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Review: 'Myth of Fingerprints' - Family ties that bind
October 4, 1997
Web posted at: 5:10 p.m. EDT (2110 GMT)From Reviewer Paul Tatar
(CNN) -- Going in, I didn't have a whole lot of hope for "The Myth of Fingerprints." How many times have you watched a movie where a group of people who haven't seen each other for quite some time gather at a big old house and slowly start revealing their deep, dark secrets to each other?
Some of these films are pretty good (the recent "Love! Valour! Compassion!"), some of them pander to the masses and are saluted for it ("The Big Chill"), and others stink real bad ("Home for the Holidays" and Woody Allen's miserable "September," although I seem to recall that Allen's characters weren't putting an end to a long separation. Regardless, it still stunk.)
"The Myth of Fingerprints" is a solidly scripted and acted debut feature from Bart Freundlich, a filmmaker who, if he keeps his wits about him, may very well end up developing a uniquely understated cinematic voice. He already shows commendable restraint with his camera (no film school zooming and panning and swinging it from a crane), but his real gift is that he leaves a lot of room for a great cast to deliver exemplary work. This one is a true team effort, as a story about family relations should be.
For the most part, "The Myth of Fingerprints" is a drama, but there's a highly unexpected dry wit to Freundlich's dialogue. The chilly landscape surrounding the New England farmhouse where the family gathers is flat and icy, which perfectly complements a lot of the barbs that the feuding brothers and sisters toss at one another. No one is very happy in this movie, but there's still a realistic sense of the grudging love that binds families together. Quite surprisingly, there is no big, phony hug at the end, and not all of the characters walk away completely redeemed. Freundlich should be commended for that. Though no great work of art (the screenplay makes the mistake of quickly referencing Chekhov, but let's not get carried away) this is one of the better films of 1997.
Four adult siblings, Mia (Julianne Moore), Warren (Noah Wyle of "ER," and he's great), Jake (Michael Vartan), and Leigh (Laurel Holloman), return to their childhood home for what promises to be a tumultuous Thanksgiving reunion. Their father (the characteristically rock-solid Roy Scheider) is a brooding oddball who doesn't get much of a thrill out of seeing his children behave like children well into their adult years. His wife (Blythe Danner) is a different story, though. She loves the kids, even with all their shortcomings, and she will do what she can to try to make their visit come off without a hitch. Of course, if she does manage this, there isn't any reason to watch the movie.
Clothes start flying pretty quickly when Mia and Jake show up with their significant others (Brian Kerwin and Hope Davis) in tow, and Warren meets up with an ex-girlfriend (Arija Bareikis). He still carries a torch for his ex, and their relationship will hold the disturbing secret that has estranged him from his father. Wyle, with his fresh-scrubbed good looks, anchors the movie with casual grace. His Warren is an all-American boy with an ever-widening crack in the veneer. This is the kind of movie that Ingmar Bergman used to make (minus the all-American boy, of course), but his version would eventually make you feel like you were dragging a boulder behind you while you watched it. That's not a problem here.
Some of the subplots, as I mentioned, are a little dark, but they have a nutty humor seeping in at the edges. One of them concerns Moore's character's attempts to find the last few pages of a book she was reading in her father's study. He had been using them as kindling, so she has to try to find another copy in order to get the whole story. This leads her to a local shop, where she doesn't find the book, but does find her kindergarten sweetheart, an eccentric local who has changed his name to Cezanne (James LeGross). Cezanne (Moore is not delighted with his new name) has read the book, and, over the course of a couple of days, proceeds to tell her the rest of the exceedingly gloomy story. This is a little contrived, to say the least, but the interplay between LeGross and Moore is very sweet, and it imbues Moore's almost thoroughly unlikable character with some much-needed heart.
Don't let this quiet little movie die without a trace. At the very least you should see it for an opportunity to watch the radiant Julianne Moore (one of the best actresses around) do something besides get chased by dinosaurs or pretend to love Hugh Grant. More surprising, though, is Noah Wyle's fine work. This is yet another TV actor with a big screen future, and a promising future is exactly what the movies need right now.
"The Myth of Fingerprints" contains some bad language and a couple of non-nude sex scenes that are played for laughs. It's fairly heavy at times, but thoughtful teen-agers should enjoy it, even if they're just gawking at Noah Wyle. Rated R. 90 minutes, which, for once, makes it too short.
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