In the Hollywood of old, most directors spent their careers laboring in total obscurity, but nowadays, when agents negotiate ”A Film By
. . .” credits on every beardless UCLA graduate`s first feature, directors are too much in the limelight. They don`t have a chance to be bad, which isn`t very fair: Making movies is difficult, delicate work, an art most learn by experience.
Randal Kleiser`s first two features, ”Grease” in 1978 and ”The Blue Lagoon” in 1980, were bad movies that made a lot of money, and most critics have never forgiven him for them.
But in the last few years, in a number of less-conspicuous films that have included ”Grandview, U.S.A.,” ”Flight of the Navigator” and ”Pee-wee`s Big Top Adventure,” Kleiser has been coming into his own, developing a fluid, intimate camera style and a warmly appreciative relationship with his actors. No longer the flashy mannerist of his early films, he has acquired a mastery of the small, crucial things-finding the right rhythm for a line of dialogue, the camera angle that defines a relationship, the gestures that give a character an on-screen life.
”Getting It Right” is an apt title for Kleiser`s new feature; it`s all there, in what is clearly his most personal film since ”Grandview.” Based on a novel by Elizabeth Jane Howard, the film is set in an atmospheric but nicely non-touristy London, where Gavin Lamb (Jesse Birdsall), a shy hairdresser who remains a virgin at the age of 31, is about to take his first steps into the world.
From ”The Blue Lagoon” to ”Big Top,” first experience has been Kleiser`s favorite theme, but never before has he approached it with such a judicious blend of romanticism and humor. Accompanied in voice-over by Gavin`s drolly self-conscious interior monologue, the film moves lightly and gracefully through a series of apparently casual incidents-Gavin`s
involvements with a neurotic upper-class girl (Helena Bonham Carter), a wealthy eccentric (Lynn Redgrave) and the innocent provincial (Jane Horrocks, of ”The Dressmaker”), who is his salon assistant and the unwed mother of a 3-year-old boy. The film reveals its tight, tripartite structure only at the end, where it has the force of a fate fulfilled.
Apart from some gratuitous cruelty to a fat girl, ”Getting It Right” is a remarkably generous film, finding room not only for detailed portraits of its four principal characters but for a whole range of supporting figures. Kleiser shifts smoothly among broad caricature (Peter Cook as the prissy salon owner, John Gielgud as Bonham Carter`s pseudo-aristocratic father), affectionate satire (Pat Heywood and Bryan Pringle as Gavin`s parents) and dramatic naturalism (Richard Huw as a romantically troubled gay friend, Shirley Anne Field as Horrocks` emotionally divided mother), working his different tones into a vivacious whole.
The technique is discreet, almost invisible: Kleiser`s favorite device is a subtle reframing executed in the course of an extended take, signaling a shift in the relationship of the characters.
By choosing to cultivate a light touch, Kleiser sets himself apart from most of his contemporaries-knowing when to nudge the camera is not nearly as attention-grabbing a skill as staging firefights in outer space, though in the long run it is a richer and more rewarding one.
”Getting It Right” is a genuine pleasure, a film of heart and grace.
”GETTING IT RIGHT”
(STAR)(STAR)(STAR) 1/2
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Directed by Randal Kleiser; written by Elizabeth Jane Howard, from her novel; photographed by Clive Tickner; production designed by Caroline Amies;
edited by Chris Kelly; music by Colin Towns; produced by Kleiser and Jonathan D. Krane. An MCEG release; opens May 19 at the Water Tower and outlying theaters. Running time: 1:42. MPAA rating: R. Adult situations, brief nudity. THE CAST
Gavin Lamb……………………………………Jesse Birdsall
Minerva Munday…………………………..Helena Bonham Carter
Mr. Adrian……………………………………….Peter Cook
Sir Gordon Munday……………………………….John Gielgud
Jenny…………………………………………Jane Horrocks
Joan………………………………………….Lynn Redgrave