CINEMA: L.A. Futzing

The New Age aims for chic anomie but is merely boring

Peter and Katherine (Peter Weller and Judy Davis) are bored and careless. They lose jobs, take on lovers, futz around with guru-driven spirituality and dress to the nines. You could argue, as writer-director Michael Tolkin doubtless did when he was pitching The New Age, that they are perfect exemplars of chic anomie as it manifests itself in postmodern -- or postrational -- Los Angeles. You could also argue, as people whose malls don't yet contain an Issey Miyake boutique might, that they are hopeless twits.

It is possible that Tolkin, who in 1992 adapted his own novel, The Player, for the...

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