JENNIFER 8. Directed and written by Bruce Robinson; produced by Gary Lucchesi and David Wimbury for Paramount. Starring Andy Garcia and Uma Thurman. Rated R.
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Good acting and imaginative cinematography either save, or almost save, Jennifer 8. Whether you insert the "almost" or not depends on how high your tolerance is for poorly paced, loophole-filled narratives.
John (Garcia) is (ho-hum) a burned-out cop from the big city who moves to a smaller town and—imagine this—starts investigating a series of murders as grisly as any he ran into in L.A.
As cliche-ridden as his character is, Garcia deserves a lot of credit for making him as believable and as appealing as he does. A lot of female moviegoers, in fact, won't care how unoriginal his character is; he's still fun to watch.
Thurman's character, a blind woman named Helena, on the other hand, is definitely original. And the actress is completely convincing in the role. Viewers seeing her for the first time could understandably think that she really is blind.
The atmosphere of the movie does help with this illusion. There is a lot of footage shot practically in the dark, and the technique is effective, at least at first. Some of the sequences, though, particularly near the end, go on 'way too long, and give you plenty of time to ponder the movie's many lapses.
The end of the movie itself is one of the biggest disappointments. It winds up much too quickly, especially considering the deliberate pace of the rest of the movie.
Helena and John's romance is very sweet and is rendered with much propriety. But their relationship in the murder mystery is on much shakier ground. Helena may have "seen" the murderer, as he picked up one of his victims from the home for the blind where they both lived. And John is afraid this puts Helena in harm's way.
In point of fact, it's probably John's interest in the case that puts her at risk. But the whole mystery is so full of holes and irrelevancies that it's hard to get excited about this one problem.
Some of the irrelevant material is interesting, such as an appearance by John Malkovich as an FBI guy who thinks John may have committed a murder himself. The scenes between Garcia and Malkovich don't really fit in with the rest of the movie. But the acting is so good, that we hardly, or almost hardly, mind.
November 25, 1995