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A second teen romance, Whatever It Takes, debuted to similarly uninterested audiences in sixth place. The film adapts the Cyrano de Bergerac formula to a high-school setting, but is not particularly successful at it. "Poor Cyrano," says Steven Isaac of Focus on the Family. Preview's Paul Bicking objected to the "frequent underage drinking … at unchaperoned teen parties," and Holly McClure of Crosswalk.com objected to the dialogue, "saturated with little more than sex." Movieguide sums it up as "primarily sophomoric, often juvenile, [and] occasionally tasteless."

American Beauty placed seventh, jumping 27 percent in ticket sales as audiences anticipated its Oscar wins. The movie took home five trophies in all, for Best Picture, Best Actor (Kevin Spacey), Best Director (Sam Mendes), Best Original Screenplay (Alan Ball), and Best Cinematography (Conrad Hall).

The Cider House Rules, which finished ninth this week, was awarded two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor (Michael Caine) and Best Adapted Screenplay (John Irving). The American Life League sent out a press release chiding the Academy for rewarding Caine's character, an abortionist, and Irving, who thanked Planned Parenthood in his acceptance speech. However, two new reviews of the film disagree with the League's reduction of The Cider House Rules to prochoice propaganda. Holly McClure of Crosswalk.com named the film her favorite of the Oscar contenders. "This is one of those stories that has many facets to it and is neither black or white in its many messages," she writes. "I found it to be honest and fair in showing there are repercussions for every decision the characters make." Hollywood Jesus' recent review of the film recommends it as prime discussion fodder: "Thank you, John Irving, for giving the world so much food for thought. You have given every university class on Ethics, Law, Religion, and Civics a noteworthy story to discuss and ponder." For earlier coverage of this film's Christian reviews, which were less embracing, click here.

For previous coverage of American Beauty, which likewise split critics, click here. StudentMinistry.net recently called Beauty its favorite of the year, stating that "this movie wasn't made for some cheap entertainment value; this movie wants to show you the beauty in your life that you don't even see anymore."The hit family film My Dog Skip continues to hang around the top ten, finishing eighth this week. Christian critics have been largely supportive of the nostalgic tale of a boy and his dog; see our earlier coverage from February 2 and March 15. In tenth place was the hitman comedy The Whole Nine Yards, which many Christian reviewers found funny but even more found distasteful; read previous coverage from February 25 and March 15.Steve Lansingh is editor ofthefilmforum.com, a weekly Internet magazine devoted to Christianity and the cinema.

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March (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44