CAPSULE REVIEWS

By Kevin Thomas, Times Staff Writer

Matteo Garrone's "Primo Amore" ("First Love") is an elegantly told tale of obsession that, in failing to take on any larger meaning, rapidly becomes depressing to watch.

Vittorio (Vitaliano Trevisan) is a tall, rugged middle-aged goldsmith who, via a classified ad, meets Sonia (Michela Cescon), a lovely younger woman to whom he immediately says, "I thought you would be thinner."

ADVERTISEMENT

She sufficiently intrigues him, however, for him to drop by an art academy where she models nude. Most men would find Sonia's body well-nigh perfect, but Vittorio, who is under psychiatric care and medication, sees only an opportunity in Sonia to reduce her to her essence, to act upon her like fire on gold.

A forceful albeit rigid man, he courts and overwhelms the unsuspecting Sonia — and then demands that she starve herself to meet his ideal. Her subsequent ordeal is every bit as repellent and morbid as it sounds, and it is not clear why she strives so mightily to please someone so obviously insane.

"Primo Amore," Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6869. (1:34) Unrated. Nudity, some sex; depiction of an extreme sadomasochistic relationship.

Inconsistency undercuts 'Copied'

Brazilian writer-director Jorge Furtado's engagingly flawed "The Man Who Copied" is two movies in one, but it's no bargain. A charming romantic comedy about a young man who operates a photocopier in a Porto Alegre bookstore and pines for a shy local shopgirl transforms awkwardly into a hedonistic crime thriller, with the two genres violently butting heads.

André (Lázaro Ramos), a 19-year-old dropout who spends his evenings dreamily drawing cartoons that resemble R. Crumb illustrating the Simpsons, desperately needs money to woo the modest beauty Sylvia (Leandra Leal). The arrival of a color copier at André's store offers him the opportunity for small-scale counterfeiting, which quickly escalates into riskier ventures.

The film's duality shouldn't have been a deal killer, but the actions Furtado assigns his characters late in the movie are inconsistent and undermine the credibility of his story. The truly beguiling performances by Ramos and Leal force you to root for the movie to work even when its ends-justify-the-means message renders that impossible.

"The Man Who Copied," rated R for language and some brief nudity. In Portuguese with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes. Exclusively at Laemmle's Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 848-3500.

'The Painting'

is no work of art

A movie about the '60s that feels as though it was made in the '50s, "The Painting" is a derivative coming-of-age story set against the decade's big headlines. From the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech to the first moonwalk, directors Peter Manoogian and Joshua Rose sleepwalk through Buddy Sheffield's booby-trapped screenplay triggering every cliché they encounter.

Unable to support heavy themes such as racism, the film resorts to condescending and preachy melodrama to make its grand statement that, yes, those were turbulent times.

Told in flashback by Randolph Barrington IV (Heath Freeman) as he serves in Vietnam in 1969, the film reflects on how he became socially conscious and fell in love with a sweet-voiced young black girl named Hallie (Stacey Dash) while growing up in Kansas City. Well-meaning to a fault, "The Painting" is like watching all three seasons of NBC's "American Dreams" compressed into 1 1/2 hours minus the KRTH soundtrack.

Moving from tragedy to tragedy, the film teeters along unsteadily, showing events we've seen countless times before and then imploding under the weight of its ridiculous ending.

"The Painting," rated PG-13 for some violence and language. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes. At Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex, 1332 2nd St., Santa Monica, (310) 394-9741; and Edwards Island 7, 999 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, (949) 640-1218.