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The Impostors

1998, Movie, R, 102 mins

The Impostors: Review

IMPOSTORS, THE
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It's more a face full of seltzer than a sip of champagne, but actor-turned-director Stanley Tucci's affectionate homage to the madcap comedies of Hollywood's Golden Age still sparkles. Arthur (Tucci) and Maurice (Oliver Platt) are down-at-the-heels Depression-era actors who, after a drunken run-in with Shakespearean ham Jeremy Burtom (Alfred Molina), are suddenly on the lam from the police. They spend the night hiding out in a packing crate, but awake the next morning to discover that they've been loaded onto a luxury ocean liner bound for Europe. With no resources other than their acting skills and the kindness of the ship's head stewardess (Lili Taylor), the stowaways must not only save themselves from a riding-crop-wielding German head steward (Campbell Scott) and Burtom -- who just happens to have booked passage on the same ship -- but must also save the lives of everyone else on board: Arthur and Maurice uncover a sinister plot to blow the whole ship to kingdom come. With all its running, door-slamming, overcrowded closets, disguised identities and vintage optical effects, Tucci's film is a spot-on sendup of the genre -- only cinematographer Ken Kelsch's frantic hand-held camera feels anachronistic. But what makes the film more than mere postmodern fun-poking is the sincere tribute Tucci pays to what makes it all work: actors. And, along with the terrific leads, the ship's manifest is full of nice surprises: Billy Connolly (MRS. BROWN) as a he-man tennis pro who likes to wrestle other men... naked; Allison Janney as a husky-voiced, murderous adventuress; Hope Davis as a morbidly depressed ingenue with a gold-digging mother (Dana Ivey); and Steve Buscemi as Happy Franks, the ship's suicidal entertainer. S'wonderful. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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