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Original Sin

© James C. Hess

When I heard a Cornell Woolrich literary work was being adapted to the silver screen my almost immediate response was to clap my hands, shout in delight, and jump up and down, crying 'joy', 'joy', 'joy'.

Of the many things not to do in a crowded elevator, this is a big one, with a bullet next to it. So I didn't.

Besides: The adapation (and I use that word loosely--very loosely) was to be done within the Hollywood machine.

Aside: If you get the impression I was not pleased with the resulting cinematic effort you are correct.

Here is why: The film adapation of Mr. Woolrich's work, originally entitled "Waltz into Darkness", was retitled "Original Sin". Right there one knows things are amiss and bad things will probably result.

Oh, did they.

"Original Sin" opens on a close-up of Angelina Jolie's lips: Plump lips, pouting lips, bruised-looking lips, bee-stung lips. Why this shot? Because it is intriguing, because it is coy, because it goes to demonstrate how cliched this movie is.

I digress: Jolie, in the role of Julia Russell, is telling the story of why she happens to be confined in a jail cell. She is here, we eventually learn, because she is condemned to die by garroting--a screw is tightened into an iron collar fastened around a neck until, well, you get the idea.

So. Beauty as beast? Were this movie true to the Cornell Woolrich work it came from, maybe. But here we get something else.

Something that is certain to fail at the box office.

Another digression. Apologies. But the rather disjointed nature of "Original Sin", owing to the flashback/flashfront narrative, causes this often.

Now. This isn't actually the start of the story. What it is is prologue--an attempt to make legit a bastard effort. A bastard effort gleaned not from the best elements of another otherwise interesting story but the worst elements. The drudge, if you will.

The actual story begins circa 1900, in which we are introduced to a well-to-do Cuban coffee planter named Luis Durand (Antonio Banderas), who waits, rather impatiently, for the arrival of a mail order bride--the aforementioned Julia Russell. Handsome, rich beyond belief, Durand has decided now to marry. Why? Not because he believes in such things as love but because it is part of his plan, part of the reality he has created for himself to exist in.

And his reality is: To have a woman who will bear him children, heirs.