Movie review
Irons needs to press harder in film
by Brian Abrams, Reporter

    It's safe to say that Jeremy Irons has gone off the deep end with another of his films abroad.
    But Iron's latest venture, And Now Ladies & Gentlemen, isn't a total loss.
   At the very least, taking a cutie to see this flat-out silly romance/art film at the Modern Art Museum might get you some action afterward if you play your cards right.
   But Irons in the past, say, 10 years, has shrouded himself from cinema's juicy roles (unlike Ian McKellen or Brian Cox, who, despite their theatrical work, have been striking some killer roles, both independent and blockbuster.)
   And for an actor of his esteem and talent, it's sad to see Irons at this point in his career think that he's giving the public a more obscure palette of films.
   Jeremy Irons is really just making a fool of himself.
   In And Now Ladies & Gentlemen, Irons plays a con by the name of Valentin Valentin.
   Valentin scams Bvlgari jewelry stores with polite threats and crossdressing (it's ridiculous). He eventually falls in love with one of the jewelry store staff members, and they both share their dark (so dark) past with one another (yawn).
   Director Claude Lelouch intends for his gag-robberies to be in complete humor, but the laughs don't rise above the suspension of disbelief. It's all phony baloney.
   So, we sit there in boredom for another two hours. Oh, intermittently through the film, we get some musical numbers from French pop diva Michel Legrand.
   It makes absolutely no sense why an intrusion of these Shirley-Manson-on-Zoloft piano lounge singing tunes are necessary, so why feed them into the plot?
   Nope, I suggest something else for you this weekend, besides the Modern's exclusive And Now Ladies & Gentleman but I'll be the first to let you know when another Irons/Euro wack-job flick comes to town.
   While the summer has not brought the value films that we film goers are so programmed to anticipate, And Now Ladies & Gentleman is not a film to quench the thirst. Stay at home and watch TV re-runs and have a lot more fun.