'S CUT-!!!

• A helicopter on a hill! Deux-ex-machina a-go-go.

• Biggest allstar cast since "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World", to similar effect.

• Who would have guessed that Dennis Hopper had such a grating and unbelievable Jersey accent??

I couldn't finish this. Watching Coburn playing a Vermont millworker with his expensive pouffy hairdo and immaculate fresh-out-of-the-box work clothes was hard enough. He wasn't that great of an actor in the best of settings: this movie is too earnest and dullwitted to help him along. The scene where Virginia Masden dies was the breaking point: so badly handled I felt timewarped back to a 1980's made-for-TV special.

The film was mawkish and dumb from the git-go: a problem with a lot of 'independent' cinema that no one seems willing to face up to and tackle. If you liked this movie, check out "Lustre". You'll love it.

Just because a movie is set in Vermont and deals with moving issues doesn't make it any good. Sheesh.