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Monkey Woman |
I don't know if this has already been posted, but here it is. Interesting...
From: http://www.hamptonroads.com/fun/en0320dvd.html
Mick Jagger, lead singer of The Rolling Stones, carries enough weight in Hollywood that he can spark a change to the ending of a movie.
At least he did for ``The Man From Elysian Fields'' (audio: ***1/2, video: ***1/2, extras: **).
The story focuses on the life of a struggling novelist (Andy Garcia) who becomes a male escort, without his wife (``ER's'' Julianna Margulies) knowing about it, to help pay the bills.
He ends up sacrificing his family for a client who not only demands much of his time, but also is married to a successful author (James Coburn).
Garcia gets burned on several fronts, but the movie ends on a note of hope, thanks, in part, to Jagger's suggestion for the ending. Now, a movie about males whoring themselves can easily be mishandled.
But Michael Des Barres, who plays a male escort named Nigel, said in an interview this week that writer Phillip Jayson Lasker made the show work without being tacky.
For example, Margulies, after finding out that her husband is an escort, calls and sets up a ``date'' with Nigel and the two run into her husband and his date. Margulies later rejects Des Barres, asking him what makes a man do what he does.
``That rejection brought him up to a mirror, to a reflection of what he was doing with his life,'' Des Barres said of his character. And that's a question that Jagger's and Garcia's characters also contend with.
Asked about working on ``Elysian Fields,'' Des Barres said the writing quality was what really sold him on playing his role. ``I think the great reward was the text itself,'' he said of the ``beautifully written'' script.
Director George Hickelooper, writer Philip Jason Lasker and Garcia provide commentary that addresses getting Jagger for the film, the use of color schemes and more. (Enhanced wide-screen, 2002, Rated R for language and sexual content.)
L.A. Luebbert
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