Mr. Rice's Secret

• Mr. Rice's Secret: Film Threat.com Review

  Published on: September 6, 2007

  DAVID BOWIE'S BIG SECRET

  by Phil Hall
  (2002-07-26)
  

  For the past quarter-century, David Bowie has been one of the cinema's most intriguing yet elusive performers. Beginning with his star turn as the alien who becomes imprisoned in alcoholism as his planet dies of thirst in Nicholas Roeg's "The Man Who Fell to Earth," the film roles of David Bowie reflect the eclecticism and eccentricity of his musical orbit. On screen, he played a male prostitute in a Berlin brothel in "Just a Gigolo," a glamourous vampire in "The Hunger," a British soldier in a Japanese POW camp in "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence," Pontius Pilate in the controversial adaptation of "The Last Temptation of Christ," and appearances in films that only the most die-hard cinephile or Bowiephile could ever dream of recalling: "Christiane F.," "Into the Night," "Labyrinth," "Absolute Beginners," "The Linguine Incident."
  Currently, Bowie can be seen in the title role as a mysterious 400 year-old man who helps a terminally ill teenager discover a new meaning to life in "Mr. Rice's Secret." This award-winning Canadian film, directed by Nicholas Kendall, offers a mature and uplifting story focusing on the spirit of life and well-being, and it is among the very rare contemporary films where teenagers are portrayed with a high level of intelligence and sincerity.
  
  "Mr. Rice's Secret" will have its US theatrical premiere on December 22nd at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater in New York. "Mr. Rice's Secret" will also be the lead in the Two Boots Pioneer's Theater's mini-retrospective of Bowie's films. Entitled "A Very Bowie Christmas," the series will include rare screenings of "The Man Who Fell to Earth," "The Hunger," "Basquiat" (with Bowie in a flawless supporting role as Andy Warhol) and the concert film "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars." In an interview with Film Threat, David Bowie discussed "Mr. Rice's Secret" and his unique relationship with films.
  
  [ What was it about "Mr. Rice's Secret" that first attracted you to consider starring in the film? ]
  From the script, it was so thoughtfully and considerately conceived. Nothing smacked of the sensational. It could have so easily have slipped into that hole given the subject matter. There was an active intelligence behind it all.
  
  [ How did you prepare for your role as a 400 year-old man in that film? ]
  
  I have quite a few years of my own to draw upon, though a year in Manhattan is good for fatigue resource. I don't think you can 'play' 400. There are no precedents. A 400 year-old may well have the ability to project the characteristics of a 19 year-old. Who knows? I just settled for him to be relatively low-key.
  
  [ "Mr. Rice's Secret" touches on several subjects that rarely get addressed in mainstream films. How do you feel audiences will respond to this film and its message? ]
  
  I think the intention of the writer and director is firm, focused and quite clear. There is no ambiguity to the situation. Audiences will respond to the honesty and clear insight of what they are watching in a positive way.
  
  [ "Mr. Rice's Secret" is opening in New York as part of a retrospective of your film career. Where do you see this film in the context of your work in films to date? ]
  
  I don't really think in those terms. It was nice to play a father/confidant figure because of my own family ties. These days, having three children, two grown of course, draws me toward material that projects certain truths for the younger, I guess.
  
  [ "Mr. Rice's Secret" is a Canadian production in which teenagers intelligently face questions of mortality and faith in each other. In many recent American productions, however, teenagers are portrayed as sex-obsessed and shallow and rarely face the challenges that the young people meet in "Mr. Rice's Secret." Do you think American filmmakers have the proper image of today's young people? ]
  
  A majority of producers and directors have no wish or desire to see past the buck or vain glory. The banana skin rules. I find many European releases are far more considered vehicles for timely and important questions.
  
  [ You've appeared in relatively few Hollywood productions, with most of your film work concentrated in independent films like "Mr. Rice's Secret" and in productions based outside of the U.S. Have you specifically avoided working in Hollywood films or you find the opportunities in non-Hollywood productions to be more stimulating? ]

  
  I have, on the whole, avoided Hollywood like the plague. One cameo for Scorsese (Pontius Pilate in "The Last Temptation of Christ") to me brings so much more satisfaction than, say, a James Bond. For instance, I turned down the part of the villain 'Zorin' in "A View To Kill" as it simply was a terrible script and I saw little reason for spending so long on something that bad, that workmanlike. And I told them so. I don't think anyone had turned down a 'major' role in a Bond before. It really didn't go down too well at all. They were very tetchy about it. The only Hollywood movie I regret having passed on was a piece that Ridley Scott wanted me very much to do. He even determined that if I didn't do it he wouldn't make it. Unfortunately I was touring at that time so it became an impossibility. He never did make it, so at least I know that I don't have to kick myself too hard.

  The only role that one could define as 'Hollywood' that I have accepted recently was for Ben Stiller with his 'Zoolander' fashion epic. It was just too funny a script to walk past. An absolute hoot!

  
  [Which current films and filmmakers excite you? And what trends in contemporary films leave you disappointed or worse?]

  
  Ang Lee, Tom Tykwer, Darren Aronofsky are among my favorites. But there again, there really are a lot of tremendous films being made. You just have to search for them. It's always subject matter over content that leaves me cold. The subject is so often a potpourri of effect and bad visual punning against tissue thin content. No writing, no thoughtful direction.

  
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• Mr. Rice's Secret: IMDB's Review

  Published on: June 16, 2006

  Mr. Rice's Secret not rated 92 minutes New City Distribution starring Bill Switzer, David Bowie, Garwin Stanford, and Zack Lipovsky written by J.H. Wyman directed by Nicholas Kendall A Review by Frankie Paiva David Bowie isn't exactly the person you would expect to be appearing in a family film. Even stranger is that he's in a film having to do with such serious material like death, fear of death, and growing up with Hodgkin's disease. The surprising secret is that Bowie is the best part of the movie. While given first billing, he's in no more than ten minutes of the picture, but his voice, messages, and spirit live on in the main character. That character is Owen Walters (Bill Switzer) a nearly friendless young boy with Hodgkin's disease. The two spend a lot of time together. Owen looks for support, care, and advice in Mr. Rice when his parents aren't providing it. I'd be running to this guy too. The parents (played by Teryl Rothery and Garwin Standford) apparently love their son very much. However, all these clueless two ever do is make their child's situation worse by not encouraging him or answering his questions. They are unawares to the feelings their child is experiencing. Other characters include the stereotypical fat and stupid bully (Jason Anderson), and a leukemia suffering boy (Richard de Klerk) who is more accepting of his condition than Owen is. Together these people could make quite a tedious tense family drama, and at many times they do. Helping things move along though is the pursuit of treasure. When Mr. Rice dies, he leaves behind a decoder ring and code so Owen can find his secret. Soon Owen is digging up dead bodies, breaking into houses, and discovering lost keys that could all lead to Mr. Rice's secret. It's quite plain what the secret is early on in the film, but the journey is exciting and I was waiting to see what Owen would do with it. Despite some somewhat solid performances, particularly from its lead, there isn't a huge reason to see Mr. Rice's Secret. There isn't a reason to see it with the kids either. This certainly isn't a family film, even though it's marketed as one. The themes of death will be too heavy and boring for most children and the film contains an awful lot of unneeded swearing and a very brief sexual image. The problem is simple. I counted at least ten noticeable clichés I had all seen in, at minimum, five other movies. Thinking back, it's hard to recall a part of Mr. Rice's Secret that seemed original, witty, or unique. Cliché ridden movies are not always bad, but the emotion exhibited by the actors is faker than Cher's body. Last year, October Sky managed to be entertaining and sad even though it too was cliché ridden. However, that movie had much better actors. This isn't to say director Nicholas Kendall doesn't pull some things off. One character has a very funny stuttering punk brother, and there is a great close-up shot of ants feeding on a rotten apple in one frightening scene. There is also a very funny discussion about how authority figures (like parents) are meant to get lied to. Even so, I doubt parents want their children learning that you can dig up graves in the middle of the night and get away with it. They probably wouldn't want kids to blackmail their siblings, or know you can always sneak out your bedroom window without ever getting caught either. Additionally, we must not forget the most important lesson of all. Whenever you punch a fat person in the stomach, they always cry. I do appreciate the attempt to capture young boy's friendships and their true meaning, but this movie is just a depressing sham. The difficulties Owen must face never rise above the after-school special drama level, and when I figured out the ending about thirty minutes into the movie that didn't help either. I got continuously reminded of an Aesop fable the entire time, thinking that each scene was there to teach me a lesson, and they do. Perhaps the film will be an inspiration to children with Hodgkin's, leukemia, or other types of life threatening diseases. It shows that you can succeed, have friends, and triumph in life if you are only willing to try and prove yourself. The actors tried, and almost flourished. Mr. Rice's Secret isn't a guilty pleasure; it's more of a guilty emotional enjoyment. Even if I knew what was going to happen, I still left with a feeling of happiness. There just wasn't enough real emotion or material happening in the story to get this thing off its feet, or for me to rise up and cheer. C- Frankie Paiva The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews). The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author. Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups. Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author. The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion. Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews

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• Mr. Rice's Secret: Q Network's Review

  Published on: June 16, 2006

  Q Network's Review of Mr. Rice's Secret Mr. Rice's Secret Director: Nicholas Kendall Screenplay: J.H. Wyman Stars: David Bowie (William Rice), Bill Switzer (Owen Walters), Teryl Rothery (Marilyn Walters), Garwin Sanford (Stan Walters), Richard de Klerk (Simon), Zack Lipovsky (Funnell Head), Jason Anderson (Veg), Tyler Thompson (Gilbert), Campbell Lane (Mr. Death) MPAA Rating:NR Year of Release: 2000 Country: Canada Mr. Rice's Secret is a children's film about dealing with death. There are not many films aimed at kids that deal with this topic because, in Western society at least, we feel the need to protect them from it. Why? Death is part of the natural cycle of life, yet there is an enduring belief that children somehow cannot comprehend it--as if they are not part of that cycle and need to be protected from it. Of course, there is one small segment of children who know death intimately: those with terminal diseases. The central character of Mr. Rice's Secret, Owen Walters (Bill Switzer), is one of those children. A 12-year-old who is fighting Hodgkin's Disease, Owen has spent a great portion of his life in and out of hospitals and chemotherapy sessions, surrounded by other children who are all-too-aware that their time on earth will not be as long as most people's. One of those children is Simon (Richard de Klerk), a young boy with leukemia who wants to be Owen's friend. Owen resists Simon's friendly advances because his own group of friends doesn't particularly care for Simon, plus Owen wants to distance himself from a boy who he deems to be sicker than he is. Many adults, including Owen's parents, want to put Owen and Simon in the same category because they are both "sick," but one of Owen's defense mechanisms to protect himself from the emotional pain of his own condition is to construct a hierarchy of sickness in which he can feel better about himself because he is not as sick as Simon. At the beginning of the film, Owen is faced with death in another, and in some ways more painful, way: His neighbor and good friend, a mysterious man named Mr. Rice (David Bowie), has just died. Owen's parents (Teryl Rothery and Garwin Sanford) don't want him to go to the funeral, but he sneaks to the church anyway and secretly videotapes the ceremony. Later, Owen and three of his friends, Funnell Head (Zack Lipovsky), Veg (Jason Anderson), and Gilbert (Tyler Thompson), decide to sneak into Mr. Rice's empty house in order to watch the videotape. While in the house, they stumble upon a trunk filled with photographs and old letters, one of which is still sealed and addressed to Owen. Owen opens the envelope to find a letter written in code, which he decodes using a special ring Mr. Rice had given him. This leads him to series of clues, each of which leads to more clues, which eventually leads to the answer posed by the film's title: What is Mr. Rice's secret? What Mr. Rice's secret is becomes fairly obvious early on, but it doesn't prove to be a real stumbling block because the real question becomes what will Owen do once he discovers the secret. The construction of the narrative is clever in that it creates a boyish mystery-adventure that screenwriter J.H. Wyman can use to wrap about his larger themes about the relations between childhood and death. The film is in no way didactic or preachy about its admittedly heavy subject matter, which is perhaps its greatest strength. The film benefits from several strong performances, especially by the young, largely unknown, cast. I was particularly impressed by Bill Switzer's performance as Owen. The role is complex and deeply felt, and it requires him to go through a number of character changes and mood swings without being false or obvious. He handles Owen's multifaceted nature extremely well, without once becoming cloying or disingenuous. However, Mr. Rice's Secret does have a few problems, most of which are related to Wyman's script. One of the largest problems is the lack of presence by Mr. Rice in the narrative. By showing him only in flashbacks that constitute less than 10 minutes of the running time, the film creates a strong sense of mystery and aura around the man, but only to the detriment of the human relationship between him and Owen. How did they meet? Why did they become such good friends? The few scenes that Owen and Mr. Rice have together are so well done that it makes you yearn for more of them. The only other reservation I have is part of Owen's search for clues to unravel the mystery of Mr. Rice's secret. It becomes clear right at the start that Mr. Rice has carefully constructed this scavenger hunt for clues--he wants Owen to find each clue and move closer to uncovering the secret. With that in mind, it is deeply disturbing that part of this preplanned adventure entails Owen having to dig up Mr. Rice's coffin in a graveyard in order to retrieve one of the clues, which is hidden inside. There is a great deal of joking between Owen and Funnell Head (who enlists the help of his delinquent teenage brother) about what a sick act this is (not to mention illegal and, in some people's minds, a desecration). Their conversation is intended, I suppose, to lighten the mood, but it only emphasizes how severely out of place this particular plot point is. Obviously, Wyman intended for Owen's search to be a challenging adventure. But, there are so many other possibilities besides digging up a dead body that could have posed a great challenge. Perhaps the moment is intended to be symbolic--Owen's having to come face-to-face with death physically incarnated as Mr. Rice's corpse--but it doesn't work because the uneasy literalness of the scene is too off-putting. If you can ignore that section of the film, Mr. Rice's Secret has a great deal to offer. It is that rare "family film" (I dislike using that term because it seems to imply a lack of anything that might make anyone uncomfortable) that challenges both the young and old alike to ponder something difficult, yet universal. Dealing with weighty issues in films aimed at a younger audience requires a careful touch, and director Nicholas Kendall does a fine job of making Mr. Rice's Secret entertaining while also allowing it to about something. It is also realistic about kids and the fact that they cuss, they are often cruel to each other, and they often do the wrong thing. But, they often do the right thing, as well. Kids who see the movie will easily relate to the young characters, and hopefully will take away the lesson that, while Owen is hardly perfect, in the end he does what is right. Too many kids' films want to think that modern kids are shallow, attention-span-deprived simpletons who just want to be wowed with cool visuals and loud music. Mr. Rice's Secret is a film that might make them think. Overall Rating: (2.5)

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