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| Big Blonds: Owen Wilson woos Sara Foster in Elmore Leonard's The Big Bounce. |
The latest Elmore Leonard
adaptation (an update of the forgettable 1969 movie
with Ryan O’Neal) stars Owen Wilson as a
Hawaiian con man who falls for a bikini-wearing woman
(Sara Foster). Morgan Freeman and Gary Sinise co-star.
(1 hr. 28 mins.; PG-13) — LOGAN HILL AND BILGE EBIRI
Spotlight: Elmore Leonard
At 79, Elmore Leonard is on a roll. The television
series Karen Sisco, based on his novel Out
of Sight, is a success, and his hard-boiled return
to Detroit crime in his new novel, Mr.
Paradise, has drawn some of the best reviews of
his career. “I’m surprised,” says
Leonard, almost bashfully. “I thought
people’d say, ‘There he goes again.’
” Of course, pitch-perfect dialogue is what
Leonard does best—and it’s been adapted
for the 21 films based on his work, including the
three scheduled for 2004 releases: Tishomingo
Blues, Be Cool, and the second adaptation of his
novel The Big Bounce, out this week. “The
first one was bad,” says Leonard,
referring to the 1969 version in which Ryan
O’Neal played a con artist who falls into a
dangerous affair. “The first time I saw it, I
was in New York, and fifteen or twenty minutes into
it, the woman in front of me said to her husband,
‘This is the worst movie I’ve ever
seen.’ Then the three of us got up and
left.” So, uh, what does he think of the new
one, directed by George Armitage and starring Owen
Wilson and fashion model Sara Foster? “I was
surprised to see those big waves coming in,” he
says dryly, referring to the film’s sandy new
North Shore setting. “I recall the story took
place on the tip of the thumb in Michigan,
and—no. There’s no waves there.”
Leonard, a fan of the last three films of his work,
takes a stab at being charitable, but playing nice
doesn’t seem to suit him. “It’s
probably a pleasant little movie. But it’s not
what I recall—I don’t know why they
didn’t just shoot the book.
Opens January 30
• Showtimes
& tickets (movietickets.com)
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