Smoke (Wayne Wang)

Rating: 2.5

This film means well, but it's trying too damn hard.  I didn't like THE
MUSIC OF CHANCE, either, and my suspicion is that Paul Auster, who wrote
the novel on which it's based, and the script for SMOKE,  is too
"literary" to translate well to film; both of these films are far too
precious and overtly symbolic.  SMOKE almost gets by on the strength of
its performances, but in that respect it suffers from comparison with THE
SECRET OF ROAN INISH, which preceded it by only a few months; William
Hurt, Forest Whitaker, and Harvey Keitel, though fine actors, just aren't
the raconteurs that Mick Lally and John Lynch are.