Movie Scene
At the Movies: 'Original Sin'

By David Germain
AP Movie Writer

An MGM release, "Original Sin" is rated R for strong sexual content and some violence. Running time: 116 minutes.

At least seven deadly sins of rotten filmmaking are at work in this thrill-less romantic thriller starring Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie: Grating melodramatics, bad dialogue, tiresome voice-overs, hack editing, overbearing music, cheesy camera work, unpleasant characters with incomprehensible motivation.

If it weren't for occasionally pretty sets and costumes and the odd moments when the charisma of Banderas and Jolie overcomes the flimsy material, "Original Sin" would be unwatchable.

Writer-director Michael Cristofer, a screenwriter and playwright who directed Jolie to stardom with the HBO film "Gia," seems lost in this big-screen affair, unable to breathe life into his turn-of-the-century Cuban settings or his principals' bizarre love triangle.

Based on Cornell Woolrich's novel "Waltz Into Darkness," "Original Sin" stars Banderas as rich coffee merchant Luis Vargas, who in best businesslike manner sends for an American mail-order bride not for love, but for the pragmatism of a mate to bear him children.

From the photo his intended has sent, Luis expects a Plain Jane. Instead, he gets the beautiful Julia Russell (Jolie) who tells Luis she deceived him with a false photo because she did not "want a man to be interested in me just because I owned a pretty face."

Luis does not complain.

They quickly consummate their marriage in a love scene where arms and legs get pointed in so many directions you'll swear someone else is in bed with Banderas and Jolie.

While there's lots of panting and posing by the two stars, the sex scenes – like the movie – have very little passion.

For a time, the marriage seems idyllic. That is, until Luis returns home to find Julia has vamoosed, cleaning out her closet and his bank accounts.

With the help of private detective Walter Downs (Thomas Jane), Luis learns grave facts about Julia's past. Luis sets out to find her, figuring he'll either kill her or kiss and make up.

Meantime, Downs has his own schemes afoot, along with a dark connection to Julia.

Through it all, Julia blathers on with lugubrious jailhouse narration, harking back to events that have landed her on death row.

Just why the filmmakers think audiences would possibly care about these people or their machinations is beyond reason.

It's quite a dubious achievement by Christofer to so fully douse the sparks that Banderas and Jolie could and should have made fly.

The action is beyond lethargic, and the devices Christofer employs to enliven things i quick, pointless cuts and dissolves, extreme close-ups, strange double images i merely induce mild seasickness.

Terence Blanchard's score and a handful of Latin tunes are so obtrusive they amount to the musical equivalent of a mallet to emphasize dramatic points.

"Original Sin" was scheduled for release last fall, bounced to midwinter, then delayed again to ride the coattails of Jolie's early-summer adventure in "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider."

But "Original Sin" is one tomb best left undisturbed.