Despite All My Rage

"why can't you do it?
why can't you set your monkey free?
always giving in to it-
do you love the monkey or do you love me?
why can't you do it?
why do I have to share my baby with a monkey?"
-george michael

Cousin Jessica

This evening, at Saviour Onassis's recommendation, I watched Cousin Bette, a 1998 movie starring Jessica Lange and Elizabeth Shue. It's set in Paris during the end of the July Monarchy--as SO said, "It's sorta like a Merchant-Ivory period piece, except with Elizabeth Shue."

My feelings were mixed: what I liked about it was that Jessica Lange plays a plain, self-sacrificing spinster who eventually becomes pissed off enough that she decides to exact vengeance from any and everyone who ever hurt her. What I didn't like about it was that Jessica Lange plays a plain, self-sacrificing spinster who eventually becomes pissed off enough that she decides to exact vengeance from any and everyone who ever hurt her.

Then there was Elizabeth Shue, who plays a 24-year-old actress/courtesan whom all the dirty old men of Paris want to sleep with. I like Elizabeth Shue and wouldn't mind seeing her in more movies, but she wasn't right for this part. She does a fair amount of singing but her voice is nothing special, and she just didn't exude raw sexuality the way she was supposed to.

Every so often you'll see a movie where the casting people put glasses on a super model and the audience is supposed to believe that none of the other characters can tell she's beautiful. The hair and makeup people stuck a brown wig on Jessica Lange, but that doesn't make her ugly; it just makes her a brunette. Jessica Lange is an amazing actress, naturally gifted and very well trained. She has this commanding presence and I would have been more likely to believe that she was some fabled courtesan who was just too beautiful, intelligent, talented and graceful ever to retire, while Elizabeth Shue was a dowdy, frumpy spinster who got tired of living in the shadows and finally sought revenge. Except that wouldn't have been entirely satisfying, because you just want Jessica Lange to triumph....

I don't know. It's worth watching just for Jessica's performance, but then, that's true of every movie she's ever been in. If you decide to check this out, let me know what you think.

What's on our Nightstands

Bored Dominatrix: a phone, a lamp, an alarm clock, a coaster (because sometimes I like to drink herbal tea or dark beer in bed).

Saviour Onassis: an off the hook phone, a blinking alarm clock, a letter from Robert Kennedy and several empty prescription bottles (mostly for barbiturates).