`Purple Rain,” the overrated, semi-autobiographical film that marked the acting debut of bantyweight rock star and self-styled sex symbol Prince, was blessed with a catchy sound track that covered a multitude of cinematic sins. No such luck with ”Under the Cherry Moon,” Prince`s sophomore effort, in which he stars and directs with near-terminal narcissism.
The real marvel of this tiresome outing is that Prince manages to not only stand but also walk and actually run in the everpresent spike-heeled boots that he wears to bring him within smooching distance of the lips of his leading lady–even though he falls flat on his face otherwise.
”Cherry Moon,” shot in black and white because Prince (a press release explains) wanted to ”capture the romance and drama of `40s movies,” finds the singer playing Christopher Tracy, a supposedly irresistible gigolo piano player in a Parisian club. (While the role would seem to indicate that Prince is working to shore up his masculine image, frequent bits of gay schtick with his roommate and fellow fortune-hunter, Tricky–played by Jerome Benton–add a puzzling note to the proceedings.)
”Once upon a time, in France, there lived a bad boy named Christopher,” a voice intones at the beginning of the film, as the camera caresses Prince`s face while he makes google-eyes at a soignee female club patron, who is inexplicably smitten by his bad Valentino imitation and, even more
incomprehensibly, apparently willing to shell out for the pleasure of his arrogant, preening company. ”He lived for all women, but he died for one.”
So, okay, right away we pick up on the fact that this dude is doomed. But then again, anybody who attempts to foist a film this absurd and self-congratulatory on the public deserves to get it.
The plot of this simultaneously predictable and preposterous exercise in Princely egotism revolves around Prince`s romance with a young heiress named Mary Sharon (Kristin Scott-Thomas), a woman he and Tricky originally regarded as an easy mark for their fortune-hunting activities. The pair crash Mary`s 21st birthday party and Prince and the Birthday Girl strike up a love-hate relationship right away.
From then on, it`s just a matter of time before Prince decides to leave the gigolo life for True Love with Mary. His decision doesn`t sit well with Tricky, who wants a cut of the action, or with Mary`s authoritarian dad, who understandably pales at the idea of the family fortune winding up in the hands of a gigolo. Tricky deals with the situation by getting drunk. Dad, more resourceful, dispatches goons, and the film moves toward its predictable finale.
”We had fun, didn`t we?” asks Prince at the end, just before he goes to heaven. It`s nice that somebody did.
”UNDER THE CHERRY MOON”
(STAR)
MINI-REVIEW: THE PITS DIRECTED BY PRINCE; PRODUCED BY BOB CAVALLO, JOE RUFFALO
AND STEVE FARGNOLI; SCREENPLAY BY BECKY JOHNSON; PHOTOGRAPHED BY MICHAEL BALLHAUS; MUSIC BY PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION. A WARNER
BROS. RELEASE AT THE WOODS, CARNEGIE AND OUTLYING THEATERS. RATED PG-13.
THE CAST
CHRISTOPHER TRACY…………………………PRINCE TRICKY…………………………JEROME BENTON
MARY SHARON…………………………KRISTIN SCOTT-THOMAS MRS. WELLINGTON…………………………FRANCESCA ANNIS
