Inspired by the classic comic-book character, and reconceptualized as a girlie-power pin-up, French director Christophe Comar's English-language debut (directed under his nom d'ecran, Pitof) is an instantly forgettable, hyper stylized trifle.
Mousy Patience Phillips (Halle Berry) slaves in the art department of Hedare Cosmetics until the night she accidentally overhears a research scientist warning the recently replaced "Face of Hedare," Laurel Hedare (Sharon Stone), that the company's miracle wrinkle cream, Beau-line, has deforming side effects. Laurel intends to let nothing stand between Beau-line and millions of women ready to pay anything to look younger, so she directs her henchmen to kill Patience, unaware that her meek, self-effacing employee is connected to a wellspring of feline power that literally brings her back from the dead. Patience is, however, not the same timid shadow she was before. The new, improved Patience is freakishly strong and agile, her senses are inhumanly sharp, and she's positively rippling with sleek self-confidence. The reborn Patience captivates straight-arrow cop Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt), thrills her comic-relief friends (Alex Borstein, Michael Massee), and arouses the ire of boss George Hedare (Lambert Wilson), who promptly fires her when she back talks him. The old Patience would have gone into a tailspin, but this one gives herself a sexed-up makeover and sets about protecting the women of the world from Beau-line.
Comar's special-effects background clearly orients him more to visuals than storytelling, but it's screenwriters John Brancato, Michael Ferris, and John Rogers who bear the brunt of the blame for taking wild liberties with Batman creator Bob Kane's 60-year-old character without giving her anything to do but strut and preen. Berry is the fifth actress to don Catwoman's second-skin costume. That Berry is the only Oscar winner in the group only makes her painfully uncharismatic performance more embarrassing. Read the complete review for Catwoman
