Lulu on the Bridge

"A disaster. The worst thing I ever lived through." So sighs Mandy Patinkin at one point in the film, but this refreshingly unpredictable, albeit ultimately confounding and baffling drama, written and directed by author Paul Auster (Smoke), is not quite a disaster, thanks to its game cast. Harvey Keitel stars as Izzy, a jazzman forced to hang up his horn after he is severely wounded by a madman's stray bullet. One night, he comes upon a dead body and a suitcase which contains a napkin sporting a phone number and a rock. This is no ordinary rock. It glows, floats and induces feelings of overwhelming bliss. It's no ordinary phone number either. It belongs to Celia Burns (Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino), a waitress and aspiring actress poised on the brink of stardom. Izzy is rejuvenated by her, and vows to stop acting like "a crazy man" (the last thing you want from Harvey Keitel), but their idyll is shattered with the appearance of Willem Dafoe as an anthropologist who wants a piece of the rock and kidnaps Keitel. Their interrogation scenes are riveting. The ending, though, which recalls "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," is a real lulu. Not recommended, although the Auster connection and eclectic ensemble (which also includes Gina Gershon and a luminous Vanessa Redgrave) makes this an interesting curiosity. (K. Lee Benson)