Email Author Jean Oppenheimer

1998 Stories by Jean Oppenheimer

• Life Is semisweet

  published December 24, 1998

  British actress Jane Horrocks is thrice-gifted: She can act, she can sing, and she can sing like Judy Garland--and like Shirley Bassey, Marilyn... More >>

• Emotional rescue

  published December 24, 1998

  Given the manipulative tendencies of many mainstream pictures, Stepmom easily could have slipped into a sticky morass of sentimentality and... More >>

• Reign check

  published November 19, 1998

  Even students of English history may have trouble sorting out the palace intrigues and intra-governmental conspiracies that fill Elizabeth, the... More >>

• Death rattle

  published November 12, 1998

  Well, now we know why the term "bored to death" was invented. Meet Joe Black takes an interesting idea--Death assumes human form and comes to... More >>

• Hearts of darkness

  published October 22, 1998

  A riveting but darkly disturbing thriller, Apt Pupil isn't easy to sit through. The subject matter itself proves deeply unsettling, while two... More >>

• This girl's life

  published September 24, 1998

  Leelee Sobieski is a mouthful of a name (40 years ago, studio moguls would have made her change it to something short and unassuming), but get... More >>

• The shadow of Stalin

  published September 3, 1998

  How vulnerable children are! And how wounding life can be. The Thief, a Russian film set in the post-World War II Stalinist era, was one of... More >>

• Samba triste

  published August 27, 1998

  The idea of destiny--especially the notion that two people are fated to meet and fall in love--is a load of crap, but a surprising number of... More >>

• Split personality

  published July 30, 1998

  The Walt Disney Company has a smart and highly profitable business strategy: Re-release the studio's proven hits every seven years or so, thereby... More >>

• Ball and chain

  published July 30, 1998

  The feature directorial debut of writer-director Theresa Connelly is a complete misfire. What is meant to be a somewhat farcical, but also... More >>

• Leopard in the dunes

  published July 16, 1998

  The winds that sweep across the Sahara kick up ferocious sandstorms. Dunes change shape by the hour, flying particles blind the eye, and all sense... More >>

• The children's hour

  published July 9, 1998

  "In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines, lived 12 little girls in two straight lines. They left the house at half past nine, in two... More >>

• Far from perfect

  published June 4, 1998

  Rule number one: when crafting a thriller, make sure the audience can relate to, identify with, or empathize with at least one of the characters.... More >>

• Double timing

  published April 23, 1998

  Gwyneth Paltrow gets another chance to show off her letter-perfect English accent in Sliding Doors, an engaging romantic comedy that employs a... More >>