'Tourist' Takes Circle Prize; Streep, Irons Among Other New York Critics' Winners
by Joseph Gelmis, Newsday
December 16, 1988
'THE Accidental Tourist," the screen version of the best-selling Anne Tyler novel about a marriage that breaks up after a child is senselessly murdered, was voted best picture of 1988 by the New York Film Critics Circle yesterday.
The critics voted Meryl Streep best actress of the year (for playing an Australian woman accused of murdering her own child in "A Cry in the Dark") and Jeremy Irons best actor (for playing identical twins in "Dead Ringers.")
All three top awards involved movies that were unglamorous studies of low-key characters in perverse situations. In "The Accidental Tourist," which doesn't open at area theaters until next Wednesday, William Hurt plays an eccentric travel writer who learns slowly and tentatively to love again after his only child is murdered by a holdup man.
In "A Cry in the Dark," Streep plays a real-life character who was convicted - first in the media and then in court - of killing her infant daughter, who, she contended, was carried off by a wild dingo dog during a camping trip. The woman and her husband were recently exonerated by an Australia appellate court. And in "Dead Ringers," inspired by a bizarre double suicide of two New York doctors, Irons plays twin gynecologists who succumb to drugs and madness. (In the voting, by secret weighted ballot, Dustin Hoffman, who plays an autistic savant in "Rain Man," tied Irons for best actor with 27 points but lost because Irons' name appeared on 11 ballots compared to 10 for Hoffman.)
No movie received more than one award from the critics, who voted at the midtown offices of the New York Newspaper Guild. The best director award went to Chris Menges for "A World Apart," a somber drama about South African apartheid told from an adolescent white girl's point of view. ("A World Apart" tied "The Accidental Tourist" with the same number of points on the third and final ballot, but lost because it also appeared on one less ballot.) A Spanish screwball comedy, "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown," was voted best foreign-language film.
Dean Stockwell was named best supporting actor of '88 for his performances in two movies - a comic crime boss in "Married to the Mob," and a cameo as billionaire Howard Hughes in "Tucker." Diane Venora was voted best supporting actress for her performance as Chan Parker, jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker's wife, in "Bird."
The screenplay award went to Ron Shelton, who made his debut as a writer-director with "Bull Durham," a romantic comedy with a minor-league baseball setting. Henri Alekan was cited for cinematography for "Wings of Desire," the German fantasy about angels in Berlin. And "The Thin Blue Line," an investigation of the murder of a Dallas policeman, was named best documentary.
The New York Film Critics Circle, founded in 1935, is the oldest group of its kind in the country. It consists of 28 members from major newspapers and magazines. The awards will be presented Jan. 15 at ceremonies at Sardi's.