VELVET GOLDMINE

• Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor
• Directed by Todd Haynes
• Rated R with profanity, sex; running time 123 minutes
• With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a 6

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(Nov. 6, 1998) -- If you liked the glittery glam rock era of David Bowie and Iggy Pop, chances are you'll like Velvet Goldmine, an audacious but uneven British rock drama.

How audacious? Velvet writer-director Todd Haynes borrows his narrative framework from Citizen Kane, the Holy Grail of filmdom.

Like Kane, Velvet Goldmine is an elaborate fictional biography, an attempt by a reporter (Christian Bale) to uncover the story of former glam rock star Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers).

A onetime legend of the early 1970s, he disappeared after a publicity stunt backfired. Through the investigation -- which includes several scenes modeled exactly after Kane moments -- the reporter learns the tale of Slade's rise to fame.

In flashbacks, we see Slade's marriage to a young American (Toni Collette), his increasing interest in bisexuality, and his growing obsession with an erratic American rocker, Curt Wild (fabulously played by Ewan McGregor).

Though Slade clearly is modeled after David Bowie and Wild after Iggy Pop, their story is a loose adaptation at best.

Velvet Goldmine represents a quantum leap in ambition and style for Haynes, who previously created the low-budget, minimalist films Safe and Poison.

This is clear from the start: Velvet Goldmine opens with a wonderfully outlandish bit of fantasy that establishes Oscar Wilde as the first glam rocker.

If anything, Goldmine is too ambitious, ultimately collapsing under the weight of its entangled subplots and clutter of supporting characters.

Much early importance is given to a mysterious glam rocker named Jack Fairy, for example, but he disappears without further explanation.

Despite such problems -- and a weakly resolved finale -- Velvet Goldmine succeeds as an ode to an age, offering generous dollops of rock 'n' roll exotica.

The score blends inventive new music in the glam style with classics of the period from Brian Ferry, Lou Reed, Brian Eno and Gary Glitter. The performers faithfully reproduce glam's theatrical performance style.