Movie Review of Beautiful People

The lives-in-flux film is making a comeback, sending us back to the days of "Nashville" and "Short Cuts" with an Altmanesque surge. <br><br>Following on the footsteps of the American dysfunction fest "Magnolia,"

Friday, March 17th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

The lives-in-flux film is making a comeback, sending us back to the days of "Nashville" and "Short Cuts" with an Altmanesque surge.

Following on the footsteps of the American dysfunction fest "Magnolia," Jasmin Dizdar's "Beautiful People" uses the wide canvas of contemporary London to observe the transitions of Bosnian refugees and immigrants. Optimistic, well acted, a tad too precious, "Beautiful People" does a fine job of tying together its multiple characters and story lines.

"Beautiful People," a title and film that refuse to give in to our current craving for irony, is more about general displacement and the human need for connection than any particular current events. Generational and marital chasms, class prejudice and social responsibility (and lack thereof) are the key ingredients. Soccer hooligans, ambitious professionals and war-ravaged newcomers get equal time; this is not a "Welcome to Sarajevo" slice of war-is-hell pie, even though one of the film's young wanderers uses a mistaken detour to the front as a means of finding a larger purpose in life.

Conflict gets the ball rolling when a pair of apparent strangers beat the stuffing out of each other on a city bus. Turns out that one burned the other's village down back home, a dose of Serbian-Croatian animosity that continues when the two end up in adjoining London hospital beds.

Meanwhile, a free-thinking nurse (Charlotte Coleman) rebels against her upper-crust political family by falling for an impoverished, but charismatic, refugee (Edin Dzandzanovic); a BBC correspondent (Gilbert Martin) gets a case of pathological guilt courtesy of "Bosnia Syndrome;" and a caring doctor (the excellent Nicholas Farrell) tries to reconcile his doomed marriage with problems much larger than his own.

"Beautiful People" avoids treacle by creating vivid characters, even if there occasionally seem to be too many of them. Mr. Dizdar, a Bosnia native making his feature debut (after a number of acclaimed shorts), knows how to create a sense of momentum without relying on extraneous action, a skill that many Hollywood directors could do well to observe.

When he does pull out a set piece, it's usually a beaut. The film's giddiest sequence comes when a stoned-out, reluctant hooligan (Danny Nussbaum) passes out on an airport luggage cart and wakes up amid U.N. supplies being airlifted to Bosnia. Initially scared out of his wits, he eventually uses his wiles - and his heroin - to anesthetize a patient as his leg is amputated in the battlefield. When his folks see it all on TV, he explains that he was out doing some "charity work."

The episode underlines the film's savvy sense of chance encounter and unforced plea for benevolence. Optimism is difficult to achieve on screen without resorting to easy platitudes; when it works, it's a good bet that the hope comes from the heart, rather than a focus group. So here's hoping we see more of Mr. Dizdar's talents in the future.