[255D
Lights Out
Copyright (c) 1994, Bruce Diamond
All rights reserved


[8C[0;1;34mĿ
[8C [33mCORINNA, CORINNA:  [32mWritten & directed by Jessie Nelson.   [34m
[8C [32mStarring Whoopi Goldberg, Ray Liotta, Tina Majorino,[6C[34m
[8C [32mWendy Crewson, Larry Miller, Erica Yohn, Jenifer Lewis,   [34m
[8C [32mJoan Cusack, and Don Ameche.  New Line Cinema.  Rated PG. [34m
[8C

[10C[36mWhoopi's had an interesting career, alternating broad comedy
[5C([33mBURGLAR[36m, [33mGHOST[36m, [33mSISTER ACT[36m) with heart-touching drama ([33mTHE COLOR
[5CPURPLE[36m, [33mTHE LONG WALK HOME[36m, [33mCLARA'S HEART[36m), equally at home
[5Cwringing laughter or tears from her audience.  On the heels of
[5C[37m1993[36m's disappointing [33mMADE IN AMERICA[36m, we now have [33mCORINNA,
[5CCORINNA[36m, a touching look at a young girl, her nanny, and her
[5Cfather.  Set in the early 1960s, [33mCORINNA, CORINNA [36mis a film more
[5Cof its characters than of the time it wants to portray.

[10CRay Liotta is a jingle writer with an ad agency that's
[5Cworking on big name accounts like Mr. Potato Head and Jello.
[5CHis wife dies unexpectedly, and due to his commitments at work,
[5Che needs to hire a nanny, and he needs to do it right away.  The
[5Cparade of nannies is starting to become old hat for this kind of
[5Cpicture (neatly spoofed by the multi-voiced Robin Williams in
[5C[33mMRS. DOUBTFIRE[36m), and the present film really adds nothing to the
[5Cclich.  There's the bible-thumper, the neurotic, the storm-
[5Ctrooper, and the demander, all laid out in a row like a blueprint
[5Cfor a Mary Poppins remake.  Whoopi's interview scene is rather
[5Cstandard as well, nervous during the interview (trying to take
[5Ccharge, then backpedaling mightily), capped off by her kind act
[5Ctowards Tina Majorino, Liotta's daughter, that the father happens
[5Cto catch through a parted curtain.  This kind of scene always
[5Cstrikes me as false; just because a person is kind to a child
[5Cdoesn't mean he or she will make a good babysitter/nanny/
[5Ccaretaker.  But of course Whoopi does, and manages to draw
[5CMajorino out of her shell.

[10CMajorino temporarily refuses to speak after her mother's
[5Cdeath, falling into a self-imposed autism that you'd expect the
[5Cfather to have her examined by a specialist -- he makes enough
[5Cmoney to pay for treatment.  But all it takes, and here's another
[5Cone of the movie's fallacies, is Whoopi's love and irreverent
[5Cattitude to overcome the child's deep psychological scars.  It
[5Conly happens in the movies, folks, and in this instance serves as
[5Cthe first step to the inevitable: Goldberg and Liotta falling in
[5Clove.  I don't mean to sound cynical here -- the scenes are
[5Ctentative and very touching, and there's one shot of Majorino
[5Clying on a hillside, her mother's dress beside her and her hand
[5Chidden protectively in one of the dress' pockets, that will
[5Cabsolutely pull your heart out of your body.  It may be a
[5Cmanipulative scene with little grounding in reality, but the
[5Cimage *works*, and works exceedingly well.  Would that
[5Cwriter/director Jessie Nelson had crafted the rest of the picture
[5Cas lovingly as that shot.

[10CAfter Majorino begins speaking, the focus shifts to the
[5Cincipient love story, which grows very naturally from the
[5Ccircumstances.  Both Liotta and Goldberg share an intimate
[5Cknowledge of music, he due to his chosen profession, she because
[5Cshe loves music and longs to write album liner notes (remember
[5Cliner notes?) and a column in "[32mHigh Hat[36m" magazine.  Music becomes
[5Cthe universal language of love, to steal a quote from another
[5Csource, and as the soundtrack becomes more lush and more lusty
[5C(bluesy numbers from Louis Armstrong and Billy Holliday add
[5Cnicely to the proceedings), the relationship deepens, and
[5Crelatives on both sides (Liotta's parents, Goldberg's sister)
[5Cbegin to notice, all the time fixing them up with boring,
[5Cdesperate dates.  Wendy Crewson does a nice turn as Liotta's
[5Cpotential girlfriend, thrown at him by his mother.  She's lonely,
[5Cbut Nelson gives the character a comedic spin, so she doesn't
[5Cseem too pathetic.

[10CAt first, I didn't think a relationship between Liotta and
[5CGoldberg would work on screen, but Nelson builds to it so
[5Cgradually and interestingly (some nice scenes depicted from
[5CMajorino's point of view) that it works.  Unfortunately, when
[5CNelson deals with the attendant bigotry of the time, from both
[5Csides of the relationship, the movie falls flat and becomes
[5Cforced.  We expect the prejudice to crop up earlier and more
[5Cstrongly, and when it finally rears its ugly head, it's no more
[5Cthreatening than a Klansman in a paisley sheet.

[5C[32mRATING:  [37m$$[0m
