June 16, 1998

Showings:
June 19 - Enzian, 4:45pm

Jerome, a film written and directed by the creative team of Tom Johnston, Dave Elton and Eric Tignini, had its Florida Film Festival debut on Sunday, June 14, 1998. It's the tale of Wade Hampton (Drew Pillsbury), a welder in Bakersfield, CA who hates his 9 to 5 life and wishes to pursue his interest in art. A while back, a coworker of his sent him a postcard from Jerome, Arizona - an artists' colony. Wade dabbles in "scrap art." One day, he just up and leaves his job, wife and child (and steals his boss's car in the process), and decides to head for Jerome.

While on the road, Wade picks up Jane (Wendie Malick from HBO's Dream On), a free-spirited woman who lets Wade (and us) immediately in on the fact that she has a gun. Of course, we wait for this gun to go off. Meanwhile, Wade and Jane have some misadventures on the road, leading us to wonder whether Wade will ever make it to Jerome.

Most everything about Jerome is right on. The acting is terrific, with Wade being smartly understated by Pillsbury, and Malick playing convincingly against type as the wild and woolly Jane. The script is sharp with a lot of terrific lines and insights. The direction is focused and fluid, and the filming extremely well done. However, Jerome is just not terribly original in this post-Pulp Fiction era. It seems that every movie that is set in the Southwest, and especially those involving hitchhikers, has to erupt into some sort of hell (Thelma & Louise, U-Turn, From Dusk Till Dawn). Remind me never to drive there, and, if I am fool enough to do so, NEVER EVER to pick up a hitchhiker. I found Jerome to be very well-made, but very predictable.

Mary Walsh My husband, Erik, and I are recent transplants from New England. We live in Longwood with our two cats, Ellie (from Damiel, the angel in the German film Wings of Desire) and Phineas, otherwise known as Blackie (which describes both his fur and his soul). Being childless, by choice, these are our substitutes, and we never miss a chance to discuss them as such, much to the annoyance of our friends with children. We lead very exciting lives, something like jet-setters, except that we rarely travel, don't go out much and both prefer to read or watch films (although Erik also likes professional wrestling, which he continually refers to as our country's second great art form, after jazz). Other Articles I've Written