6/23/2009

Lulu on the Bridge (1998)

.
The very strange tale of jazz saxaphonist Izzy Maurer (Harvey Keitel) who was shot in a club where he was performing by a suicidal man who went bizerk. In critical condition, Izzy loses a lung and knows his career as a musician is over.

On night, he stumbles across a murdered man in an alley and Izzy, in abject horror, grabs the man's valise and takes it home. A mysterious stone that glows blue in the dark and gives a sense of well being is in the valise along with a phone number. When Izzy calls the number to try to figure out what the stone is, he meets young Celia Burns (Mira Sorvino), an struggling actress. When they experience the glowing stone in the dark together, they fall in love.

Izzy's able to put in a good word for Celia before she audtions for a new film of Pandora's Box because his ex-wife Hannah (Gina Gershon) is the girlfriend of the film's producer Philip Kleinman (Mandy Patinkin). Celia wins the role and off to Ireland to begin filming with the director Catherine Moore (Vanessa Redgrave). Izzy is to follow in three days but instead, Izzy's is beaten up and his apartment is ransacked by thugs from Russia, China and Germany who are looking for the stone. He awakes in a dungeon and is later questioned by the mysterious Dr. Van Horn (Willem DeFoe) who knowa obscure facts from Izzy's past life. Meanwhile, Celia is in Ireland and Izzy hasn't arrived and she's frantic and depressed.

From there, well, things really go really unique and I'm still trying to assimilate what happened. It was sort of a rabbit hole adventure with an unexpected ending.

Others in the cast, mostly in tiny cameos, include Kevin Corrigan, Harold Perrineau, David Byrne, Lou Reed, Jared Harris.

In some ways, the ethereal nature of this film reminds me of one of my favorites -- All That Jazz.

Written and directed by Paul Auster.

Run time: 1 hour, 43 minutes

Rated PG-13 for some violence, brief strong language and sensuality.

My personal rating: B

No comments: