Less than purr-fect

The debate over whether Halle Berry deserved her Best Actress Oscar for Monster’s Ball will likely rage on way past the day she makes her last movie. Maybe the Academy will put an asterisk next to the achievement, like Major League Baseball did with Roger Maris after he broke the Babe’s single-season home-run record.

Yet one thing is indisputable: Berry is a star, plain and simple. She’s a star not because you think she is or because I think she is. She’s not even a star because Hollywood has deemed it so. She’s a star because the audience chose her and she accepted.

Those looking for their Halle Berry fix probably won’t be disappointed with Catwoman.

Rather than extrapolate on the character played by Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns, this movie reinvents the feline fatale.

Berry plays Patience Phillips, a shy graphic designer at a huge cosmetics firm on the verge of releasing an anti-aging cream. After Patience’s employers kill her for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, a cat with ancient and mysterious powers brings her back to life. Patience gradually becomes a totally different person, with the strength and agility of a cat. Her purpose in life is to exact revenge on the people who killed her. This is complicated by a blooming relationship with a handsome, sensitive cop (Benjamin Bratt).

Deep beneath the dominatrix costume, the campy posturing and the cat references, this is really a story about empowerment. What woman — or man — hasn’t wanted to just shed the shackles of everyday existence to act out wild impulses?

Despite Berry’s bubbly appearance, she is a good choice for the dark role. She has this sad-eye thing going on, this vulnerability that sets her apart from most sex symbols. The first part of the movie is good for that reason, and Berry makes us believe her character. This isn’t Metropolis, where Clark Kent can take off a pair of glasses and become Superman. The transformation from female milquetoast to predator is believable.

Alas, Catwoman isn’t satisfied with being a character study. After all, it is summer blockbuster season. Pretty soon, the movie is all over the place, veering from camp (they really milk that leather costume for all it’s worth) to mystical, eventually becoming a garden-variety revenge flick. French director Pitof has a keen visual sense, but not much knack with a story.

In the end, Catwoman has its moments but not enough of them. Unless you’re a stone-cold Berry junkie and have to get your fix this very second, you can wait for the video.

Catwoman
PG-13
Starts tomorrow in area theaters
Two reels out of four

Recommended Rental

Hellboy
Available Tuesday
PG-13

At the outbreak of World War II, Rasputin and the Third Reich use their evil powers to summon a young demon from hell to bring the world to its knees. Yet somehow, the Allied Forces are able to capture this spawn of Satan and, with the help of kindly Professor Broom (John Hurt), mold the young demon into a champion for all that is good in the world. Some 60 years later, the demon is still very much alive and goes by the name of Hellboy (Ron Perlman). Unfortunately, the forces of evil also have survived, and Hellboy finds himself in the fight of his life.