Opens December 8, 1999

Tim Robbins charmed Cannes this year with his newest film Cradle Will Rock, and with good reason. Against amazing odds -- this is a vignette-driven, political period musical (what a risk) -- Robbins has crafted a first-rate ensemble drama. His delightful wit, crisp eye for detail and sense of the absurd give this movie the feel of an old screwball comedy as seen through the eyes of Federico Fellini and Woody Allen. While the story sags in parts due to the vignette-like nature of the plot, Cradle Will Rock is worth a look because it stands out among the collection of blatant Oscar wanna-be's that populate every holiday season.

Robbins has based his film primarily on explosive true events and larger than life personalities. The time is the 1930s when labor strikes rock the land and people struggle just to put food on the table. Yet, New York City, the mecca of sleaze and dreams, is relatively unaffected by all this; in fact, it's in the midst of a cultural revolution. At the forefront of this movement is the Federal Theater Project, run by Hattie Flanagan (Cherry Jones), who is determined to bring art to the masses. When she discovers composer Marc Blitzstein (Hank Azaria), a downtrodden musician whose visions of his dead wife and of Berthold Brecht lead him to write the musical "The Cradle Will Rock", she knows she has a winner.

Despite the political nature of Marc's musical -- it does everything but inspire revolution among the hungry masses -- Hattie is enthralled by it and she enlists none other than upstart, young wunderkind Orson Welles (Angus MacFadyen) to direct it. Both Jones and MacFadyen fearlessly command the screen when they are on it. Jones, who won the Tony for "The Heiress" on Broadway, easily proves she has what it takes for film, offering up Hattie as a spirited gal full of gumption, while MacFadyen offers a drunken, melodramatic portrayal of Welles that is painfully amusing.

Trouble rears its head for Hattie's Federal Theater when Congress starts to worry that the Project is populated by Communists. (Leave it to those pesky Reds to ruin everything!) Robbins really gets a chance to show his sense of humor here when it turns out that the stage production worrying the politicians is none other than a harmless kids' show called "The Revolt of the Beavers." Congress thinks it's inciting children to revolution. All Hattie can do is laugh and say to her co-workers, "They're bad beavers."

Interwoven with this story line is a pastiche of other events. Federal Theater Project worker Hazel Huffman (Joan Cusack) testifies for Congress that the Reds are afoot, while her friend Timmy Crickshaw (Bill Murray), a closet Commie cheers her on. Millionaire Nelson Rockefeller (John Cusack) hires Mexican revolutionary artist Diego Rivera (Ruben Blades) to paint a mural for Rockefeller Center, only to discover that Diego has his own political agenda. Nelson isn't an angel himself however -- he's in cahoots with Italian propagandist Margherita Safartti (Susan Sarandon) to support Mussolini. Still, he takes time out to beg Margherita to talk to her friend Diego. Not only is there a picture of Lenin in the mural, but as Nelson says to Margherita: "You've got to talk to him. There's cells of Bubonic Plague on my wall." (Yet another memorable line courtesy of Robbins' ribald wit and, obviously, Rivera's own sense of humor.)

Clearly, one of the reasons the film works so well is that Robbins has done his research and then imbued it with a combination of political sensitivity and situational absurdity. Still, none of it would come off without a stellar cast and Robbins has assembled just that. There are superb performances all around from Sarandon to Murray to Vanessa Redgrave as a giddy heiress. The real stand-out, though, along with Cherry Jones and Angus MacFadyen, is John Turturro as the star of the musical within the movie. His performance is so dynamic that one has to wonder why he so rarely gets cast in leading roles. Only the Cohen brothers (and Robbins) seem to see this guy's charisma.

Now, platitudes aside, Cradle Will Rock does have its problems. It starts sagging toward the end of the second act when all the various story lines grow frenetic and you start feeling like you're trapped in a vaudeville show. Still, Robbins manages to make all the plots dovetail nicely, sending a strong message in the end for individual freedom and showing that one man's voice is enough to beat the system. As the performers in the musical sing, "The cradle will rock!" and, indeed, that's just what Robbins, who is passionately political himself, wants it to do.