Catwoman

by Bill Henry on Jul.19, 2004, under Bill Henry's Movie Reviews

Bill’s Review

Although Selena Kyle (et.al.) a.k.a. The Catwoman has enjoyed many spin-off tales while taking time off from tangling with Batman in comic book adventures, a movie featuring only her might be considered a tough sell. What, the outraged millions (OK thousands) cry? No Batman, no Julie Newmar or Michelle Pfeiffer, not even Commissioner Gordon; how can you do a Catwoman movie without any of them?
Well, it turns out that though Oscar winner Halle Berry has not donned the mask and black leather cat suit to play the Catwoman, but rather just a catwoman in Catwoman. Selena Kyle is nowhere in sight and Patience Phillips (Berry) seems to have more Spider-Man in her than any DC Comics anti-heroine. Patience is a graphic artist working for the cosmetics company run by the Hadares (he, Lambert Wilson, the evil capitalist and, she, Sharon Stone, the evil model/spokesperson/corporate wife/iconic face of the company). With a new miracle product, Beau-line, about to hit the shelves, Patience is burning the midnight and even delivers the new ad layouts to the factory. But while there Polly hears a little too much about the horrible side effects of Beau-line and faster than you can say â€œTerminate with extreme prejudice,â€ there is an opening for a graphic artist at Hadare Beauty.
But despite the best attempts by the stock corporate security sociopaths, Patience survives being flushed out an industrial waste pipe. Maybe survives is the wrong word since it is her dead body that washes up and dead she would stay save a gathering of pussy cats surrounds the prone Patience and one cat reverses the usual cat procedure of sucking the breath out (as cats do to babies) and instead exhales into Patienceâ€™s mouth. The disgusting aroma of fish and mice revive her, but with amazing character changes. She is fascinated by bright, shiny objects, is susceptible to catnip, hisses at dogs, always lands on her feet, and keeps a large bowl of yarn and a litter box in her apartment (last two not shown in actual movie). Not knowing where else to turn, Patience follows her familiar to the home of the local cat lady (played by Frances Conroy, the Fisher queen from TVâ€™s Six Feet Under) who tells her that the cats have given her a special gift and with great power comes great responsibilities (speaking of familiar). Of course, our feline fatale will have to be mistaken for the bad girl before movieâ€™s end. The movie may be imaginative looking, though not always elegantly plotted.
Although no Julie Newmar (or Michelle Pfeiffer for that matter), Halle Berry does a great job in the skintight cat suit (and is also pretty good in the scenes out of the cat suit). Stone has only had a lifetimeâ€™s experience to work out the characterization of an ex-model bent on world domination, so no surprise there and as for Benjamin Bratt playing a sensitive cop who only wants to find the truthâ€¦ it appears that not a lot of imagination was put into the casting. Other characters that work despite their obviousness include Wilson as an adulterous Euro-trash villain, the aforementioned Ms. Conroy as a slightly batty, but essentially knowing matron, and Alex Borstein as Berryâ€™s zany gal pal.
This leaves all the more imagination to be put into the CG stunts and the art direction. Making his American movie debut at the helm is Pitof, the one-word nom de cine of a fellow whose most noteworthy previous credits are for doing visual effects on such Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro movies as Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children, and Alien: Resurrection. Rather than being badly lit and filled with confusingly composed shots, Pitofâ€™s action scenes are a breath of fresh air after the dreary work of such single-name action directors as McG or Kaos. Some of the most enjoyable bits are just watching Berry enact normal actions with her newly enhanced pussy sense though one wonders why she uses a bullwhip instead of a cat-o-nine tails (homage de Pfeiffer?).
By the filmâ€™s end, the true evildoers are vanquished and the Catwoman is free to roam. Now, I just have one question. Where was Batman? Didnâ€™t anyone tell him they were doing this movie so he could put in a cameo for his old nemesis? Was he too busy fighting the Penguin or the Joker? Perhaps these and many other questions will be answered when Batman begins again next summer. So stay tuned: same Bat-time, same Bat-channel. Whether the Catwoman will come back is another matter. Anyone still waiting for the next Jinx movie?