"The Mask of Zorro" does not stint on its Zs: There's an Old Zorro
(Anthony Hopkins), a Young Zorro (Antonio Banderas), even a
Ms. Zorro (Catherine Zeta-Jones). No wonder the villains can be
heard to gasp in fear, "It isn't just one man, damn it, it's
Zorro!"
Spanish California's very own masked avenger and righter of
wrongs is someone with a past: More than 50 features, serials and
a TV series have been made about him worldwide, and everyone
from Douglas Fairbanks and Tyrone Power to George Hamilton,
Frank Langella and France's Alain Delon have carved that final
initial on any and all available surfaces.
Reviving such a venerable franchise can be a tricky business, but
"The Mask of Zorro" is not a corpse that came C.O.D. A lively,
old-fashioned adventure yarn with just a twist of modern attitude,
it's the kind of pleasant entertainment that allows the paying
customers to have as much fun as the people on screen.
Much of the media attention for this new "Zorro" will
understandably be on the beautiful but little known Zeta-Jones, a
spirited and sensual British ingenue whose eyes flash as much as
her sword. But she is matched by Hopkins, who brings his
distinctive substance and dignity to the proceedings, as well as
Banderas, whose casual charm is made for a movie like this.
"The Mask of Zorro's" unheralded mastermind would appear to be
director Martin Campbell. Best known for reviving the James
Bond franchise with his work on "GoldenEye," Campbell has an
it's-so-old-it's-new knack for getting audiences excited about
revered, not to say hoary with age, material.
So it matters not that the dazzling swordplay, the stunt leaps, the
tricks with horses, were not new when Fairbanks and friends
employed them in the 1920s. Campbell throws himself and his cast
into the proceedings with so much energy and movement that he
carries us along with him.
If "The Mask of Zorro" is not cutting edge, it's also not a film to
look to for plausibility. How can Zorro stride through the center
of
a hot, dusty plaza without a spot of dust on him, appearing for all
the world like he just stepped out of a dry cleaners? How can he
still have the strength of 10 and the agility of Baryshnikov after
spending 20 years heavily shackled in a pitiless Spanish prison?
You're just not supposed to ask.
The first close encounter with the masked man is in Old California
in 1821. A defender of the downtrodden with a rock star's
popularity, Zorro, the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega
(Hopkins), is the idol of two young boys and the sworn enemy of
the area's snuff-taking Spanish governor Don Rafael Montero
(Stuart Wilson), who will stop at nothing, nothing do you hear, to
put him away.
After a particularly dashing adventure that photogenically ends
with
his horse rearing up in front of an enormous setting sun, Don Diego
tells his wife and infant daughter "today is Zorro's last ride."
But
instead of a quiet retirement, Don Diego endures a family tragedy
and ends up imprisoned in all those chains.
Twenty years later, the villainous Don Rafael returns to California
with an even more nefarious plan, accompanied by Elena
(Zeta-Jones), a striking young woman who thinks (though we
know better) that she's the evil one's daughter.
Escaped from prison and looking like Ben Franklin with the
benefits of a personal trainer, Don Diego is searching for someone
to pass his skill and ideals on to. Alejandro Murieta (Banderas)
was one of the worshipful young boys of 20 years past, but he
lacks the patience for the Zen and the Art of Swordsmanship
lessons the older man has in mind. All you have to know about the
weapon, he insists, is that "the pointy end goes into the other
man."
Alejandro, to be sure, needs instruction in this area, as he does
about romance, horsemanship and fine manners. And though he's
initially overmatched by the film's fine pair of believable
villains,
Wilson's shrewd Don Rafael and his icy American enabler Captain
Harrison Love (Matt Letscher), this man is nothing if not a fast
learner.
Written by John Eskow, Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio, "The Mask of
Zorro" builds self-deprecating humor into all these situations in a
way that amusingly undercuts the heroism. With good chemistry
between Banderas and Zeta-Jones, especially in their numerous
comic/passionate moments, this is one film that knows what to take
seriously and what to leave alone.
Rating: PG-13, for some intense action and violence.
Times guidelines: some gruesome moments, such as a head
preserved in a jar.