'Face Value,' 'Valentine's Day,' offer women very different options

By Sarah Sluis

Amy Redford (daughter of Robert) will direct an independent film, Face Value, focusing on the scientific pursuits of Hedy Lamarr. Yes, the MGM glamour girl famous for her titular role in Samson & Delilah was also a talented scientist who invented frequency hopping. Rachel Weisz has attached herself to the biopic.

Hopefully the filmmakers will contrast Lamarr's work as a scientist with her life as a starlet: she married (and divorced) six times. She was once quoted saying, "I must quit marrying men who feel inferior to me. Somewhere there must be a man who could be my husband and not feel inferior. I need a superior inferior man."

While Lamarr certainly isn't the only star to combine acting prowess and beauty with another unexpected quality (Katharine Hepburn, who surprised her suitors with her acerbic wit and superior athleticism, comes to mind), her story sounds inspirational and unusual enough to sell me a ticket. However, Amy Redford has yet to impress critics with her directing ability. Her directorial debut, The Guitar, earned only 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, and our critic called the film "an interesting premise...weakened by directorial callowness, tonal uncertainty and an unengaging central performance." I certainly hope the "interesting premise" of Hedy Lamarr isn't deadened by Redford's direction, and that she's learned from her first directorial outing.

In a counterpoint to the Lamarr project, New Line, purveyor of "it's-about-what-I-expected" romantic comedies, has filled in the plot for Valentine's Day. Garry Marshall, known for being a down-to-earth, likeable director, will direct a cast who confront a dizzying number of interwoven stories, in the vein of He's Just Not That Into You and Love Actually. Stars attached to the project include Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, and Shirley McLaine (for some demographic diversity).

Some of the plotlines go like this: Bradley Cooper, a gay man dating a closeted football player, shares a flight with Julia Roberts, a soldier returning from Iraq. Her mother, Shirley MacLaine, decides to tell her husband about an affair she had when she was younger. There's also a love triangle (square?) in which Ashton Kutcher backs out of proposing to Jessica Biel when he realizes he really likes Jennifer Garner, who conveniently just found out her boyfriend was married. Lastly, Biel and Anne Hathaway play co-workers at a talent agency. Hathaway's an executive assistant who is dating someone in the mailroom, and Biel plays a publicist who just can't get a man.

While juggling all those storylines seems like a daunting task (why can't they just commit to one?), it does touch on a certain truth in romantic comedies: the supporting actors and actresses often have the liveliest romantic entanglements, since they're allowed to be funny, brief and inconsequential, rather than forced to commit to the "big kiss." Expect a version of the plot and cast to show up in theatres on V-Day in 2011.