Movie Review: 'The New Age' (1994)

Writer Michael Tolkin, who picked apart the morals of Hollywood so trenchantly in his novel-turned-script for Robert Altman's The Player, bridges his two fields of fascination — cultural hipness and spiritual emptiness — in an unsettling, ambitious piece of work. Peter Weller and Judy Davis play a couple of dauntingly fashionable Angelenos who are miserable in the midst of their sterile plenty. The drawback: The characters project a brittle distance that keeps us from feeling a full spectrum of compassion for their stunted souls. B