I am going to see Hotpants College 2

LOVE AND DEATH ON LONG ISLAND (1998)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

John Hurt is one of our most underrated actors, partly because some of the

films he's appeared in. "Frankenstein Unbound" and "Even Cowgirls Get the 
Blues" have not enhanced his career in the same way as other British actors 
have such as Anthony Hopkins. Now comes one of his best leading roles since 
"The Elephant Man" as Giles De'Ath in the unusual, independent comedy-drama 
"Love and Death on Long Island."                                                

Hurt plays Giles De'Ath, an academic, isolated writer living in London who has no interest in the modern conventions of society, particularly televisions. One day, he's locked out of his house and wanders into a movie theater where they are showing the latest film adaptation of an E.M. Forster novel. He winds up in the wrong cinema screen where they are showing the Porky's-style comedy "Hotpants College 2." Instead of being mortified, however, Giles becomes transfixed and smitten by a particular actor named Ronnie Bostock (Jason Priestley from "Beverly Hills 90210"). He is so smitten and obsessed that he decides to fly out to the fictional Chesterton on Long Island, and locate the handsome actor.

While checking out the sights in Chesterton (actually Halifax, Nova Scotia), he stumbles upon Bostock's supermodel girlfriend, Audrey (Fiona Loewi) at the supermarket. They become friends and he convinces her that he's the kind of cultured intellectual who can offer Ronnie sound career advice. Eventually Giles gets to meet his young idol Ronnie, and he tells him that Ronnie's future as an actor is limited unless he makes more adventurous choices and plays more complex characters, like Laurence Olivier. "I'll devote myself to your career," says Giles. By this point, Ronnie has become transfixed and smitten as well.

"Love and Death on Long Island" may remind some viewers as a kind of low-note riff on "The King of Comedy" but its tone is closer to Thomas Mann's similar "Death in Venice." This film is not about the dangers of obsessive behavior, but about an obsessive search for beauty and finding it in the strangest of places. Giles finds that obsessive beauty in Ronnie, and his whole world suddenly brightens with his interest in American pop culture, teen magazines featuring pictures of Ronnie, VCR's and TV's, abysmal Ronnie videos such as "Tex Mex" and "Skid Marks," and so on.

If we didn't believe the relationship between Giles and Ronnie, then the film wouldn't work. Thus, it was an auspicious casting decision to have John Hurt and Jason Priestley cast as the unlikely twosome, and they have great chemistry together. Hurt is particularly understated and dryly humorous as the lovestruck author; his incredible performance embodies wit, naivete, reserve, great comic timing, pathos and humor. Hurt is already on my list of the best performances of 1998, and this is a performance that he handles with great relish. Priestley has come a long way from the soap opera origins of "Beverly Hills 90210," and he has a tricky role here: he's essentially playing himself as the actor with the pretty boy looks, and he has to convey that a hint of talent may be in his future ventures, even if he's set to appear in "Hotpants College 3." In a sense, Priestley may venture onto a real career himself after appearing in this film, and in the independent black comedy "Cold Blooded."

There are also some nicely underplayed supporting characters such as Maury Chaykin, from "The Sweet Hereafter," as a restaurant owner who describes everything as attractive, and Sheila Hancock, one of Britain's best-known actresses, as Giles's maid, Mrs. Barker. The one character that doesn't work as cohesively as the others is Audrey's, as played by Fiona Loewi: she's Ronnie's girlfriend, but her character is practically left on the sidelines when we could have seen what kind of effect Ronnie's career has on her life.

"Love and Death on Long Island" is fluidly written and directed by Richard Kwietniowski, his first full-length feature after having directed a slew of short films. The film is based on Gilbert Adair's cult novel of the same name which is composed entirely of Gile's first person narration, with no dialogue. He does a fine job of adapting the book by taking the subjective approach from Giles's point-of-view. I also liked Kwietniowski's accurate approach to the look of those 80's-style comedies Bostock is famous for - it is a far more evocative homage than the awfully uneven "The Wedding Singer."

At a breezy 93 minutes, "Love and Death on Long Island" is a smart, extremely funny and touching treatise on obsession, pop culture v.s. art, and the nature of celebrity. Its most telling and universal theme, though, is that love and beauty can be found in places you never thought of looking or least expected to find, like "Hotpants College 2."