‘Empire Falls’ stumbles despite cast
Few television projects come with the elite pedigree of the two-part drama “Empire Falls” (9 p.m. tonight, HBO, concluding at the same time on Sunday).
Based on an acclaimed novel by Richard Russo and adapted for the screen by the author, “Empire” features a dream cast including Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Ed Harris, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Helen Hunt, Robin Penn Wright and Aidan Quinn. In short, “Empire Falls” can’t go wrong.
But it does. And how.
With its insipid score and cutesy narration, “Empire” quickly reminded me of a throwaway CBS movie, the old sentimental Sunday-night stinker – the kind that not even CBS can stand anymore.
Set in a time-weathered mill town in rural Maine, “Empire” concerns Miles Roby (Harris), the manager of the Empire Grill who has sacrificed much to stay in a hometown still very much under the thumb of the doomed Whiting family, who once owned the mills. Francine (Woodward), the widow Whiting, takes a maternal interest in Miles, a fact that has complicated his relationship with his drunkard father (Newman, of whom it must be said still looks like a Greek god as he approaches 80) and has perhaps doomed his marriage to the spunky Janine (Hunt) and driven her into the arms of the smarmy arriviste, Walt (Dennis Farina).
The scenes between Harris and Hunt have a somber self-consciousness about them. The moments with Hunt and Farina could be the basis of a master class in overacting.
An annual television tradition, “National Memorial Day Concert” (7 p.m. Sunday, KSPS), commemorates the 60th anniversary of the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi. The concert, under the helm of conductor Erich Kunzel and the National Symphony Orchestra, also will honor troops currently fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gary Sinise headlines a group of participants, including Vanessa Williams, Joe Mantegna and Charles Durning.
Twelve would-be American gigolos vie to become rock consort Jerry Hall’s boy toy in the depressing and derivative reality show “Kept” (9 p.m. Sunday, VH1). A show with this audacious a premise should seem decadent and shocking, but it’s merely a dull, predictable rehash of every relationship reality show you’ve ever seen before.
Tonight’s highlights
Mel Gibson stars in the 2000 Revolutionary War drama “The Patriot” (8 p.m., NBC).
The raft party receives a shock on the two-hour season finale of “Lost” (8 p.m., ABC).
Comic Mario Cantone revisits material from his one-man Broadway show “Laugh Whore” (9 p.m., Showtime).
Scheduled on “48 Hours Mystery” (10 p.m., CBS): circumstantial evidence that may link a husband to his wife’s murder.
A new resident (Alfre Woodard) arrives on Wisteria Lane on the repeat season finale of “Desperate Housewives” (10 p.m., ABC).
Sunday’s highlights
Brent Musburger hosts the Indianapolis 500 (9 a.m., ABC).
Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds host NASCAR racing (2 p.m., Fox).
Repeat stories scheduled on “60 Minutes” (7 p.m., CBS): a terror weapon that is easy to buy; Dave Chappelle; Romania’s Dracula-based tourist trade.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Gloria Stuart, Billy Zane and Kathy Bates star in the 1997 iceberg epic “Titanic” (7 p.m., NBC).
After losing their home to a fire, a mother and three daughters welcome the contractors from “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (8 p.m., ABC).