The Bridge of San Luis Rey Review
By Chris Dobens
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The first thing you'll notice about "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" is that it has talent spilling off the screen. Gabriel Byrne plays Brother Juniper, a Franciscan who witnesses the disaster and is left wondering why it was they and not he. For if he had arrived a moment earlier, Juniper would have also been on the bridge when it collapsed.
Robert De Niro plays the Archbishop who condemns Juniper for questioning God's methods and motives. F. Murray Abraham plays the Spanish Viceroy of Peru, where the film is set in the 18th Century. Kathy Bates is the Marquesa, a wealthy widow, and Harvey Keitel is Uncle Pio, the manager of Lima's theater.
Pilar Lopez de Ayala is a delightful addition. She plays La Perichole, an up-and-coming actress who catches the eyes - if not hearts - of both the Viceroy and Uncle Pio. And Dominque Pinon brings a little lightness to the otherwise weighty film, with his role as the bawdy "queen" of the Viceroy's court.
The film is based on Thorton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same title. And, though I've never had the privilege of reading it, I'm assuming that some of the finer dialog - focusing on love, faith, and other fundamentals of the human condition - are lifted verbatim.
The problem with the film, however, lies in the directing. Mary McGuckian gets credit for the screenplay as well as the directing, though "blame" may be more appropriate. The cinematography is notable (filmed in Spain...which is much safer than Peru these days) and the costumes and sets are all quite worthy. But the scrambled storyline, with its fits and starts, makes the journey - and the connections between the five lives - difficult to follow.
In the end, the film has some fine acting and memorable scenes. But overall, much of the effort is lost. It's hard to follow at times, and therefore hard to remain engaged - especially since you know how it ends.
However, I do not feel my money was wasted, given the lasting impression the film had on me. Chance, fate, or divine intervention is not what really matters. The question is not why one dies, but rather why one lives. And that is to say how one lives, what purpose you bring to life, which is really what determines the impression you leave behind.
