The Simian Line (2000) Reviews

• Fun, romantic story about 4 couples in love

  Pobzot2001-04-11

  I saw this movie at the Hamptons International Film Festival. It was definitely my festival favorite. It was also a treat to see Harry Connick Jr., Samantha Mathis, the director, Linda Yellen, and the child star there. They gave a great interview. It was a lot of fun. The Simian Line tells the story of three couples who get together for a Halloween party. They bring in a psychic (played by a VERY funny Tyne Daly), who finds that there are ghosts in the house (William Hurt and Samantha Mathis). Hurt plays a Southern Gentleman and Mathis a whimsical 1920's flapper. When no one belives her, Daly angrily reveals that one of the couples will be forever broken up by New Years. From here, the audience watches the relationships mingle and shift shape while the couples try to remain together. One of the couples is Harry Connick Jr and Lynn Redgrave. They maintian a May/December romance. Redgrave plays her part with such power, I wouldn't be surprised to see an Oscar award next year. Cindy Crawford and Jamie Sheridan are another couple. Sheridan is the wall street exec. working endlessly on a merger, while Crawford is the patient wife trying to start a party planning business. Crawford is surprisingly good in this "glamour"-less role. The third couple are Monica Keena and Dylan Bruno who play two 20-somethings trying to make it as rock stars. (Keena belts out a great song entitled "Kiss My Ass.") All in all, I really liked this movie because it had several funny moments which got me laughing out loud, as well as some deeply moving emotional scenes. I would recommend this movie to anyone, but I would say it's an especially good "date movie".

• Essential viewing for Cindy Crawford fans, if no one else.

  Victor Field2001-11-17

  "The Simian Line" was filmed in 1999 and spent two years on the shelf before getting a limited American commercial release; here in Britain it bypassed cinemas completely and premiered, appropriately enough, on the Sky Premier cable channel (on the Tuesday of the week it opened in New York and Los Angeles, in fact). In all cases it's not hard to see why, and not just because like the opening credits of "The Sopranos," the presence of the World Trade Center here has a definite resonance in these post-September 11 days. Director/co-writer Linda Yellen shot the movie on a low budget and in very little time, and unfortunately it shows all the way through; technical blotches aside, the would-be whimsical and romantic story of four couples told by a psychic that one of them will be history at midnight on New Year's Eve intertwines its various storylines (all too insubstantial for their own good) far less effectively than your average episode of "The Love Boat," with scenes ending abruptly, some poor dialogue and situations, and no narrative flow to speak of. Throw in excessive use of pointless voiceovers and the inexplicable presence of a pair of ghosts (William Hurt and Samantha Mathis) and it should be a disaster... but it's just a mixed bag instead. The film has a number of good points; several scenes do hit home, although a bit less time devoted to Lynn Redgrave worrying about losing her devoted younger lover Harry Connick Jr and a bit more development of the other strands would have given the movie more balance. But it's biggest plus is its ensemble cast, most of whom play a big part in making this slight tale watchable. Only one of the team - apart from an irritatingly accented Hurt - lets the side down; it's not who you think it is, either. Instead it's Tyne Daly's embarrassing psychic, about whom the less said the better. This is, on the other hand, a good deal for Redgrave, for Connick, for Monica Keena, for Jamey Sheridan... and especially for Cindy Crawford, who although stuck in the least dramatic plotline does deliver a good, genuine performance as Sheridan's equally business-minded but not quite as relentlessly driven wife. This is to her what "Coming to America" and "The Nutty Professor" were to Eddie Murphy - the film may not be all that good, but the work is another matter entirely. (Note from one of Cindy's male fans to the rest of them: Watch for the bathing scene.) Time to give her a break for "Fair Game," methinks. As for Yellen, better luck next time.

• "Ghost" for Grownups

  allbell2001-11-17

  The New York papers hacked this poor film to bits this week. A friend dragged me in, and I expected it to be terrible. Wrong! This is a beautiful, funny, romantic film. "Ghost" for grown-ups who watched the WTC towers crumble to dust. WHO WOULD LIKE THIS: People on a date who are mature enough to like "Ghost"; adults in their 40s and up who want to see a film that's intelligent without being grim. Probably not for kids under 16 (unless they really like the Turner Movie Classics channel.) Has an R rating, but suitable for most people who aren't too sensitive, because most of the cussing takes place in one short scene. The only other R-type material is a few tasteful shots of couples in bed together. THE FILM: The main characters are three couples, two roommates, and a fortuneteller who talks to her dead husband who live in Weehawken, New Jersey. The film follows the struggle of the couples to stay together; the roommates to avoid coming together; and the fortune-teller to hold to her belief that she can talk to her dead husband. THE SCRIPT: The script is a little loose, but there is actually a plot, the characters all have real jobs (no professors, detectives, prostitutes or starship captains) and the dialogue is subtle. Moreover, all the main characters have excellent parts. The writers also got the Weehawken details right. THE CAST: The cast includes William Hurt, Tyne Daly, Lynn Redgrave, Harry Connick Jr., Eric Stoltz and Cindy Crawford. Cameos? No. They all have real parts, and they all do a great job. (Yes, even Cindy Crawford. ) THE REAL HEROES: Of course, a lot of the people who died lived in houses just like the ones in this film. The Simian Line is a sweet, peaceful film. But, without knowing what would happen to the WTC towers, the filmmakers made the first film released after the tragedy that cherishes the spirit of what was lost.

• Misguided, miscast, badly directed, television styled movie for the biggish screen

  secondtake2011-01-07

  The Simian Line (2000) There are attempts at stylizing, moments of humor, apparent insights into contemporary life in New York (and New Jersey), and a kind of cheap glamorizing of people who already very glamorous. There's a very starry cast (big names drop like snowflakes, and have has much resilience), but between a television kind of tawdry filmmaking, a stumbling overreaching plot, and just plain bad directorial decisions, it's pretty awful. In fact, the longer you watch it, the more you wonder at how so many people could have been involved in something that went so wrong. The director Linda Yellen is known for a line of increasingly awful television movies, poorly made and either sentimental or pushy. This is not officially made for t.v. but it has the same feel, with dissolves used for convenience rather than effect, with flat or bright lighting and still cameras, with actors who are determined to act normal, and normal is pretty dull when you take it literally. Some odd additions might not help--Harry Connick Jr., who is charming as a sit-com guest doesn't hold his own, and Cindy Crawford, who of course has mostly to look pretty, making you realize this is what most actresses do, and just as well. The music is sappy to boot. Which reminds you of all those movies who want to make you feel something by pulling all the right strings, but you end up resenting it because it's not the real deal. What's frustrating here most of all is a movie that wants to be deep, and which made such attempts to be deep, only forces you to react against it. If you do stick it out, you'll find a growing interlayering of lives, including a couple from the past (one of them a William Hurt with a horrendous southern accent) seen only by a mystic. And by the viewer. It's just not clever or interesting enough. Yes, the guys are buff, the women are charming, and life for regular very rich people who act very badly is the raw material for this really striving but impossibly flawed movie.

• A Surprisingly Good Film!

  gradyharp2006-07-11

  Coming across a movie on the shelf that boasts a cast of fine actors but has a title that seems to have appeared out of nowhere takes a bit of faith to rent/buy it. Such is the case for THE SIMIAN LINE, a film by TV director Linda Yellen (who also co-wrote story with Michael Leeds and brought in Gisela Bernice to pen the screenplay) that is just enough off center to keep a movie edgy but very entertaining. Katherine (Lynn Redgrave) is a real estate person in New Jersey and is part of a May/December affair with stained glass artist Rick (Harry Connick Jr.). She leases the house adjoining hers to a Manhattan couple Paul (Jamey Sheridan) and Sandra (Cindy Crawford) who are waiting for a financial break. Other tenants include Marta (Monica Keena) and Billy (hunky Dylan Bruno) both of whom are waiting for their break into Rock band status. At a welcoming party Rick invites Arnita (Tyne Daly), a frumpy but kind fortune teller/spiritual communicator who upon entering Katherine and Rick's home sees two ghosts Edward (William Hurt) and Mae (Samantha Mathis) who are 'hanging around invisible to all, but with ongoing comments about love lost and the past. Arnita predicts that by New Year's Eve one of the couples will be separated, and with a bad taste in everyone's mouth the party folks oust her, but not until Arnita leaves her business cards. The remainder of the story deals with each couple's anxiety about being the one that will break up: Katherine fears the younger Rick is falling for Sandra, Paul fears Sandra is losing interest in his failing business problems, and Marta is called to claim her little boy Jimmy (Jeremy Zelig) whose father is a man she met during a previous breakup with Billy. And they all seek advice from Arnita. How these dilemmas resolve and which of the couples parts company is the puzzle of the story and it is resolved well - if a bit saccharine. The cast is uniformly excellent (Eric Stoltz has a small but key part) and Linda Yellen knows how to gain the best from her talented cast. Yes, it is a bit of a feel good movie - but what is wrong with dessert now and then? Worth attention. Grady Harp