东方快车恋曲影评：转贴，纽约时报的评论文章，最主要是找到了两首美妙插曲Elton John's ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'' and Jim Croce's ''Time in a Bot
'ROMANCE,' NBC MOVIE WITH CHERYL LADD
* Sign in to Recommend
* Twitter
*
E-MAIL
* Send To Phone
* Print
*
Reprints
* ShareClose
o Linkedin
o Digg
o Facebook
o Mixx
o MySpace
o Yahoo! Buzz
o Permalink
o
By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: March 4, 1985
Photo of Ruby Wax and Cheryl Ladd
THERE'S a certain kind of fantasy that demands, more than anything else, a soft glow. This is the kind that is marketed cleverly in advertisements for assorted cosmetics and perfumes. And tonight at 9 on NBC, it is used as the very essence of a television movie entitled ''Romance on the Orient Express.''
The film opens with postcard shots of Venice and the sound of lots of violins. Cheryl Ladd, in fetching fedora, is rushing to board the elegant Orient Express railway train that will take her to Paris. She is accompanied by Ruby Wax, a sort of Stockard Channing second-banana type who is described in press releases as a British writer-comedienne. Miss Ladd, long ago of ''Charlie's Angels,'' is playing Lily Parker, a gorgeous and very chic woman who is ''the managing editor of a major magazine.'' Miss Wax, attractive in a regular-gal sort of way, is Susan, her plucky co-worker and confidante. Eager for action, Susan gets one of the film's livelier lines: ''I'm not looking for Mr. Right, I'm looking for Mr. Right Now.''
As the train is boarding, a handsome gentleman runs to the reservations desk and, easily bribing a clerk, gets the passenger list to verify the presence of Lily. Played by the British actor Stuart Wilson, Alex Woodward had an ardent affair with Lily about 10 years ago and now, after his recent divorce, is trying to pick up the pieces. It seems that he abandoned her, reluctantly but abruptly, at the request of his father, portrayed in a couple of brief scenes by none other than Sir John Gielgud, looking ever so slightly testy.
With the journey under way, Lily keeps looking pensively out the window as flashbacks recount how she first met Alex while on vacation in France. She was on a train, as a matter of fact, and reading Thomas Mann's ''Magic Mountain.'' He sat down beside her and said, ''You must be a university student.'' The affair is launched, set to the period music of Elton John's ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'' and Jim Croce's ''Time in a Bottle.'' These scenes from the past are played by Miss Ladd and Mr. Wilson and the ''soft glow'' is employed unsparingly in an effort to recapture youthful sheens.
Back in the present, this time around Lily is reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's ''Last Tycoon'' and wondering how to cope with Alex's campaign to win her back. She is also carrying the photograph of a young girl, about nine years old, who will obviously play a key role in the denouement. The suspense, of course, in this type of exercise is minimal. Can anyone doubt where things are heading when the hero periodically pours his heart out with rhapsodic gusto: ''I was 22 and I thought nothing was irrevocable. I didn't know at 22 that the love and passion I felt for you then was unlike anything I was ever again going to experience in my life.'' Lots more violins.
Not surprisingly, the packaging is crucial, and this Frank von Zerneck Film made in association with Yorkshire Television of Britain, doesn't stint on the glossy wrapping. As the train rushes toward Paris, Lily and Alex dress for dinner, she ravishing in diamonds and gold jewelry to complement her flattering gown, he debonair in black tie. The cameras carefully caress the china-and-crystal table settings. You know that when Lily orders lobster for dinner, the artfully arranged platter will later be served, in lingering closeup, to the viewer. In no time at all, it becomes clear that the characters have no more dramatic weight than the beautiful objects and details. The inevitable result, while unintentionally amusing, is hardly compelling. Lawrence Gordon Clark served as director for Jan Worthington's teleplay. At least the perfume commercials have the virtue of being shorter.
