REEL CRITICS

Remember to go and see the ‘Titans’

This review is going to be short, sweet and to the point. “Remember

the Titans” -- see it. I loved it.

Denzel Washington is the star of this Jerry Bruckheimer film. He plays

Coach Herman Boone. Based on a true story and set in 1971 Alexandria, Va., Boone is hired to help integrate the T.C. Williams High School

football team. Working along with him is Will Patton as Coach Bill Yoast.

Yoast is supposed to be head coach, but when the school board needs to

add a black man to management, they make Boone the head coach.

This causes a lot of friction between the black and white kids, but

after spending part of the summer at football camp, a team emerges.

Returning home, the football team soon realizes that while they are

bonded together, it will take longer to get the other students and

parents to bond.

Soon, football season starts, and as the team beats school after

school, the old stereotypes start to dissipate with unlikely friendships

overcoming all the hate and turmoil.

While entertaining, the plot of “Remember the Titans” is very

predictable. That aside, all the performances are great. The boys on the

team -- Blue (Earl C. Potter), Petey (Donald Faison), Gerry (Ryan Hurst),

Lewis (Ethan Sulpee) and Julius (Wood Harris) -- all are convincing and

engaging. Hayden Panettiere, who plays Coach Yoast’s daughter, Sheryl,

also is great.

But no one is as good as Denzel Washington. He is wonderful. This role

may earn him another Oscar nomination.

Here it is in a nutshell: See “Remember the Titans,” a great movie to

cheer for.

o7 “Remember the Titans” is rated PG for thematic elements and some

language.

f7

* HEIDI BRESSLER, 35, is a hairstylist and Costa Mesa resident.

Challenging perceptions of what is ‘Beautiful’

Our perception of beauty pageants generally comes from the television

coverage of Miss America or Miss Universe. Behind the glitz and sound

bites, there may be a plethora of borderline unscrupulous pageant

professionals who offer classes and opportunities to line their own

pocketbooks.

In “Beautiful,” we are introduced to Mona, as played by Colleen

Rennison, at a young age. She is enraptured with the promise of beauty

queen stardom. Not surprising when you see her mother and stepfather.

Booze, cigarettes and television are their lives.

Mona believes she can change the family dynamics if she can just win a

pageant. She takes on multiple after-school jobs to earn money for

assorted lessons provided, at a fee, by Verna Chickle, played to the hilt

by Kathleen Turner.

But Mona needs more than lessons. She needs direction and love. A

school friend, Ruby (Jacqueline Steiger), along with her grandmother,

take Mona into their home. They become Mona’s “enablers.”

Fast forward to the adult Mona (Minnie Driver). Ruby’s grandmother has

died and Ruby (now played by Joey Lauren Adams) works in a senior care

facility, while Mona is still on the circuit.

As success looms on the horizon, Mona becomes pregnant. As that is not

allowed on the beauty circuit, Ruby has been recorded as mother of the

baby, Vanessa. Mona starts to moveinto pageants big time.

Sally Field has shown a light hand but determined focus in her

directorial debut. Her use of Hallie Kate Eisenberg as Vanessa is

inspiring.

This is an honest and entertaining movie worth the time and ticket

price.

o7 “Beautiful” is rated PG-13 for language and thematic elements.f7

* ELAINE ENGLAND, 65, lives in Newport Beach and owns a gift-basket

business she operates out of her home.