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Daisy Rojas

Film review: 'Roberta'
PARK CITY, Utah -- The premise of Eric Mandelbaum's debut feature "Roberta" has some potentially interesting notions of self-sacrifice, redemption and transformation. However, the absence of dramatic creditability and inexplicable behavior of its protagonist fatally compromises the material. This Sundance dramatic competition work is bound to encounter sharp audience resistance in an already crowded marketplace.

Gifted Kevin Corrigan, an actor who specializes in loopy dreamers and marginal loners, plays Jonathan, a young Manhattan computer consultant who recognizes a sad and vulnerable prostitute he encounters on the street as Roberta (Daisy Rojas), an acquaintance from his childhood. Orderly, precise Jonathan is instantly drawn into Roberta's dangerous and unstable world.

Motivated by his hatred for his recently deceased father (who has bequeathed Jonathan a sizable inheritance), Jonathan immediately assigns himself as Roberta's protectorate and benefactor, buying her clothes, installing her in his girlfriend's apartment and teaching her rudimentary skills to help gain her independence. Unfortunately, the street thug and pimp who controls Roberta demands compensation and Jonathan's (unbelievable) compliance occasions horrible consequences.

Unfolding from June-January, Jonathan's subsequent dissolution not only lacks moral gravity but occurs with a thundering and ridiculous inevitability. Mandelbaum fails to supply any nuanced, complicated interaction between his two principals necessary to propel the work in a realistic and believable manner. The movie is too dramatically inert to gain any recognition or identification with its characters.

Cinematographer Kevin Murphy restricts the frame and works in isolation to conjure Jonathan's entrapment and alienation, though the rest of the film is too awkwardly staged to sustain the mood of disruption, preferring artificially constructed conflict and a dependence on the familiar and obvious.

ROBERTA

Moving Parts Prods.

Director-writer-producer: Eric Mandelbaum

Producer: David Kashkooli

Director of photography: Kevin Murphy

Production designer: Katherine M. Szilagyi

Editor: Sam Adelman

Sound: Dave Raphael

Casting director: Stephanie Klapper

Color/stereo

Cast:

Jonathan: Kevin Corrigan

Roberta: Daisy Rojas

Judy: Amy Ryan

Philip: Bill Sage

Donald: Brian Tarantina

Alex: Ed Vassallo

Running time -- 85 minutes

No MPAA rating...
  • 1/29/1999
  • The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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