Trenton Downtowner Newspaper (Trenton, NJ)

August 2002 Now Playing At The Adelphia-Astoria Men in Black By Issy Chaplin "The critics haven't been kind to Men in Black II," mused Adam Jeffers, "but the box office returns tell a different story. I guess people just want to feel good right now, and they don't care what the critics think." Jeffers is polishing the brass change plate on the counter of the ticket stall underneath the marquis of his beloved Adelphia-Astoria. He takes a step back and regards his work, nodding to himself, pleased at having accomplished just the right amount of shine and reflection. "Maybe the sequel isn't the startling an act of imagination the original was what with all those aliens popping up everywhere," he continues, "but it just feels right, doesn't it? That bond they've got. That Smith and that Jones. Even their names seem archetypal, don't they?" Far be it for the Downtowner to point out that Smith and Jones are the names of the actors. But then, with only a single letter to represent their characters, the men in black are the actors who play them. Fortunately, Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are the kind of actors endowed with enough character to fill in the blanks where some screenplays are concerned. Because, let's face it: the secret to the success of Men in Black was not it's hilarious vision of a secret universe of aliens here on earth, nor it's deadpan guy-in-a-suit humor. No, the secret to the success of the original MIB was, as Jeffers instinctively points out, that Smith and Jones bond. A bond that was based on an ineffable loneliness, the kind that is only rarely discussed or alluded to, but which in the original drove two alienated, modern men together in a common goal: the protection of planet earth from evil in the form of errant, misbehaving, mostly invisible aliens. It doesn't matter whether they're fighting evil or managing wacky, rampant aliens, it doesn't matter if the plot is flimsy. What matters is only that these two heroes do bond for any reason at all (in fact, the sillier, the wackier, the better, because it allows us to be moved by all that longing without having to really think about it). Men In Black showed us that what matters to a 21st century audience is that two men with nothing else in common save their alienation, their inchoate yearning for communion, manage to forge a bond despite huge differences in age and cultural background. "So all these critics who were disappointed in the sequel, well, they missed the point didn't they?" Jeffers asks. "Because what I like is just getting to see those two up there again, together. Who cares why." Jeffers is right. The sequel's storyline features a ridiculous, Medusa of an uber-alien-played voluptuously by Lara Flynn Boyle-who has come to planet earth to steal the Light of Zartha. And it doesn't matter what the heck a Zartha is or why its Light must be off the earth by midnight. Yeah, it's a flimsy story; so was the first one. But at least someone has come up with a reason to reunite Smith and Jones (and to save Jones from what appears to be a fate worse than death: running a post office in Truro, Mass., robbed of all memory of who he really is, turned into some sort of over-the-top postal pedant obsessed with proper wrapping). "In the great scheme of things Hollywood," says Jeffers, "there are two things that matter most: character and character. That Smith and Jones, they've got it to spare." And in the great scheme of things Trenton, the Downtowner would like to add, there is no one quite like Jeffers. # # # Issy Chaplin works for the N.J. Commission on Science and Technology.