Before Famous

Back before Russell Crowe came to the US, and began acting in films like Virtuosity (a Denzel Washington virtual reality thriller), LA Confidential and eventually Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind, Crowe began his career with two films that made a little buzz in the US.

One was Romper Stomper, a film about skinheads. On the flip side was The Sum of Us, a light drama about a father who tries to get along with his gay son. That was on TV this morning. I've seen bits and pieces when it's been on TV, so I know basically what it's about.

When I read about it, I had heard that it was the kind of film you didn't see in the US, and in many respects that's true. For one, although it's often branded as a comedy, it's not. It's more of a slice of life film, and eventually tells the story of the father's own mother, who had a female lover, back in the times when people chose to ignore it, and due to her old age, they separated the women, sending the mother's lover to a home, while the mother joined the family, and eventually died, days later, despondent.

In a way, it's a bit cheap to introduce that bit at the end, even as it provides motivation for why the dad tries to do right by his son.

Even so, it's quite a varied career by Russell Crowe prior to what he did in the US. He underplays the role, playing it rather matter-of-factly. The rest of the cast does more "acting", and he comes out (so to speak) as just himself. The topic is also matter of fact, and really, it's mostly (at the end) about taking care of an infirmed father.

Speaking of natural vs. artificial, I was just watching a Star Trek: TNG episode, where Wesley is about to go to the Academy. In hindsight, the story's pretty weak to do what it wants to do, which is to get Wesley to save the captain's life, and that, mostly, so he can get a few things off his chest that he's been meaning to say, and that because the writers that be want a dramatic ending.

Here's how it goes. Somehow, Wesley and the captain join a mining captain as they head to a colony. At some point, they lose control of the ship and must crash land, in, surprise, a desert. In the meanwhile, the Enterprise has discovered a garbage scow that is bleeding radiation all over. They plan to send it to the sun, but, surprise, there's an asteroid belt in the way.

There are several things going on. First, they need some excuse to prevent the Enterprise from mounting a rescue mission. Thus, radiation from a barge that threatens a planet, and the Enterprise, and add to that, asteroids. Second, they need to crash the shuttlecraft because well, we need danger. And then there's how Wesley saves Picard's life.

Surprisingly, despite how bad the plot is, the story seems to be passable, partly because the actors have been acting a while with one another, and you forgive such horrible convolutions to make it happen.

Worse than that, there is the famous Trek plot device that's simply awful. At one point, Dr. Crusher says the radiation is going to be lethal (in 30 minutes). Not only is this precise, it's a step function. Everyone, all the races on board, are equally affected. 30 minutes and they're all dead. 29 minutes 59 seconds, and they suffer no problems at all. Convenient. And conveniently stupid.