Such a frustrating disappointment

Simply Perfect

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Sure it was suspenseful. It was fascinating for about 90 minutes until the anthropologist (Defoe) grilled our protagonist (Keitel) about his childhood and his relationship with his brother and father. Then I knew that I had been had! The writer and directors had adopted a staple of the soap operas and TV movies, but instead of just a little dream sequence, the whole thing was a dream sequence. The whole story came crashing down when I realized that the only mystery in the movie was choosing between Keitel imagining this as he lay on the night club floor or laying in the hospital bed. I hate dream sequences. One can do anything with them. People fascinated with this movie after seeing the distasteful ending are deluding themselves. Shame on the director. Go back to the soaps.

**SPOILERS** Strange little movie that has to do with a man who's forced to see himself for who he really is not who he want's people, as well as himself, to think what's he's really not. Famous jazz saxophone player Izzy Maurer, Harvey Keitel,is doing his gig at a Greenwich Village night spot when this deranged lunatic bursts in with a gun blazing away and catches Izzy with a bullet in his left-lung and then turns the gun on himself. Izzy recovering from this life-threatening injury at a local NYC hospital is told that his left lung had to be removed and that he'll never be able to play the saxophone again. This to Izzy is like being told that he died. Alone and depressed Izzy walks the streets of New York aimlessly until one night when he comes across this body in a dark alley shot dead with a bullet in his head. Checking out the stiffs wallet Izzy finds out that the dead mans name is Stanley Mar and among his personal effects is a napkin with a telephone number written on it and a small box that has a smaller box in it with a small red-striped stone. At his apartment Izzy finds that the stone has these strange magical powers that he just can't phantom and then calls the phone number on Mar's napkin to find that it belongs to a Celia Burns, Mira Sorvino. Celia is ironically listening to a CD of Izzy's music when he calls her! Izzy makes a date with Celia to come over and when he does he treats her so rudely that she almost asks him to leave or she'll call the police. It's only when Izzy explains to Celia about the stone, that emits a bright and soft blue light and levitates as well as shows her it's strange powers that she realizes, like he did, that it's something beyond the forces of nature! The stone also seems to have magical powers of healing and creating luck for those who have it in their possession. It's after that strange meeting the two besides falling madly in love with each other have things start to change for the better for both of them. Celia a struggling young actress who supports herself as a waitress working gets a major part, in fact the leading role, in the movie "Pandoras Box" playing the role of it's star Lulu. Izzy's depression suddenly disappears because of his affair, and attachment, to Celia but there's things that are about to break that will turn this blissful dream for the two lovebirds into a dark and terrifying nightmare. Traveling to Dublin Ireland to do the movie Celia tells Izzy to keep in touch by phone and come visit her but as the days go by there's no word at all from Izzy. Getting kidnapped back in New York by a bunch of hoodlums who think that he has Stanley's Mar's "magic stone", which he gave to Celia, Izzy is locked up in this empty warehouse and threatened with death if he doesn't talk. Celia shooting the movie "Pandora's Box" is a sensation on the set but at the same time is worried about her love Izzy who she hasn't heard from since she left New York. She soon get's so depressed by not hearing from him that one evening Celia, feeling dejected and abandoned, throws the "magic stone" into the nearby Liffey River. Being visited by this pseudo-shrink Dr. Van Horn, Willem DeFoe,Izzy is mentally tortured about his past and what a low-life rat he was to both his dad who's funeral he didn't attend and older brother Franz who hasn't spoken to him for seven years because of that. Izzy is about to break under Dr. Van Horn's brain-twisting tactics when he finally breaks out of his confinement and runs to the safety of the home of his friend Philip Kleinman,Mandy Patinkin,who's involved in the film that Celia is staring in.To both his surprise and shock Izzy finds that Celia had disappeared just before the filming of "Pandora's Box" was finished! It later turned that the poor girl committed suicide when after being chased by Dr. Van Horn and two of his goons thinking that she had the mystical stone on her Celia jumped off the Dublin Ha'Penny Bridge into the Liffey River and her body was never recovered. Izzy sobbing and in a state of complete depression sits alone in his apartment watching the out-takes, that Philip gave him, of the movie "Pandora's Box" with Celia in them. It's then that the biggest surprise of all in the movie "Lulu on the Bridge" is about to come and hit the audience with the force of a sledge hammer right between their eyes! A real honest to goodness LuLu!

I just love this movie. Well parts of it. The entire movie, up until Izzy get's kidnapped, is great. I, believe it or not, did feel the connection between Izzy and Celia. I love Willem Defoe, however it just dragged after that point. I bought the book, have the soundtrack, just love love love it. I especially love the restaurant scene where Izzy loses his temper. Funny.

***MAJOR SPOILERS***A lot of people seem to compare this to Jacob's Ladder. I understand the connection but what makes Lulu On The Bridge a better film (in my opinion of course) is that it's not only about Harvey Keitel's character but also about Mira Sorvino's and her longing for someone she can be in love with. She's indeed not just a fantasy but a real person as the final scene confirms. I think the combination and interaction of these two characters makes this film much more intense than Jacob's Ladder. As for the people who think the ending is a "plot twist" - I can't believe it wasn't already clear to them what this was all about. There are many many hints throughout the film (maybe too many actually) to make sure you understand that it's all just taking place in the head of Harvey Keitel's character. It's a bit sickening to see that a shallow movie like The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis is considered as being more subtle than this when it's just as predictable but also much emptier.I'm really looking forward to seeing Paul Auster's next film !