Movie Review: Catwoman

Catwoman

The early reviews of Catwoman haven't been particularly kind, but because I knew you all would want to know, I bought a ticket anyway. The good news is that Catwoman isn't as bad as you've heard it is. The bad news is that it could have been so much better.

Halle Berry takes on the title role, first playing the mild-mannered Patience Phillips. Patience, who has always dreamed of being a "real" artist, finds herself trapped in a cubicle in the advertising art department of an international cosmetics conglomerate. The company, run by the husband and wife team of George and Laurel Hedare (Lambert Wilson and Sharon Stone), is getting set to launch a new product and Patience is charged with designing some of the first ads. Neither of the Hedares are particularly decent people (former supermodel Laurel is not dealing well with the fact that she's both aging and being replaced as the "face" of Hedare; George has some serious issues with infidelity and worse), but both are powerful and overwhelm their employees on a regular basis. It's no wonder that Patience meekly agrees to rework the ads at the last minute when an angry boss demands she do so. But when Patience delivers the new art work, she mistakenly becomes privy to a conversation that reveals there's a serious problem with the product about to be released. Poor Patience is caught listening and runs for her life, but ends up trapped with no escape.

The dead Patience is (somehow) resurrected by a pack of cats, and as pieces of her memory return, she determines to exact revenge on those who murdered her. She must also, however, deal with the confusion of suddenly finding herself the beneficiary of some bizarre talents. After being led to the home of the decidedly odd Ophelia Powers (Frances Conroy), Patience begins to learn more about the woman she's become - and in many ways, just as much about the woman she is. Complicating matters is her feelings for Detective Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt) and her need to keep her alter ego a secret. But when the two find themselves looking into the same crimes, it's no wonder Catwoman sees danger virtually everywhere she looks.

Halle Berry and Sharon Stone are both good, though (particularly in the case of Stone) are often exaggerated to the point of being well over the top. This is not the fault of the actresses, but rather both the director and a highly uneven script. During parts of the movie, the script shows potential to be both interesting and intelligent; at other times, it slips into really bad comic book mode. The special effects, too, are uneven. Where some obvious effects are utterly believable, others are just, well, obvious. (To be fair, virtually every effects-intensive movie must now be compared with such as Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, and Spider-Man, and most movies can't measure up. Still, since director Pitof is famous in his native France as a digital imaging pioneer, it seems a slap isn't entirely unwarranted here.) The most redeeming feature of the movie is some extraordinarily creative cinemetography and editing. These facets are so wonderfully well done, in fact, that they alone are almost worth the price of a ticket.

POLITICAL NOTES: That major corporations will do anything for money, including endanger their own customers, is certainly not much of a surprise. What is somewhat surprising - though becoming more common these days - is the notion of a hero who really isn't all that good. Much of the strife between Patience and her cop boyfriend, for example, is due to the fact that he disapproves so strongly of Catwoman's actions outside the law. And the movie sometimes makes it look like he's the bad guy for thinking so.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: Catwoman is rated PG-13 for "action violence and some sensuality." Berry's outfit is skimpy, but there's no overt sex or discussion of it, and while there is a good deal of action violence, it's glossed over to such an extreme that there's virtually no blood, and only a couple of close-ups (neither of which were particularly offensive). I'd say that Catwoman will be fine fare for those kids age 10 or so and up; it will be less fine for those too very much older than that.