 Alleged
Starring: Nathan West, Ashley Johnson, Colm Meaney,
Brian Dennehy, and Fred Dalton Thompson
Directed by: Tom Hines
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Alleged
follows a few storylines; in the center is the famous evolution
vs. creationism aka “The Monkey Trial” in America
in the late 1920s. The film is proudly “Hokey.” That
is the music has an over enthusiastic tint, the cast is gosh gollying,
and the stories outside the trial unabashedly melodramatic.
Story goes…
Gung ho reporter Charles Anderson (swell-on-the-eyes Nathan West)
gets in cahoots with a trial pitting The Bible against Darwin.
He and his sweetie pie, Rose (Ashley Johnson), are running the
local paper. The “Monkey Trial” brings in some big
names of the day (Clarence Darrow played by Brian Dennehy, and
William Jennings Bryan, played by Fred Dalton Thomas). The town
is a flutter and a circus of opinions has rode in.
Press from
around the states convenes. One big wig (Colm Meaney) is like
today’s sort; facts are not as important as the headline.
He sees the potential shark in young naive Charles and puts him
in charge…well, in play.
Meanwhile
in another section of our story, a young gal (Khori Faison) is
in institution. Her story will eventually be told (too matter
of factly for me), and you will have an epiphany that indeed her
tale stitches in to the main yarn.
And, of course,
Rose and Charles have a to-and-fro, good vs. bad choices love
story running at a clip along side. You get to the point of wanting
to speed slap them. But, Rose is too darn sweet; one scene works
and actually may choke you up (- it also shows this chick can
act).
The film starts
slow and about half way, you’ll care what happens. It appears
to be an edit issue. For example there are two will-you-marry-me
scenes, and both are played as unexpected and romantic…There’s
the girl is the institution (held by her uncle no less), and a
taken-for-normal-nowadays reporter on the scene (Colm Meaney)
that skulks about like the devil at a debutante ball.
That being
whined, Alleged is shot beautifully. Cinematographer,
John Samaras, gets a firm nod of approval. But composer John R.
Graham went a squitch melodramatic at times…and gets a tsk
tsk! A was reminded of the old TV show Wild Wild West a couple
of times.
If you are
a history buff there’s a bit in there. But, again, it takes
a while to come together. It is a sweet movie; is that a compliment?
Maybe. Nothing blows up, and - had editing been tighter - it could
have been so much better. Which always bristles one's view. There
are some genuinely clever lines. Performances range in execution.
Colm Meaney is great, Brian Dennehy (who looks great) is fabulous…some
others are Lifetime channel, or community theater-esque. I am
not naming names, as I think it may be a directorial faux pas
and not the cast at fault here.
Alleged’s
subject matter and controversy is timely again. Americans seems
to be in this vortex of religious judgment again; I'm more Christian
than you and so forth. My complaint is the subject was handled
too whimsical, the music often jarring, and the facts (of all
three storylines) fed too slowly and convoluted to keep you glued.
It’s good rainy day viewing and the whole family can view
without fear of a PG-17 scene sneering out of your HD home-viewing
screen.
Snack
Recommendation: Frozen bananas and slow gin fizzies.
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