A Time Of Destiny

Who would have guessed that a film starring William Hurt and Timothy Hutton and directed by the acclaimed director of El Norte (Gregory Nava) would flop at the boxoffice? Who would have further guessed that video review magazine critics, whose job it is to rescue commercial flops, would not raise a forger in support when the film made it to video? From its opening shot, fired literally out of a bazooka, A Time of Destiny is consistently dazzling in its cinematographic expertise. From visiting Hurt and Hutton on the Italian front in 1943, the film flashes back to just before the war. And we discover their relationship: Jack (Hutton) eloped with Martin's (Hurt) sister Jo (Melissa Leo), and was chased by her Italian papa-who dies in a car crash. Italian revenge is not a subject to trifle with, and Martin (whom Jack has never met) gets himself assigned to Jack's company in Italy, where he plans to kill him. In a freak accident, Martin ends up saving Jack's life, and vice versa. Revenge goes on the back burner until the two meet again stateside on top of a gloriously huge church (with a bow to Hitchcock's Vertigo.) There is no question that the story is a tad on the melodramatic side, but we suspect critics disliked the film precisely because it had a story. A story that dealt with such mundane matters as love, loyalty, and revenge, no less. The best acting comes from the trio of sisters who grapple with papa's rules and regulations while he's alive, and are haunted by his memory when he's dead: Megan Follows (Anne of Green Gables), Stockard Charming, and Melissa Leo. It's the boys, Hurt and Hutton, who turn incompetent, but uninspired performances-in a movie that visually screams grandeur in every frame. What can we say? Nobody drops trou, nobody gets their face ripped off; it's just a good old-fashioned kind of movie that focuses on such forgotten arts as good scriptwriting and luscious filmmaking. Highly recommended. (See THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE for availability.)