Man Who Cried, The Review

In a small village in central Europe in 1927, a Jewish cantor farewells his little girl, Fengele, leaving her in the care of her grandmother; he is off to America. Some time later, a vicious pogrom makes little Fengele a refugee; instead of being sent to America, as she hoped, she`s taken in by foster parents in England; they name her Suzie. Some years later Suzie, Christina Ricci, meets a Russian refugee, Lola, Cate Blanchett, in a Paris cabaret..Sally Potter`s films have usually been operatic in theme and scope, despite their modest budgets. From The Gold Diggers to Orlando to her very personal achievement, The Tango Lesson, music has been very important to her films. In The Man Who Cried it`s important, too, but this time the elements don`t come together as well as they have in the past. That`s partly because the men in the film, John Turturro as an opera singer and Johnny Depp as a gypsy, aren`t very convincing; and it`s also partly because the narrative arc is surprisingly facile and cliched. But the film`s worth seeing for the women - Christina Ricci in her most mature portrayal to date, and scene-stealing Cate Blanchett, terrific value as the gold-digging Russian - catch that accent!Comments from Margaret PomeranzI don`t find Sally Potter`s films very much to my taste. The way in which she overtly pushes an ideas agenda turns her films into tableaux so her characters are not real for me, they`re merely cyphers. Even she wasn`t real in The Tango Lesson. With The Man Who Cried, despite the very interesting look of the film and the use of music, and despite the fact that one couldn`t disagree with her agenda about the horrors of fascism, once again her characters are up there on the screen as functionaries. Politically I query her disposal of Cate Blanchett`s character Lola. Yes, I know Lola opted for a liaison with fascism, but the conventionality of her demise for that sin goes against the feminism she embodies. There`s something smug about the way the `good girl` who is Jewish and supports the gypsies survives. The best aspect of the film is once again Cate Blanchett`s performance. She is such a talent. The worst is John Turturro`s beard.