Original Sin (2001)
Directed by Michael Cristofer
A young man is plunged into a life of subterfuge, deceit and mistaken identity in pursuit of a femme fatale whose heart is never quite within his grasp.
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10 films that influenced Original Sin
What critics say influenced Original Sin
Based on the same Cornell Woolrich novel that Francois Truffaut had fun with in 1969's underrated Mississippi Mermaid, this Cuban-based potboiler takes longer to play out than a swim from Nova Scotia to Havana.
Movie fans will recall that Francois Truffaut had a bit more artistic luck adapting this same Woolrich novel with his 1969 French version, "Mississippi Mermaid," starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Catherine Deneuve -- even though it was one of the biggest box-office flops of his career.
We can see the bare bones of Woolrich's story and how it might have worked in some other incarnation (Francois Truffaut also filmed this novel in 1969 as Mississippi Mermaid.)
Original Sin is based upon Cornell Woolrich's (Rear Window) novel, Waltz Into Darkness, which Francois Truffaut adapted in 1969 and titled Mississippi Mermaid.
Based on the 1947 Cornell Woolrich novel Waltz into Darkness (previously filmed as François Truffaut's Mississippi Mermaid), Original Sin is a little bit exotic period piece, a lot noir, but Cristofer and his cast never quite get it together.
Cristofer's adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's "Walk Into Darkness" (which was also the basis for Truffaut's "Mississippi Mermaid") is filled with howlers like this one: "This is not a love story, but a story about love," Jolie's Julia says in voiceover narration.
Based on the novel "Waltz Into Darkness" by Cornell Woolrich (who also wrote "Phantom Lady" and the short story that inspired "Rear Window"), the film is presumably supposed to be a steamy erotic thriller about a man so in love with a woman that his judgment about her is clouded, thus potentially endangering his life.
Original Sin is based upon Cornell Woolrich's (Rear Window) novel, Waltz Into Darkness, which Francois Truffaut adapted in 1969 and titled Mississippi Mermaid.
"Original Sin" has a pedigree: It is based on the book by the ingenious crime writer Cornell Woolrich ("Rear Window") that inspired Francois Truffaut's "Mississippi Mermaid."
Original Sin is based on a novel by the late Cornell Woolrich, who wrote the story that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's masterful Rear Window.
Based on the novel "Waltz Into Darkness" by Cornell Woolrich (who also wrote "Phantom Lady" and the short story that inspired "Rear Window"), the film is presumably supposed to be a steamy erotic thriller about a man so in love with a woman that his judgment about her is clouded, thus potentially endangering his life.
If not worthy of Lola Montès, the influence is clearly there.
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The story is a clunky adaptation of the novel "Waltz into Darkness," by Cornell Woolrich (who also wrote the book on which Hitchcock's "Vertigo" is based), whose main character is Cuban coffee-plantation owner Louis Durand (Banderas).
Take one of those soft-focused Zalman King erotica flicks from the 1990s -- "Wild Orchid," for example, or his late-night Showtime series "The Red Shoe Diaries" -- water down the sex a little and subtract 100 years, and you've got the bulk of the formula for "Original Sin."
Id like to see him in an update of Sunset Boulevard.
It would be nice to report that Original Sin, starring Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie as a man and a woman who luuuv only because they hate only because they luuuv, is a timeless and succulent howler in the dirty-damage tradition of ''Indecent Proposal'' and the 1976 ''A Star Is Born.''
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Where Mikheil Kalatozishvili savored Cuba’s beauty with his seminal film poem I Am Cuba, culture takes second stage in Cristofer’s thinly-guised, cornball love session to Angelina Jolie’s luscious lips.
Yet, the way in which writer/director Michael Cristofer (the director of "Body Shots" and HBO's "Gia" and adaptive screenwriter of "The Witches of Eastwick" and "The Bonfire of the Vanities") has adapted Woolrich's work robs all of that material of the necessary passion needed to make any of it work.
The actors have so little chemistry delivering tired dialogue that the sluggish direction by Michael Cristofer (coming off the equally ludicrous Body Shots) is merely the final insult.
It's not hard to believe this mess came from writer/director Michael Cristofer, whose previous film was the unwatchable, chauvinistic "Body Shots."
Writer-director Michael Cristofer, a marked man for the 1999 rape thriller "Body Shots," aimed for pulpy luridness, but left the suspense in his trailer.
Cineast Factor: From Michael Cristofer, who directed Body Shots.