Tempo

Melanie Giffith,(Sarah),"Tart",'01, played an excellent role of a very complicated gal with all kinds of mixed emotions about her life and her past relationships with men. However, Sarah is very much sexually involved constantly with Hugh Dancy,(Jack),"Shooting Days,",'05 who is very young looking and is a mixture of gigolo and con artist. There is wild graphics and great wild sounding music in the background along with a car chase all around Paris, France; which had me thinking about Princes Diana and her car crash for some unknown reason. Rachael Leigh Cook,(Jenny Travile),"My First Wedding",'04, plays a very young inexperienced American gal who left her family and got a job in Paris and happens to run into Jack; who manages to take her "CHERRY" away from her and she goes ballistic in Love with him and can't wait to get his clothes off whenever they meet. Melanie Griffith gave a great performance, however, her addictions have taken a great toll on her beautiful face, she is showing plenty of Crows Feet around the eyes and a burned out look.

I'm quite sure that many movie watchers have seen this type of plot before, but it is always intriguing to see how the actors and actresses bring it into being. The structure is lacking, which we can heap on to the writer. The interesting thing, however, is the irony that becomes apparent within the character development.

There is a girl portrayed by the lovely Rachael Leigh Cook, who looks at herself as the portrait of American apathy and rebellion. She admits to having commited a crime while in school, and also finds herself insanely attracted to the real badass, the car booster. She is the perfect picture of what Ben Folds sings about in "Whatever and ever, Amen." The only problem is that she really isn't prepared for what bumming around with a badass brings.

Through the plot, we are allowed to watch her mature, or at least we are left with a hope that she does. Her penchant for ditching responsibility lands her in France, but then she begins to take on more and more responsibilities as time goes on. She offers to house the guy, she remembers that she forgot to lock up the shop and returns to do so, and in the end, gets rather shaken up for having been attracted to the dark side of things.

The acting is good. The actors make the pain that they suffer seem very real. Frustration, fear, anger, jealousy, and passion are all imparted to the audience. The movie didn't get boring.

The direction of the movie is rather bland, however. The shots were not spectacular, and the lighting was not memorable. There were no interesting angles, and sometimes it seemed that everyone was a little out of place.

So, in the end, this movie is more of a character study of the youth of America; how the youth like to think that they're bad, even though they probably can't handle things that are really evil.

"Sarah James (Melanie Griffith) lives on danger's edge every day as the courier for a ruthless French black market dealer. Her boyfriend, Jack Ganzer (Hugh Dancy), is a handsome, young American expatriate she's seduced into becoming her partner in crime. But, when Jack unexpectedly meets and falls for Jenny Travile (Rachael Leigh Cook), a sexy but seemingly naive jewelry shop clerk, he quickly finds himself trapped in a treacherous love triangle filled with suspicion, vengeance, and murder. This riveting thriller will keep you guessing until the very end," according to the DVD sleeve description.

"Tempo" opens with its exciting car chase climax, then goes into flashbacks leading up to there. Possibly, they had no other way to begin this movie. Next up, you get mild erotica with Ms. Griffith, as the still sexy older woman, wrapping her legs around Mr. Dancy, as the attractive young stud. And, that's about all there is to this downhill film. The chase winds up being the culmination of an unappealing heist storyline. Only Dancy shows skin throughout. Griffith gives her character more vulnerability than the film deserves. And, Ms. Cook is almost completely, and uncharacteristically, nondescript.

**** Tempo (6/10/03) Eric Styles ~ Melanie Griffith, Hugh Dancy, Rachel Leigh Cook, Art Malik

In France, Sarah (Melanie Griffith) is a courier of illegal pieces of arts and antiques, living in a borrowed apartment with Jack (Hugh Dancy), a man younger and younger than she. While Sarah is traveling to Munich to bring a rare coin to the criminal Walter Shrenger (Malcolm McDowell), Jack meets Jenny Travile (Rachel Leigh Cook), a silly and irresponsible American girl, who works a fancy jewelery, and they have an affair. Jenny falls in love for him, and exposes the code and the secrets of the store to Jack. Meanwhile, Sarah is stolen in the train in her travel back to Paris, and has to raise US$ 80,000.00 in two days to pay for the lost. She convinces Jack to rob the jewelery with her to raise the money. However, things do not happen how planned.

The premise of "Tempo"is not bad, and it could be a good thriller. However, there are many flaws in the screenplay. The character of Sarah is not well developed, and the viewer does not know why she has this type of life, their motives for such a dangerous work, and it is impossible to sympathize with her. Further, the face of Mellanie Griffith is completely destroyed after plastic surgeries, and affects her expressions. There is one site (awfulplasticsurgery.com) relative to awful plastic surgeries in famous people, and unfortunately the surgeries of Mellanie Griffith are mentioned there, showing her lovely and gorgeous face before the plastic surgery, and how she is now. I do not understand how a woman so beautiful like she was can be so deformed! With regard to Jenny, how such a stupid woman can work in a fancy place, being responsible for expensive jewels? How the store does not have cameras for surveillance? How can a woman work in such fancy jewelery wearing jeans, instead of elegant costumes? Rachel Leigh Cook is also horrible in this movie, with long curled hair and ugly clothes. The costume designers were very negligent with the character of Jenny. Last but not the least, the sexual attraction of two women for Jack is a key point in this story. However, the sex scenes are not erotic, and could be better and better. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Tempo – Um Questão de Sobrevivência" ("Time – A Question of Surviving")

The plot of "Tempo" sounded really promising, but the end result is quite frankly horrible. The acting on the part of Hugh Dancy is acceptable, as for Cook it is not up to the standard of her other performances. In all their character's relationship seems utterly unbelievable. Watching Melanie Griffith in Tempo though was a sad experience I could have done without. I remember her from films such as "Working Girl" were she was witty, funny and sexy. In "Tempo" she acts like she is wearing a mask. Her facial expressions are almost non-existent. Another fact that annoyed me with "Tempo" was the obvious lack of detail when it came to locations. The story is supposed to take place in Paris, why is it then that throughout the film, street signs are in German?? Even Munich does not look like Munich.