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Looking For An Echo

2000, Movie, R, 97 mins

Looking For An Echo: Review

LOOKING FOR AN ECHO
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A slow-moving, dramatically slack film about fame's aftermath, from the writer-director of EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS. In 1964, five Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, boys who called themselves Vinnie and the Dreamers had a hit with the syrupy "This I Swear." Thirty-five years later, former lead singer Vince Pirelli (Armand Assante) wants no part of remembering the glory days. A widowed, 50-year-old bartender, Vince opted for responsibility over fame, and has spent the last ten years devoted to his children. But eldest Tommy (David Vadim) is married and out of the house, while Anthony (Edoardo Ballerini) is making his own reputation as a musician. So Vince focuses on teenage Tina (Christy Romano), who's battling leukemia. Former Dreamer Vic (Joe Grifasi) still has his own band, and plays weddings and bar mitzvahs; the rest of the old gang has abandoned the spotlight, but remain haunted by thoughts of what might have been. When Vince begins dating the life-embracing Joanne (Diane Venora), who once worshipped Vinnie and the Dreamers, he begins to reckon with the past and make his peace with it. Davidson's love for the Brooklyn of his youth is palpable, and regret is a potent emotion. But this thinly plotted movie huffs and puffs without ever actually going anywhere. Assante has one big scene after another: He rages, he weeps, he panics, he swells with pride. Stuff happens: Tina's health yo-yos, Anthony plays an important gig, the Dreamers take a restorative trip to Atlantic City, "This I Swear" (a mediocre pastiche of doo-wop love songs) is reprised in so many ways it's hard to believe not one is memorable. But the movie never bothers to make the past compelling or vivid. It's about the present, of course, but a present entirely shaped by the past. And if we don't feel what that means to the characters, then what does it matter to us? leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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