Amazon.com
Salma Hayek makes up for many bad movies with her fierce performance in this sumptuous film. Hayek plays the Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo, whose tempestuous life with her unfaithful husband, muralist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina), drives the story of
Frida. Maverick director Julie Taymor (
Titus, the Broadway stage production of
The Lion King) pulls out a wealth of gorgeous visuals to capture everything from the horrific bus accident that damaged Kahlo's spine to her and Rivera's trip to New York City, where Rivera's political leanings ruptured a commission from the Rockefeller family. Though the script spends too much time telling us how great Frida's painting is (rather than trusting in the power of the images themselves), Taymor's dynamic energy and Kahlo's forceful personality give
Frida genuine emotional impact. The superb cast includes Roger Rees, Valeria Golino, Ashley Judd, Geoffrey Rush, Antonio Banderas, and Edward Norton.
--Bret Fetzer
DVD features
The first disc starts with a 38-minute interview with Salma Hayek that, with her recollections of the film, works the same as a commentary track. Director Julie Taymor takes center stage for the rest of the 2-disc set. Besides an engaging commentary track, there are two interviews with the director, a Q&A session after an AFI screening, and a better one with Bill Moyers. The second disc is set-up for short (5- to 7-minute) featurettes on the making of the film--production design, cinematography, locations, two visual effects pieces, and so on--but oddly not one with the Oscar-winning make-up crew. All of these segments are better produced and more interesting than most DVD supplements, however there is little biographical information on Frida (letting the movie speak for itself). The music element gets the most attention: an interview with vocalist and Frida's lover Chavela Vargas, Hayek interviewing composer Elliot Goldenthal, and Goldenthal's own commentary track explaining his Oscar-winning score.
--Doug Thomas
