Simone Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)August 21st, 2002
S1MoNE
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When art film director Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) loses his demanding star Nicola Anders (Winona Ryder, "Mr. Deeds"), his ex-wife Elaine (Catherine Keener, "Lovely & Amazing"), who also happens to be head of the studio, is finally forced to fire him. On his way out the door, he's accosted by a crazed one-eyed man, Hank (Elias Koteas, "Novocaine"), who insists he has the solution to Viktor's problems ('You have something that I don't have - an eye'). Weeks later, Viktor receives Hank's inheritance - a hard drive containing "Simone."
Writer/director Andrew Niccol takes the God complex and artificiality ideas of his screenplay for "The Truman Show," a sprinkling of his genetic engineering elements from "Gattaca" and adds an examination of artistic motivation for his clever new comedy "Simone." Al Pacino chalks up his second terrific performance of the year as an outdated auteur scrambling for his place in movie history.
The film opens with the somber strains of "Requiem - In Paradisum" over a seawall vertically cutting into the horizon, the last shot of
Taransky's
stalled magnum opus, "Sunrise, Sunset." Cut to a studio lot where
a wild-eyed Taransky is furiously removing the cherry flavored candies out of a bowl of Mike & Ikes. An imperious Nicola Anders (Winona Ryder, "Mr. Deeds") arrives, complains about the height of her trailer, and informs Viktor she's out of his film, having already issued a 'creative differences' blurb to the press.
Elaine swoops down in a golf cart to convince Viktor to compromise with the actress, and meeting resistance, fires him. Daughter Laine (Evan Rachel Wood, "Practical Magic"), pecking away at her laptop outside a soundstage, commiserates, upset that her mom and dad will be even further apart now. But Viktor meets Hank's computer-generated Simulation One and learns to manipulate it, lowering the Streep level, upping the Bacall (leaving the Borgnine), and completes his film with Anders' credit replaced with Simone (supermodel Rachel
Roberts). "Sunrise, Sunset" and its 'star' become a huge hit and the director's career is assured if he can keep the press and the public from uncovering his secret.
Jan Roelfs's ("Gattaca") production design keeps Viktor defined within his landscape by horizontal lines (the break between his backyard beach and the sea, billboards, crowd control barriers, limos) except when he's placed in the narrow alleys between the studio soundstages. There, he's either dwarfed in a cavernous hell, or, when addressing the press from a pulpit-like podium, he's God-like, shot by cinematographer Edward Lachman ("Erin Brockovich") with soundstage walls rising vertically, pointing towards heaven. Niccol the filmmaker merges his collaborators' symbolic images with his words, insinuating, for example, that in Hollywood, only God speaks to the press, with Vicktor's earlier horrified reaction at Anders' having done so when she had the upper hand.
The writer/director plays with the concept of artistic vision, literally showing eyes in all manner of amusing ways (a giant poster of an eye rolls by behind Hank, Simone is erased from the computer screen with her right eye the last image to disappear). He has ironic fun with Taransky trying to finish off Simone with her 'directorial' debut, "I Am a Pig," which is a ridiculous 'art' film not too far from his own (the public love it). Reality and artifice are juxtaposed as human characters wonder about their worth while Elaine becomes jealous of a nonexistent person. Visually, the Hollywood setting is obvious for this purpose, but it's still explored with
wit, such as when press cars are driven up to their owners standing in front of a painted backdrop, or when a holographic Simone sings Aretha's "A Natural Woman" to a concert crowd.
Al Pacino comically comes apart both creatively and emotionally. He's a dervish of delight or despair and a dashing ladies' man. Keener ironically softens her image as a studio head, combining self assurance with an almost wide-eyed enthusiasm for pursuing her goals. Young Evan Rachel Wood is very good as the balance between the two. Winona Ryder redeems her misjudged performance in "Mr. Deeds" with her small role here, vacillating between bitch goddess and humbled talent. Simone is coyly credited as herself. Also notable in the large cast are the tabloid press team of Pruitt Taylor Vince ("Heavy") and Jason Schwartzman ("CQ"), determined to find Simone. Taylor Vince's Max is obsessed with the beauty, rolling about in the bed and hugging the toilet bowl of a hotel room Taransky's tricked out as having been occupied by Simone. Schwartzman takes a surreal goofy route as Max's assistant Milton.
"Simone's" problems are few, but keep the film from being truly great. Niccol makes Taransky's film's look silly, like a parody of Antonioni crossed with Bergman, so it is implausible that the beautiful blonde would become such a worldwide sensation. Taransky's dependence on his ever present Jack Daniels is unevenly handled. The final
act begins predictably and ends unsatisfactorily, with the hero trading dominance by a computer program for control by the two real women in his life.
"Simone" is stuffed with ideas, a wickedly comical look at Hollywood.
B+
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