Sometimes films can resemble dancing bears - creatures that create less amusement by the quality of their dance than the mere fact that they can dance at all. Bail Jumper, 1990 comedy directed by Christian Faber, is one of such films. The plot, based on the screenplay by Faber and Josephine Wallace, deals with Elaine (played by Eszter Balint), girl who has major trouble with the law. Her boyfriend Joe (played by B.J. Spaulding) decides to bail her out, but soon afterwards she jumps bail and two of them, accompanied by Joe's friend Dan (played by Tony Askin) head to New York City. Instead of police they are followed by the series of bizarre natural disasters and once in New York they find series of colourful characters from the New York's art scene.
Bail Jumper was obviously shot with ridiculously small budget, and its ambitions were equally small, at least when the general audience is concerned. Instead, the filmmakers clearly intended this film for those viewers who had already developed taste for independent art films. This is both the strength and weakness of the film – those unaccustomed to "art" films might see it as refreshing, and strange combination of surrealism, black humour, authentic characters from New York art underground and good acting performance of Eszter Balint guarantees at least some entertainment,. However, the novelty soon wears off and Bail Jumper's lack of substance becomes quite apparent, making this film incomprehensible and, therefore, boring to all viewers except those who judge the works of art solely on the basis of unconventionality.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on July 31st 2002)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/306919-bail-jumper?language=en-US Critic: AA
