HERALD Wednesday September 20 1989 Page 23 Brando is back in South African drama Here and now By Robert In Movie Theaters A DRY WHITE SEASON This fictional tale of two families one white one in racially torn South Africa features the first movie appearance by the great Marlon Brando in nearly a decade The now mountainous actor plays a barrister who is hired by Ben du Toil Donald Sutherland a newly politicized white schoolteacher to take on the apartheid system in a court battle Ben has seen the devastating conse quences of racial inequality as it has affected his own black gardener and the gardeners son little by little he has found himself unable to remain detached to remain an insulated member of the white ruling minority Unfortunately Bens carries with It great risks not the least of which is the loss of his wifes loyalty and support This thriller with moral dimensions is based on a 1979 novel by Andre Brink and it marks the major directo rial debut of Euihan Palcy a Marti niqueborn black woman ear lier lowbudget film Sugar Cane Alley was a beautiful little effort that rare movie in which politics and art successfully fuse Her new movie tries for a similar fusion and it has its moments especially when Brando Is on screen giving a juicy per formance But Brandos role is basi cally a cameo and the rest of the movie never quite springs to life Working on a larger scale than in Sugar Cane Alley shows that she is still a novice director in certain respects There are crowd scenes that are stiffly staged And Palcy fails to get a very interesting performance out of Susan Sarandon who turns up in the thankless role of a white liberal journalist But the bigger problem is one of fa milianty and focus Like A World Apart and Cry Freedom this is one more movie about South Africa in which the hero is a principled white Why cant the terrible story of apart heid be told from the point of view of blacks the way does in his plays Besides Dry White Sea son is not as skillful as A World Apart at showing how a parents un popular political commitment can tear at a family Nor does it operate on as sweeping a canvas as Cry ftiin 11 to 99wu3 I WEEKENDS 10 DO 1 G p Dv 8731022 I 360GuelphStUnit51A KNOLCREST CENTRE Georgetown SPECIAL EVERY THURSDAY- HOT ROAST BEEF PLATE French vMtobm DaffctMiCmr MARTYS TOO RESTAURANT Marketplace Freedom But the movie does give us the chance to see Brando even if the gar gantuan sight of him is a shock And the subject is certainly an urgent and important one though unevenly han dled here GRADE THE PACKAGE R This clever lit tle movie plays on US Soviet rela tions in the age of glasnost with as- IAN MCKENZIE Marlon Brando Is a South African civil rights lawyer who investigates the deaths of a gar dener and his son in the film A Dry White Seasor pects of a paranoia inducing topsy political thriller like The Manchurian Candidate The two superpowers are on the verge of signing a disarmament and the Russian leader played by an actor who is the spitting image of Gorbachev has arrived in Chicago Meanwhile an Army sergeant Gene Hackman who is transporting a pris oner Tommy Lee Jones from Berlin to the United States discovers that the man in his custody is an impostor Slowly but surely these two plot threads come together in a potential ly catastrophic manner Hackman is good as always and Tommy Lee Jones is effectively creepy In the role of ex wife the beautiful underappreciated Joanna has a earthy maturity This may not be a movie of any significance but it is well acted and gripping GRADE New Home Video RAIN MAN R Hoffman stars as Raymond Babbitt an autistic savant who can take care of his most basic life functions yet who can somehow perform comph multiplications instantaneous ly When his father dies Raymond in hents million though Raymond doesn t even understand the concept of money However his crass yuppie brother Tom Cruise certainly does Despite its awards this Oscar win ner isnt a great movie Its sluggish and bogs down midway turning Into one more buddy road movie The television movie Promise starring James Woods and James Garner was a richer version of simi lar themes But many people claim to be deeply moved by this films frater nal subject and who can resist the chance to watch Hoffman even if he sometimes seems to be playing an autistic ET GRADE W Film grading excellent good fair poor IS NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE CRITICS CHOICE VIDEO Rentals Service ft Open Every Night Till m HAPPY HOUR The deadline for the Here and Now 69 juried exhibition of wall art is approaching Entries must be in to the Halton Hills Cultural Centre by Saturday Sept VIDEO PLUS West of Georgetown Fruit Market BRING HOME A STAR THIS WEEK- t8 PRICE Framing Centrei Limited Edition Prints 4168777491 348 Guelph Street NEXT TO BELL GLASS IN THE CENTRE Georgetown OFF ANY PIZZA OVER 900 STREET 8734499 YELLOW CAB Hi HOUR SERVK Airport Service Parcel Delivery 8732527 8732931 UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT NEILS MUSIC CENTRE WIDE SELECTION OF MUSICAL 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