Playing God

Hollywood possesses the penchant for remaking old classic films, such as Gus Van Sant's re-working of Hitchcock's Psycho. Here's an idea: instead of remaking GOOD movies, why don't we remake bad ones, and try to improve them? In such a world, I would nominate "Playing God" for a treatment. The premise is interesting, and the script, although at times uneven, has moments of poetic lyricism and some nice touches. So . . . what happened? The finger must be pointed at the performances, which fail to capture the essence of the screenplay. David Duchovny is cast against type as a drug-addled ex-physician, and Timothy Hutton's portrayal of gangster Raymond Blossom borders on the plane of villainy and its cariacture. Duchovny, whose deadpan delivery and solemn glances work fine in the X-Files, must realize that the role he's playing here is NOT Fox Mulder, but a much more unsympathetic character. Grade: C