Film Review: Bedazzled

DRESSED IN sexy,Versace designed red dresses, with red snakeskin shoes to boot, (five inch heel) Elizabeth Hurley is not your average temptress... Oh no, she is the Devil itself in Twentieth Century Fox and Regency Enterprises's ``Bedazzled''. From the minute bumbling `techie' Elliot Richards (Brendan Fraser) says ``Dear god, I'd give anything to have that woman (Alison) in my life,'' the saucy, sexy Devil marks him as her own. And the spoof never stops. In a take off on the Faustus-Mephistopheles deal, Elliot sells his soul to the Devil, who in turn agrees to grant him seven wishes....

He starts off by wishing for a burger and coke - and gets it too, but not before paying for it in cash. And you realise that this is one Devil with a whacky sense of humour...for she queers the pitch every time he makes a wish. When Elliot wishes to be rich, powerful and married to Alison, she casts him as a Colombian drug lord - only the guy is in the jungle in more ways than one - Alison (played by Frances O'Connor) carries on with her English tutor who also takes the business away from him.... His next avatar as an emotionally sensitive man is brilliantly overdone by Fraser. When he wants to be made into a basket ball superstar a la Michael Jordan, the Devil gets to work-and denies him a man- sized ``equipment'' and Alison cannot wait to get away...A famous author? ``No problem'', says the Devil and puts Alison out of his reach by `casting' him as a gay... And through it all, the Devil is busy running her DV8, a two-storeyed, cavernous disco. In fact, she is a blithe, free spirit who charms you. A prankster really, rather than an evil persona, and Elizabeth Hurley wears the role like a second skin in this film directed by Harold Ramis. Brendan Fraser whose first major presence was in Stephen Sommers' smash hit ``The Mummy'', slips into his `alter egos' with an outrageous sense of ``larger than life''. He is however most impressive in the last scene, when he moves away from his dream, from his Alison to the girl next door. Frances O' Connor, (remember her in ``Mansfield Park'') walks through her wizard of ozish role with elan...

BHAMA DEVI RAVI

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