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4 ~ Friday, Muy 13, 0088 ~

North Shore News

Fox shines in Bright Lights, Big City

BRIGHT LIG HTs
Theatre)

AT LEAST Ray Milland on-
ly lost a weekend; it's Hell
Week for Michael J. Fox.

As Jamie Conway, he faces one
loss after another and. for solace,
turns to snorting coke. Oddly
enough, this doesn’t seem to help.
ft just keeps him out late at night
with what parents would call “the
wrong sort of friends.** One par-
ticular pal, Tad Allagash (Keifer

. Sutherland), continually tempts

Jamie to abandon his stillborn
writing for a zippy ride on New
York’s night life.

film reviewer

“ Jamie’s rubber arm is casily.
twisted and it's not difficult to see
why. Faced with his loved ones .
deserting him through death and
divorce, a dead-end job and a
writer’s block, he sees comfort as
just a toot away.

But the toll for this chemical
numbing i is a chronic case of tar-
, diness and sniffles. Fortunately for
our hero, he also has the comfort

“of two caring women — his co-

worker Megan (Swoorie Kurtz)

RIG CITY °* (United Artists) (at the Stanley

and Tad’s cousin, Vicky (Tracy
Pollan). The latter is the only one
who. can offer him the understan-

ding he so desperately needs.

Jamic’s clerical job as a maga-
zine’s factual verifier gocs the way
of his wife and mother after he
fumbles a few accents and loca-
tions in an article, With a briefcase
of blues like that, is it any wonder
he starts to identify with a tabloid
account of a baby trapped inside
its comatose mother?

It's a tribute to Michael J. Fox
that we should care if this self-
indulgent, whiniig character sur-
vives. Hc manages to be likcable
without resorting to his Alex P.
Keaton characteristics. There is no
tic-tugging, no over-confident
mugging that Family Ties viewers
are more than familiar with. In-
stead, it is a young man in-
psychological distress that interests
us enough to follow him for two
hours.

For acting fans, there’ salsoa
parade.of good performers who
have very little to do with the stim
plot but are fun to waich. Jason

: Robards, as the magazine's resi-

dent lush, scems to Sight up the
screen the few times he appears.
Dianne Wiest has the emotionally
wrenching role as Jamic's dying
mother, and Keifer Sutherland is
always enjoyable, even as a
hedonistic pinhead. William

W vy actress plays: troubled aun

TALKING to a nun supplemented :

a regular slate of rehearsals for
“West: Vancouver actress Andrea
Burchill iti preparing, for her role
in Agnes. of God..-

Opening May: 16 at ‘the Water:

front Theatre in her fi rst stage ap-
pearance, the 13-year-old Burchill,
last seen in the movie Housekeep-
ing, tackles her. most’ challenging
role to date playing’ the troubled
nun Agnes: 00. :
“She's a strange person Bur-
chill said of her character. ‘‘She's
a lot different from the characters
I’ve: played before = ‘she’s, never

‘also features. Gail -Balsille and
Sheila Paterson.
Agnes of God runs at the Gran-

ville Island theatre to May 21.

POET DOROTHY Livesay —

whose latesi: work is The’ Self-
Completing Tree. — will share her
works: at the North Shore

“Unitarian Church May 15 at 10:30 -

a.m,

a journalist, teacher .and: social

seen a TV show, been toa movie. + worker and is an artist and peace

¢

or heerd modern music.”*

North Vancouver’s Andrew Van
. Slee, head of play-producing ATV
- Studios, " directs the play, which

‘activist.

~ The church i is at 370 Mathers

Ave., West Vancouver. More info:
926-1621.

Hickey and John Houseman make
camens so fleeting that they were
probably shot as they ran to collect
their paycheques.

Unfortunately, the story drags
the audience through seamy scenes

-of Jamie failing to cape only to

have asather abrupt ending that
supgests his problems are solved
with a brief heart-to-heart. With
the prodigious substance abuse we
have witnessed, if secms that the
filmmakers sacrificed realism for a
speedy conciusion,.

‘eo a ,
MICHAEL J. Fox gives a dynamic
performance in Bright Lights, Big

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