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2 July 1998 Edition

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Cinema: Heche gives it to them straight

Six Days Seven Nights


Six Days Seven Nights is a lightweight but enjoyable romp that has, unfortunately, been saddled with the burden of a social issue. Harrison Ford may loosely revisit, with a great deal of success, his gruff adventurer days as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, but the major focus of media attention has been his co-star, Anne Heche, who is more famous as the partner of gay television star Ellen DeGeneres. Was it possible, Hollywood wondered, for an openly gay women to play a heterosexual leading lady? Would the public accept this?

Such vapid and ultraconservative preoccupations aside, this is a formulaic but feel-good and at times very amusing adventure romance, and Heche is by far the best thing in it, bringing a brash wit and refreshingly strong presence to bear alongside her elder statesman co-star, David Schwimmer (better known as Ross from Friends) plays Heche's boyfriend, a steady but straight beau who whisks her off to a tropical paradise in order to pop the question. Before he pops, however, they meet the man old enough to be both their pops, an unshaven but twinkly-eyed Ford. By this stage in the plot, the ending is already obvious, even before Ford and Heche are marooned together on a desert island, but getting there is fun anyway, as Ford and Heche's initial animosity quickly evolves into animal attraction. All in all, a good weekend popcorn flick with more than one memorable one-liners.

By Martin Spain


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