Essay Database

‘School Ties’ Brendan Fraser has evolved considerably in the few months between his admirable new film, "School Ties," and his debut as a cave dude in "Encino Man" -- not that the movies really differ much thematically. Both turn on a teenager's driving need to win over his crowd, to fit in with the cool kids -- be he an unearthed Cro-Magnon, or as in this case, a Jewish quarterback who wins an athletic scholarship …

…the lushness of the privileged life and his bewilderment at its arcane ways. For his part, Fraser gives David a brooding dignity and a clear-eyed righteousness that gradually toughens as he wisens. But there's a dramatic imbalance to Dick Wolf and Darryl Ponicsan's screenplay. By making David a saint, they make his bigoted tormentors ultra-despicable. It's so easy to identify who's in the right that it's hard to remember this wrong may exist in us.