PHILADELPHIA. Directed by Jonathan Demme; written by Ron Nyswaner; produced by Edward Saxon and Jonathan Demme for TriStar. Starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. Rated R.
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Philadelphia isn't greater than the sum of its parts. But at least some of those parts are awfully good.
Especially the acting. You could go to a lot of movies in a year, or even two, and not see a better or more affecting performance than Hanks'. And Washington is just as good, although in a very different kind of role.
Hanks is Andy, a hot-shot Philadelphia lawyer who looks like he's just coming to the crest of a successful career. But besides his 80-hour weeks at the office, he has to spend some time each week at the hospital. He has AIDS.
When his good-ol'-boy bosses find out about his disease (which also tells them that he's gay) they cook up a rather incredible fiasco to make him look incompetent, then fire him.
With his health getting steadily worse (no doubt due, at least in part, to the 80-hour weeks) he looks for a lawyer who'll represent him as he sues his former firm. He has to settle for urbane ambulance chaser Joe (Washington), who at first is as repulsed by Andy as his former colleagues were, but who eventually does a great job of pleading his case.
Most of the minor characters don't really measure up to Hanks' and Washington's standard, mainly because the script makes them so one-dimensional. (An exception is Antonio Banderas as Andy's lover.) The partners at the firm are almost 100 percent monster homophobes, with no redeeming qualities or qualms of conscience. And Andy's family is almost unbelievably supportive and strong; while his scenes with them are among the movie's most moving, you also have to wonder how typical they are.
The plot has a lot of credibility problems—it's hard to believe that Andy couldn't find a hot-shot gay lawyer who would love to take on such a juicy case, for one thing. And the ham-fisted cover story for the firing is hardly worthy of the "most prestigious law firm in Philadelphia."
But the movie has a lot of heart, too, and it's this aspect, along with the performances, which makes it worth seeing.
Gay activists will say that the movie's attitude towards AIDS is about 10 years out of date, and that Hollywood shouldn't have waited this long to address an epidemic that has cut down so many of its own bright lights in their prime. On the other hand, people who think homosexuals are just getting what they deserve with the disease will be shocked at the matter-of-fact portrayal of Andy's lifestyle.
But for the average, open-minded moviegoer, the human tragedy Hanks acts out in Philadelphia is as impressive and moving as any you could hope to see.
January 26, 1994