Dangerous Game Directed by Abel Ferrara at the Harvard Film Archive March 11 through 16

In an effort to prove herself as an actress, Madonna has tired her hand at everything from movie musicals to period pieces to thrillers. Needless to say, these attempts have been futile. The mere mention of her name in conjunction with any film is guaranteed to evoke chuckles if not full-fledged sighs. So, what's materials girl to do? Produce your own film in which you star as a Hollywood icon qua actress searching for legitimacy.

And so she has Maverick, Madonna's entertainment company , has released its first film, Abel Ferrara's "Dangerous Game." it focuses on the pre-mid and post-production of the faux-film "Mother of Mirrors." The subtlety is overwhelming: yes, this movie frankly, the already-been-answered question of whether life imtiates art or vice-versa.

Harvey Keitel, as director Eddie Israel, casts actors Sarah Jennings (Madonna) and Francis Burns (James Russo) as a middle-class couple on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Having undergone some sort of epiphany, Jennings' character has decided to leave her husband and the comfortable yet destructive life of drugs and multiple-partner sex they share. Employing some sort of twisted method-acting technique, Israel allows his principles to really go at each other in order to heighten dramatic intensity. The audience is asked to believe that Burns is allowed to rape and beat Jennings in repeated takes for the sake of acting .As one would predict, the animosity and seediness of the set blur into reality, pushing Israel and his retinue into the eponymous dangerous game.

Never mind the fact that this premise is about as fresh as Madonna is shocking. "Dangerous Game" as simply not interesting because "Mother of Mirrors" is not. From what we can tell, this film seems to consist of nothing but cliche albeit abusive diatribes from one spouse to another. One gets the sense that the film being made is going straight-to-video. Consequently, we are hardly interested in witnessing its production let alone the repetitive takes of boring scenes. The script, too, is dismal. When not rummaging through his chest of platitudes and overused analogies, writer Nicholas St. John creates his own Iudicrous dialogue. In a drunken rage, Burn's husband-from-hell course, of all things, "Consumerism!" One cannot forget, as well, the inexplicably crass run of tampon metaphors.

To answer the big question: No, she still can't act! As the abused wife, Madonna is a model of underacting. Perhaps in an effort to seem more natural, Madonna seems stoned. She stares off into space and delivers her lines in dazed-whine. Note: bruises and messed up hair are enough to convey abuse. The same is true when, as Jennings the actress, Madonna wears glasses to seem intent and intellectual. She is best when playing herself, or at least he persona. The restaurant scenes in which Madonna must play the bitchy and racy superstar Sarah Jennings (even her name isn't convincing) and tell bawdy jokes are reminiscent of her "performance" in the docu-drama "Truth of Dare." Madonna can play Madonna,. and even that does not seem to be enough.

Harvey Keitel is as engaging as always, yet one cannot wonder as to why someone whose star is so on the rise ("Bad Lieutenant," "The Piano") would do a movie like this. We are "Mother of Mirrors" in both a serious and credible tone. At other times, we are appreciative of his presence, for there are some lines only Keitel can cross successfully. keitel is both charming and endearing when, as Israel, he tells Jennings that he once a gave a lover a ruby and diamond ring to symbolize the blood and semen he had exchanged during their lovemaking. Jennings' response, "I never knew you were a romantic!" almost makes sense.

And the worst show of nepotism since the abysmal Sofia Coppolla stared in her daddy's "The Godfather: Part III" has got to be the casting of the director's wife, Madlyn. The parallel structure is nothing but kitschy and is certainly not worth her laughable performance. In her big scene in which she must grieve both the death of her father and her marriage, Ferrara must work Madlyn into a rage of frustration and abandonment. Instead she stands limp and half-heartedly bounces objects off Keitel. The audience can do nothing but laugh when she delivers her lines, addressing her husband quite unbelievably as "man". "Dangerous Game" has once again jeopardized Madonna's chance at movie stardom. Add this latest bomb to the cluttered video shelves somewhere between "Body of Evidence" and "Shanghai Surprise."