Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Peter Travers Reviews Films Coming Out This Weekend

Aired August 10, 2001 - 11:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LAURIN SYDNEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here to talk about "The Others" and other movies coming out this weekend is "Rolling Stone" film critic Peter Travers, who, of course, can be seen on CNN's "HE SAID/SHE SAID" show every Saturday morning at 10:30. I would not miss it.

Now, Peter...

PETER TRAVERS, CO-HOST, CNN'S "HE SAID/SHE SAID": I'm so glad, and I -- I'll do the scene from "The Others" and just go mooo. I'll scare everybody out there.

SYDNEY: It's cold, it's tension-filled, and we're not talking about the divorce of Tom and Nicole.

TRAVERS: We're not, you might be.

SYDNEY: We're talking about the movies.

TRAVERS: No, this is actually a movie that's good. I'm here, I'm on here talking to you, saying there's a movie that's good, and it's called "The Others." It stars Nicole Kidman. Yes, she's no longer Mrs. Tom Cruise -- that's over. But he produced this movie.

And it's a ghost story, and it's a ghost story in the style of "The Sixth Sense." Is it as terrific as "The Sixth Sense"? No, OK, I've got to say that. It has too many bumps in the script along the way.

She's great in it. She's the mother of two children. Her husband has been lost in battle at the end of the Second World War. And she's in the house where the children are allergic. See, we're seeing those scenes now.

SYDNEY: Yeah!

TRAVERS: And they can't look at lights. They have this allergy to it. So it has to be dark. Curtains must be drawn. And the end is a grabber. It comes right at you.

(CROSSTALK)

SYDNEY: Which you're not going to tell us.

TRAVERS: Of course I wouldn't tell you. I'm just going to tell you this. Go see that one. Avoid some of this junk.

SYDNEY: Do we think that there's an Academy Award nomination in Nicole's future?

TRAVERS: I think Nicole could pull out this Academy Award nomination for this movie, not "Moulin Rouge," but don't get me started on that one again.

SYDNEY: OK. Earlier in the week, Daryn and I were very happy that I got to speak to Goran Visnjic from "The Deep End." Now, you say...

TRAVERS: And you should be.

SYDNEY: ... this film has a lot of depth to it.

TRAVERS: "The Deep End" is going to be a harder movie for you to find. It stars an actress who I think is amazing, named Tilda Swinton. She's a Scottish actress, and he -- she's played before very arty movies, like "Orlando." You know, so people don't really know her. Here she's a soccer mom. She's living with her three kids off of Lake Tahoe. Her husband's away.

Her teenaged son, who she finds out is gay, has an argument with the older man he's having an affair with. The older man's body turns up. And what does mom do? She's cleaning up after this little boy. She's going to get rid of it, because she's a mom.

Do mother and son ever talk about the fact that he's gay? No. But what you see in that relationship is a parental bond you can't believe, and Tilda Swinton, she's right up there with Nicole, I think, at next year's Oscars, if there's any fairness in the world. And "The Deep End" should be one of the best pictures on everybody's 10-best list. That's good.

SYDNEY: And you also thought Goran had a wonderful...

TRAVERS: Goran Visnjic has this wonderful romantic part. Now, you and Daryn are always complaining that there's no romance in the movies...

SYDNEY: Yes, we are.

TRAVERS: Yeah? This movie is romantic. Nicole Kidman's movie, no romance, just ghosts.

This movie has suspense. Lake Tahoe, great scenery, and the two of them, wow, that's chemistry.

SYDNEY: A movie that I think you might be a little bit crusty about, "American Pie 2." What did you think?

TRAVERS: First of all, confession.

SYDNEY: Yeah.

TRAVERS: Really liked the first one.

SYDNEY: Me too.

TRAVERS: I didn't care how gross it was, because the kids in that movie were characterized very endearingly. You actually liked them. They were dumb, they were silly, they made the mistakes high school students make.

This movie, made by another director completely, just has one crude joke piled up after another one. You don't feel anything for them now that they're in college. They just seem to be a little backward now. You know, come on, what are you doing?

And you don't get the undercut of the laughs, the little undercoating that says, "I like these people, so no matter how gross they are, I see them as somebody I can identify with." I didn't. Take this pie, drop it.

SYDNEY: But it is still going to make tons of dough, because it is (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

TRAVERS: Oh, tons of money, because every single week there's another No. 1. It was "Rush Hour 2" last week. "Rush Hour 2" say goodbye. Jackie Chan, sorry, "American Pie 2" will make all that money. In the following week, nothing.

SYDNEY: OK. Nothing, no more time. Goodbye.

TRAVERS: Nothing.

SYDNEY: Goodbye.

TRAVERS: Goodbye.

SYDNEY: Let's go back to Daryn and to Leon.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com