Jack Hussar (Danny Huston) and Diana (Sienna Miller) consider a private rendezvous in TWO JACKS (although the first half of the film is shot in black-and-white, all promotional images are curiously available only in color)
TWO JACKS (Bernard Rose, 2012)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, October 18
212-924-3363
www.cinemavillage.com
www.twojacksfilm.com
Danny Huston and Bernard Rose continue their adaptations of the work of Leo Tolstoy in the inside-joke-laden, fair-to-middling Two Jacks. Following 1997’s Anna Karenina, 2000’s Ivansxtc, and 2008’s The Kreutzer Sonata, writer, director, editor, and cinematographer Rose and executive producer and star Huston explore Hollywood legend in the film, which is based on the Tolstoy short story “Two Hussars.” The first half, shot in black-and-white, features Huston as Jack Hussar, a cigar-chomping old-time Hollywood auteur seeking financing for a picture he wants to make in Africa; any resemblance to Danny’s father, director John Huston, is purely on purpose. Shuttled around by huge fan and wannabe filmmaker Brad Perry (Dave Pressler), Hussar goes to a party where he meets the glittering Diana (Siennna Miller) and eventually gets into more than a bit of trouble. The second half of the film, shot in color, takes place several decades later, as Jack’s son, Jack Hussar Jr., played by Boardwalk Empire’s Jack Huston, Danny’s nephew and John’s grandson, arrives in Hollywood to make his first movie, getting involved with an older Diana (Jacqueline Bisset), her daughter, Lily (Rosie Fellner), his father’s card-playing producer, Lorenzo (narrator Richard Portnow), and Lorenzo’s young girlfriend, Laura (Scarlett Kapella). Like father, like son; much of the action in the second half mimics what happened in the first half. Two Jacks never quite achieves its goals, caught between its main narrative and creating a meta surrounding the Huston family. It ends up being overly predictable and disjointed, although it does have its moments, particularly the scenes involving Jack Sr. and Diana. Two Jacks, which premiered at the 2012 Montreal World Film Festival, opens October 18 at Cinema Village; meanwhile, Rose and Danny Huston have already made their next Tolstoy adaptation, Boxing Day.