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Monday, Nov 9, 2009
Should we be outraged that Oscar winner Halle Berry is now prowling around in a skimpy catsuit? No, we should be irked that this movie doesn't objectify her more!
Jul 23, 2004 | The problem with "Catwoman" isn't that it objectifies Halle Berry; it's that it doesn't objectify her enough. There are always going to be moviegoers who think it's demeaning for an actress to prowl around in a skimpy catsuit -- as if part of being a "serious" moviegoer means we need to deny some of the essential reasons any of us, male or female, go to the movies in the first place.
But the more unfortunate reality is that "Catwoman" barely acknowledges either Berry's luxe beauty or her quietly glowing charisma -- instead of basking in the considerable charms Berry has to offer, the director, Pitof (a name that seems naked, as if it should have an exclamation mark at the end), treats them like accessories to the picture's flashy, senseless cutting and overused special effects. Even if you believe that putting an actress into a slim leather modified Band-Aid outfit instantly turns her into a sex object and nothing more, isn't it more insulting when a movie has every opportunity to make an actress a sex object and fails?
When Berry isn't slinking around the city at night, she's mild-mannered Patience Philips, a graphic designer for a big cosmetics company headed by suave slimeball George Hedare (Lambert Wilson). Hedare is about to launch a new face cream. (It's called Beau-Line, a lousy name for an anti-wrinkle product, although the characters inexplicably pronounce it "Byoo-LEEN.") Patience, a hapless artist type who favors baggy, shapeless clothes, is in charge of the big ad campaign.
But there's a nasty secret behind Beau-Line, one that Hedare's conniving, ex-supermodel wife, Laurel (Sharon Stone, who looks great in a succession of slim, drapy outfits, but who should be a lot more fun than the movie allows her to be), is desperate to hide. When Patience becomes privy to Beau-Line's evil side effects, she's hastily dispatched and left for dead -- only to be resurrected by a special mystical cat: He brings a bunch of his four-footed friends, and they surround her lifeless body, resuscitating it with their goddess-given restorative purring powers.
"Catwoman"
Directed by Pitof
Starring Halle Berry, Benjamin Bratt, Sharon Stone
That's how Patience becomes the glamorous, conflicted semi-superhero Catwoman, a powerful part-woman, part-feline who fights crime, sort of, when she's not inadvertently committing it. Patience becomes Catwoman at night, and on the morning after, she doesn't remember what she did the night before. Even so, "Catwoman" tries desperately to be a woman's empowerment fable. Patience learns that she's part of a long line of Catwomen, one of the lucky chosen few who live their lives unconstrained by the rules of society, following their own desires. (In most circles, going out at night and waking up the next morning with no idea what you did would be considered the exact opposite of empowerment, but never mind.)
The script was written by John Brancato, Michael Ferris and John Rogers, from a story by Theresa Rebeck and John Brancato and Michael Ferris. This Catwoman is based, but only very loosely, on the DC Comics character created by Bob Kane. (Her name isn't even Selina Kyle.) And unfortunately, she doesn't have the depth or growly complexity of the earlier Catwoman played by Michelle Pfeiffer in "Batman Returns." (It's interesting that when Patience is shown a collection of pictures of Catwomen of the past, we get a quick glimpse of Pfeiffer in her shiny latex cat mask -- it only makes us miss her more.)
