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Feb 04, 2015Nursebob rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
John Guare’s hugely popular stage play makes an uneven and not entirely successful transition to the screen. Flan and Ouisa are a pretentious upper-class couple who’ve made millions buying and selling other people’s art collections. When a young black man shows up at their penthouse door, bleeding from a recent mugging and claiming to be a good friend of their children, they initially react with guarded skepticism. But it isn’t long before the charming young Paul has them eating out of the palm of his hand with his witty ripostes and clever banter. When he casually mentions he is the son of Sidney Poitier he has them hooked. All is not as it seems however and a few days later they discover that they are not the only Upper Eastside couple to be visited by “Paul Poitier”. What starts out as a farcical look at the banality of Manhattan’s privileged gentry soon takes a serious turn as the couple begin to peel away Paul’s facade to reveal the true motives behind his actions. Indeed, facades loom heavily in this somewhat one-sided sermon against petty bourgeois values. In trying to emulate the wealthy lifestyle he so desires Paul acts as a mirror in which some characters begin to see the various charades they play in their own lives....the crooked deals, the forced bonhomie, and the amusing strings of anecdotes that serve as a substitute for actually living. Paul may be an impostor but he ends up being the only “genuine” person in the entire movie. This is when things get bogged down. The ensuing rhetoric has a certain air of self-righteousness about it as revelations are made and angry indictments are leveled. It would seem that anyone with a top-floor view of Central Park is just a big phony. To be fair, the script is certainly clever and Schepisi makes the most of his Manhattan settings. Furthermore there are some commendable performances, most notably Stockard Channing in the role of Ouisa. I guess some plays just don’t translate well into movies.