The Celestine Prophecy falls into the
new wave of religious-inspired or likewise themed texts that have done well on
the nonfiction charts over the past eight to 10 years — stretching back, not
surprisingly, to just before the dawn of the new millennium. Author Redfield
co-wrote and helped produce this much-anticipated film version of his novel,
according to press notes, in order to “preserve his vision of a time when all
races and religions will work together in harmony.” I wonder what that means
for the royalty checks…
was initially self-published as a trade paperback in the fall of 1993, and sold
(and given away) chiefly through regional offerings in the South. Sensational
word-of-mouth prompted re-order after re-order, and Redfield and his wife Salle
had rung up more than 100,000 copies by the time Warner Books picked up the
reprint rights. Throughout the mid-’90s, the tome continued to captivate
readers, spending over three years on the New York Times bestsellers list; it has
since sold over 14 million copies in 45 languages. Like any sort of similar
grassroots phenomenon, its success speaks at least partially to our current
times as much as the content itself. The film, then — an earnest spiritual
adventure tale chronicling the discovery of ancient scrolls in the rainforests
of
merely a lightly treading, formulaic recapitulation and regurgitation of the
mirrored themes present in the book.
thematic ground with the small screen’s Touched
by an Angel), the film features Matthew Settle (Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Until the Night), Thomas Kretschmann (above; Adrien Brody’s foil in Roman
Polanski’s The Pianist), Jurgen
Prochnow (The Da Vinci Code), ’80s
holdover Annabeth Gish (The West Wing)
and Hector Elizondo. The plot is kickstarted when middle school history teacher
John (Settle) is laid off. Left in a pretty inwardly reflective place and with
nothing better to do, John takes up Charleen (Robyn Cohen) on her offer for
spiritual soul-searching trip to
ends up in the middle of a political power struggle involving a series of
ancient religious scrolls. The titular prophecy and its nine key insights predict
a worldwide awakening — arising within all religious traditions — that moves
humanity toward a deeper experience of spirituality. Naturally, some folks
don’t want this secret to get out.
Celestine Prophecy has been lauded with the Narrative Film Award from the
2006 Staten Island Film Festival and the Box Office Award from the 2006 Milan
Film Festival, as well as an Humanitarian Entertainment Award. As a spiritual
adventure film, though, it falls a little to the dewy right of the Left Behind series, which more credibly
mixes proselytizing and action. The proceedings are fairly staidly visually
captured, and some of the dialogue is leaden. Recognizable faces litter the
many supporting roles, but there are far too many leaps in logic for this streamlined
picture to work on its merits, without the enthusiastic belief of a watcher
driving its plot forward.
5.1 surround sound audio track. There’s no audio commentary track, alas, but the
DVD does contains a nice 25-minute behind-the-scenes featurette on the making
of the movie, in which cast members chat about the project and Redfield talks about turning down big Hollywood studio
offers (cough, cough… Dan Brown) in order to keep the movie’s message intact and
have a greater say in its creation. C- (Movie) B- (Disc)
2002’s Irreversible, which unfolded in reverse chronological order, and told the brutal story of a vengeful extraction of revenge in the wake of a rape and beating of the protagonist’s girlfriend (
Sheitan benefits from a middling video transfer — colors are rich and consistent colors and there is very little grain, but the third act in particular suffers from digital blocking and some minor artifact issues. The DVD comes with Dolby digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 French language audio tracks, plus the obligatory English subtitles. Apart from a trailer for the film other Tartan releases, the sole bonus feature contained herein is a discursive, 23-minute featurette. Billed as a “making of” documentary, this is true only in part, as Cassel sits for interview footage and we get a bit about the production crew, but footage from some of Kourtrajme’s short films is also folded into the proceedings in a less than smooth and graceful manner. Kudos to length, which trumps the bum’s rush a lot of foreign releases receive on the DVD format, but a bit more ironing out and mannered explication would have been nice. C (Movie) C+ (Disc)
The Good Shepherd,
The Painted Veil — filmmaker John Curran’s adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s classic novel, starring Naomi Watts and Edward Norton, who each also pull producer credits — is also an intriguing and engaging inverted tale of romance in reverse. It’s a film which locates deep and subtle truths about the manner in which infidelity and
Night at the Museum isn’t awful, no, but there’s little about it that feels lasting. Its narrative is pitched toward adolescent, who<br />
is somewhat cute but still an outcast since she’s more interested in sketching brooding<br />
fantasy characters in her notebooks than paying attention in math class. One<br />
day, riding her bike home from school, she’s kidnapped and taken to another<br />
state, where Anton (William Samples) and his wife Judith (<i style=)
Tank Girl’s Lori Petty) toss 
