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Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786303422138 Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC ISBN: 6303422136 Label: New Line Home Video Manufacturer: New Line Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: New Line Home Video Release Date: March 26, 1996 Running Time: 126 minutes Sales Rank: 20353 Studio: New Line Home Video Theatrical Release Date: November 23, 1994
Amazon.com: The press kit's historical notes should be standard issue for anyone who sees Alan Rudolph's (The Moderns, Choose Me) look at the famous intellectuals who dotted New York's finest hour in the 1920s. If you only know the names of Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, et al. in passing, this movie will hardly generate more study. These writers and thinkers, most famous for having lunch daily at the Algonquin Hotel, seem as weightless and thin as the fictional ones in The Moderns. Most luminous is Mrs. Parker (Jennifer Jason Leigh), whose passion for unhappiness is rarely interrupted. Leigh, in a performance that viewers seem to love or loathe, swirls "witty" dialogue with pure force and must be praised for keeping your interest in a life that was so dreary. The chief problem is not the performances (Campbell Scott is quite fun in a change-of-pace role); it's that the movie comes off as a taped show on stage: the characters are not real and it's all dress-up. Rudolph illustrates his main character's writing (done far too seldom in writers' bios) by having Leigh speak Parker's poetry directly into the camera. --Doug Thomas
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Terrible Acting
In the past few months I have read several biography's on the interesting men and women that made up the Vicious Circle of the round table. I was excited to find a movie that would paint a picture of that era. The movie did take you back to the time and place but I was disappointed with the acting and the story line was just plain weak. I hated the way Dorothy Parker's character came across. Did she really speak the way Ms.Leigh portrayed her? From all I read, she was a tough no nonsense broad and I had a hard time believing any of the characters in this movie. Disappointed, to say the least but ... Read More
Rating: - IT'S ONLY ME., BUT:
GOOD MOVIE SHOWING A WOMEN BEFORE HER TIME. A WOMEN TRYING TO MAKE IT IN THE FILM INDUSTRY AGAINST ALL THE MEN. HAD TO BE TWICE AS GOOD AND WORK TWICE AS HARD. A TIME PEICE. YOUNGE QWENETH PAL JM
Rating: - Hard core fans only
I liked this movie. But only people who really love Mrs. Parker should see it
Also, English teachers should not show this in class due to SOME naked people running around.
Rating: - You won't be disappointed
Critics moaned when Jennifer Jason Leigh was tapped to portray Dorothy Parker, the Grand Lady of Barbed Words whose light shone brightest in the colorful 1920s. And, predictably, many critics trashed Leigh's performance. But, while Leigh made her name making sexy comedies and sexy thrillers, she actually does an excellent job here as the witty wordsmith in "Mrs. Parker & the Vicious Circle." OK, so she played a sexy wordsmith, getting naked with fellow writer Charles MacArthur (Matthew Broderick) for an eye-candy romp. But the sex and nudity, for all its visual appeal, could have hit the cutting ... Read More
Rating: - Subtitles?
Does someone know if this DVD has English subtitles or at least closed captioning? Thanks!
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