Nastassja Kinski, Mae Whitman and Tony Goldwyn in "An American Rhapsody."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Nastassja Kinski, Scarlett Johansson, Tony Goldwyn and Kelly Endresz Banlaki Director: Eva Gardos Rated: PG-13, with some violence Length: 106 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(August 31, 2001) -- Mike Clark Gannett News Service As autobiographical fiction, writer/director Eva Gardos' remembrance of her childhood is the kind of movie that press releases don't have to tell you is based on true events. Maybe because no filmmaker would build a story this unusual from scratch and then treat it so reverently without any style, humor or, at least, idiosyncratic observations.

Normally a film editor, Gardos was left in communist Hungary when her parents fled to Canada, reuniting with them at age 6 (thanks to Red Cross intervention) after being raised by a loving peasant couple. "Suzanne" is played early on by Budapest actress Kelly Endresz Banlaki and later by Ghost World's Scarlett Johansson, when she eventually kicks up a storm against her parents in California.

The temporary adolescent rebellion is mostly aimed at her mother (Nastassja Kinski, atypically emoting), with dad (Tony Goldwyn) apparently somewhere on the cutting-room floor. Some of the period detail is apt, some is not; in a pop-soundtrack panorama designed to reflect eras, Dick and Deedee (from the Roger Maris/Mickey Mantle summer of '61), for example, should never follow Gerry and the Pacemakers (British Invasion).

The biggest problem, though, is that the movie lacks an Act 3: Suzanne goes back to Hungary and...nothing happens. Gardos isn't much of a filmmaker, though in paying tribute to two sets of parents, she comes close to being daughter of the year.