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03/29/2008 2A CYAN PLATE MAGENTA PLATE YELLOW PLATE BLACK PLATE

LOCAL/STATE2A SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 2008 THE TIMES - shreveporttimes.com

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

(USPS 495-500)

Pete ZanmillerPresident and Publisher

459-3351pzanmill@gannett.com

MISSING A PAPER?If you have questions aboutdelivery or your subscription, call1-866-979-NEWS (6397), Mondaythrough Friday from 6 a.m. to 5p.m., Saturday 6 a.m. to 1 p.m., andSunday 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.. You shouldreceive your newspaper by 6 a.m.Monday through Saturday, and 7a.m. Sunday. If you need redelivery,service hours are 6 a.m. to 10:30a.m. Monday through Saturday; and7 a.m. to noon Sundays.

Saturday, March 29, 2008170th Year, Vol. 137, No. 123In God We Trust© 2008 The TimesReproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

ABOUT THE TIMESThe Times is published daily at 222 Lake St., Shreveport, La., 71101. Offices are openfrom 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Our mailing address is P.O. Box30222, Shreveport, La. 71130-0222. Our main switchboard number is 459-3200. Ourtoll-free number is 1-800-551-8892.

Postmaster: Send address changes toThe Times Publishing Co., P.O. Box 30222,Shreveport, La. 71130-0222

SHARE YOUR NEWSCaddo-Bossier: 459-3222Sports: 459-3292Business: 459-3534NEED ADVERTISING?Classified: 459-3333;1-800-447-3818Obituary: 459-3487Retail: 459-3323Weddings/engagements/anniversaries: 459-3597

LOTTERIES For drawings held onFriday, March 28, 2008

PICK 3: 3-9-6

PICK 4: 1-6-8-4

EASY 5: NO DRAWING

LOTTO: NO DRAWING

LOUISIANATEXAS

PICK 3/DAY: 3-2-1

PICK 3/NIGHT: 0-6-5

DAILY 4/DAY: 3-1-3-6

DAILY 4/NIGHT: 4-8-3-3

CASH 5: 9-14-29-30-31

TWO STEP: NO DRAWING

LOTTO: NO DRAWINGEvery effort is made to provide accurate

data; however, please see yourretailer or state lottery office for official

verification of results.

The Times tries to correct promptly any errors of fact or clarify anymisleading information appearing in news stories. To report an erroror need for clarification, please call 459-3233. All corrections andclarifications will be published on page 2A.

CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS

MULTISTATE

POWERBALL:NO DRAWING

MEGA MILLIONS:7-26-27-40-43-10

HOW TO SUBSCRIBECall 1-866-979-NEWS (6397) or subscribe online atshreveporttimes.com.

Shreveport & Bossier City areaFri.-Sun./ Sunday

7- Day Holidays HolidaysMonthly $16.67 $10.62 $9.35E-Z Pay* $15.37 $10.62 $9.35Delivery by mail outside delivery areas will be quoted upon request.Periodicals postage paid at Shreveport, LA.*E-Z Pay automatically deducts monthly payment using credit card, debit card orbank account.

NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERSCustomers of The Times who presently only subscribe tohome delivery of the weekend editions of the newspaper alsowill receive newspaper deliveries on the following dates: NewYear’s Day (Jan. 1), Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 15),President’s Day (Feb. 19), Mother’s Day (May 14), MemorialDay (May 28), Flag Day (June 14), Father’s Day (June 18),Independence Day (July 4), Labor Day (Sept. 3), ColumbusDay (Oct. 8), Veterans Day (Nov. 11), Thanksgiving (Nov. 22)and Christmas Day (Dec. 25).These extra newspapers will be delivered without anyadditional cost to weekend-only subscribers.

✓ CORRECTION: A headline on page 2A of Friday’s Times should havesaid the college students assisting with building homes with The FullerCenter for Housing of Webster are from Ohio.

✓ CORRECTION: State Probation and Parole Agent Jeremy Ableshelped the DeSoto Parish sheriff’s office identify Bobby Harris, the manaccused in the death of South Mansfield Mayor Dessie Lee Patterson.Ables was incorrectly identified in Friday’s edition.

MARCH 29MASONIC STATE CONVENTION

When: 8 a.m.-noon March 29.Where: Holiday Inn Financial Plaza,

5555 Financial Plaza, Shreveport.Featuring: The 62nd annual Pelican

Council of Deliberation and the36th State Grand Assembly Orderof Golden Circle will be held inShreveport. James O. BampfieldConsistory and James O. BampfieldAssembly No. 53. Evening eventsopen to the public. Annual stateawards banquet at 8 p.m. March29.

Info: (318) 402-6432, (318) 631-9818 or rosalind728@gmail.com.

EGYPTIAN CRAFT WORKSHOPWhen: 1-5:45 p.m. March 29.Where: Sci-Port Discovery Center,

820 Clyde Fant Memorial Parkway,Shreveport.

Featuring: Egyptian craft workshop forfourth- through eighth-graders. Thestudents will make their own Egyp-tian-inspired art to take home.

Admission: $25; $20, Sci-Port mem-bers, includes all materials and asnack. Registration is required.

Info: (318) 424-3466.

SHREVEPORT BOSSIERCHAPTER OF PKD FOUNDATIONWhen: 1:30-3 p.m. March 29.Where: PKD Foundation, 1560 Irving

Place, Shreveport.Featuring: monthly support and

educational meeting for patientsand their families while educatingthe public about polycystic kidneydisease.

Admission: free.Info: (318) 222-7008 or

Lawitch1936@aol.com.

2008 ORCHID SHOWWhen: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. March 29.Where: Barnwell Memorial Garden &

Art Center, 601 Clyde Fant Memo-rial Parkway, Shreveport.

Featuring: orchids on display andorchid plants, supplies and booksfor sale. Orchids will be judgedfor ribbons and trophies by judgescertified by the American OrchidSociety.

Admission: free.Info: (318) 865-3848.

APRIL FOOLS’ FUNWhen: 10 a.m. March 29.Where: Walter B. Jacobs Memorial

Nature Park, 8012 Blanchard-FurrhRoad, Shreveport.

Featuring: Visit the nature park andplay “What’s Wrong with ThisPicture?” Pick up a special fieldchecklist and explore two of thepark’s nature trails in search ofunnatural objects. Win a prize whenyou find and record the secret item.

Admission: free.Info: (318) 929-2806.

17TH MOPAR NATIONALSCAR SHOW

When: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. March 29.Where: First Baptist Church, 543

Ockley Drive, Shreveport.Featuring: more than 120 cars, food

and music.Admission: free, spectators; $30, car

entry fee.Info: (318) 453-7027 or www.Mopar-

Magic.org.

CAPTAIN SHREVE BREASTCANCER AWARENESS DAY

When: noon March 29.Where: Captain Shreve High School,

6115 E. Kings Highway, Shreve-port.

Featuring: Captain Shreve Highbaseball team will sell pink base-ball bats at its first district gamein honor of loved ones, teachersand staff. The game is a double-header vs. Airline High School.All proceeds will be donated tothe Shreveport-Bossier affiliate ofSusan G. Komen for the Cure.

Admission: $10.Info: (318) 458-5221 or www.captain-

shrevebaseball.com.

HAVEN HOUSE LEADERS’MEETING

When: 10-11 a.m. March 29.Where: 1700 Buckner Square, Suite

240, Shreveport.Featuring: A time for Haven House

leaders and friends to fellowship,network, share stories and ideasand celebrate together at the city-wide meeting hosted by CommunityRenewal International.

Admission: free.Info: (318) 560-4271 or (318) 425-

3222.

By Alexandyr Kentakent@gannett.com

Sleep is hard to come by andchills are aplenty in “The Last Lul-laby,” the feature-length debut for

director JeffreyGoodman.

The movie, shotin northwest Loui-

siana, debuted Friday at the AFIDallas International Film Festival.

The movie stars Tom Sizemoreas Price, a sleepless hit man who’slured out of retirement to kill ahigh-dollar target. She looks likeeasy prey until Price discoversshe, too, never sleeps, enjoys nightswimming, loves guns and battles arestless conscience.

The crime drama not only snareskiller and contract into a tight,unpredictable love story, it paintsan unsettling portrait of a small-town America where gunshots echointo the deep, silent night withoutanswer.

“The Last Lullaby” is based on ashort story by Max Allan Collins(graphic novel of “Road to Perdi-tion”). Adapted by Collins and co-screenwriter Peter Biegen, thestory is mostly told through the big,heart-wrenching eyes of the lonelygunman.

In the opening frame, we spy Priceon his back staring up at the bed-room ceiling fan. With a dead faceand a distant stare, it’s reasonableto assume he’s struggling to silencehis beating heart of darkness.

But the nod to “Apocalypse Now”is a playful ruse. Price doesn’t fearmadness. On the contrary, he,like every sane retired man, fearsbecoming obsolete.

We soon see him sit up and slouchslowly to the living room for apathetic game of solo chess. That’stedious, so he drives his Jeep to the24-hour mart to shop. There, heeavesdrops on two knuckleheadedthugs — one packing heat — who’vekidnapped someone.

Responding indifferently to hiscall for action, Price follows theirEl Camino to a roadside shack,where inside a young woman istied to a chair. Price knows theirgame — ransom — and exploits itfor everything it’s worth. In coldlyviolent, swiftly paced action, Pricesurgically shoots them down oneby one and rescues the girl for hisown gain.

Unlike most popular crimemovies, Goodman’s direction doesnot gratuitously probe the phys-ical carnage wrought by gunplay.

There are no lingering close-ups ofgun wounds, for the director doesnot want us to turn away. Instead,he immerses us in the peril withoutassaulting us. He sets the distressedhostage (Sprague Grayden) behindan oozing pool of blood. He pacesthe precision of Price’s marksman-ship with abrupt, alarming cuts.

Guided by cinematographerRichard Rutkowski and editor PhilipHarrison, “The Last Lullaby” pres-ents a view of vigilante violence thatis unsettling but never corrupting,dark but ever illuminating.

And that’s just the first 10 min-utes.

Six months later, Price is foundby Martin, the rich man who hadto fork out $200,000 to pay for thehostage’s release. Martin, playedwith slowly deflating bravado byBill Smitrovich, wants to hire Pricefor a new job. Kill Sarah in 10 days,and earn $1 million. The offer isirresistible.

Price takes it but soon learnsSarah is just as restless as he. Hesneaks into her small town, parksat a coffee shop and spies on herthrough a window, where he wit-nesses her being stalked by an ex-boyfriend. At her home, he hides inthe bushes and watches her whileshe takes uncomfortable phonecalls and rises at night for a moonlitswim in the pool.

Sarah doesn’t look like a typicaljob, so Price waits and slowly buildsa connection to this unlikely soulmate.

A convincing chemistry developsbetween Price and Sarah, playedby Sasha Alexander. After Pricedecides to rescue Sarah from herthreatening ex-boyfriend in a barparking lot, their bond growsstronger. They meet for dates. Theygo night swimming. They cook alate dinner.

He learns she has been targetedbecause she’s the sole witness inan old murder case. He discoverskilling her would be like killinghis hope of breaking free from theempty hours and days that tormenthim between jobs.

In a career-resuscitating perfor-mance, Sizemore offers a taciturnportrait of a contract killer teeteringbetween indifference and existen-tial collapse. The role is enoughto make an audience forget Size-more’s recent fall from Hollywoodgrace and remember the A-list mys-tique he earned while working forMichael Mann, Ridley Scott andMartin Scorsese.

Alexander delivers her perfor-mance with deep, tired eyes andcreates moments of awkward, infec-tious flirtation with her co-star. Con-sumed by ennui and struggling tofind a human connection in a worldwhere she essentially hides for aliving, the role will remind movielovers of the inward-looking NewHollywood heroines who have beenabsent from American cinema forfar too long.

“The Last Lullaby” is a bold, bril-liant and inventive first step fordirector Jeffrey Goodman. He hascommand of tone that many sea-soned crime directors never dem-onstrate.

Moreover, Sizemore’s Price com-pares favorably to the heroes ofDavid Cronenberg’s “A Historyof Violence” and Richard Shepa-rd’s “The Matador.” These hitmen struggle to find a place in anAmerica that demands nothing ofthem but violence. That they findpurpose in the struggle and sur-viving the nightmare is the wonderof it all.

■ Movie gets four out offour stars.

REVIEW

If you goWHAT: “The Last Lullaby” at

the AFI Dallas InternationalFilm Festival.

REMAINING SCREENINGS:10:15 p.m. Monday atAMC Northpark 15, 8687N. Central Expressway,Dallas and 4:15 p.m. Friday:Magnolia Theatre, 3699McKinney Ave., Dallas.

COST: $8.50. Forreservations, call (214)720-0663.

✔ LINK TO THE LAST LULLABY.✔ LINK TO AFI DALLASINTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL.✔ LINK TO ALEXANDYR KENT’SLOUISIANA MOVIES BLOG.

‘Last Lullaby’ is haunting portrait of hit man

speaking with a People magazinereporter. “I’m so proud of him.He’s handsome. He looks great. Hedressed well. He’s got that lovelysmile and openness. It is the mostimportant to communicate yourexcitement and optimism.”

With cameras pressed into theirfaces and questions flying fast andfurious, Alexander and Goodmanworked the line along with docu-mentary filmmakers, internationaldirectors and some recognizablecharacter actors from TV and film.

“I’m happy not to be doing this bymyself, and having someone as awe-some as Sasha standing next to me,”Goodman said with a big smile.

It was important for Alexander,who lives in Los Angeles, to fly toDallas in support of “The Last Lul-laby.”

“We had a wonderful time makingthe movie,” Alexander said. “I’mvery proud and I want to do what Ican to support Jeffrey.”

Though she gets a bit nervousabout watching her onscreen work,

the actress was game on a chillynight in Dallas.

“It’s exciting to see it with people,”Alexander said. “It’s exciting to seeit in an auditorium.”

Goodman’s story at the film fes-tival was as much about celebratinga finished movie as it was about per-severance.

“I really think it’s 90 percent of it,”Goodman said.

Sticking to the project for a decadewas not always easy.

“There are so many opportuni-ties to kind of go, ‘You know what?This film is not going to happen andI should go do something else.’ ButI stuck with it and I had incrediblesupport.”

Goodman joined a sold-out crowdat AMC Northpark 15 at 7:15 p.m.,just as his movie was scheduled tobegin.

He was anxious but hopeful theaudience and critics would give it awarm reception.

That seemed to be a good bet tofestival publicist John Wildman,who said the first of three screen-ings was quick to sell out.

“It should be a great time. Youhave the entire town of Shreveportin there!”

Joining Goodman and Alexanderwere friends, relatives, editor PhilipHarrison, a few actors and many ofthe 40 Shreveport supporters whofinanced “The Last Lullaby.”

Movie: ‘I had incredible support’✔ LINK TO ALEXANDYR KENT’SLOUISIANA MOVIES BLOG.

“There are so manyopportunities to kind

of go, ‘You know what?This film is not going tohappen and I should godo something else.’ ButI stuck with it and I had

incredible support.”Jeffrey Goodman, director of “The

Last Lullaby”

Actress Sasha Alexander triesto keep warm on location duringfilming of “The Last Lullaby” inFebruary 2007 in Shreveport.

Greg Pearson/File/The Times

■ Continued from 1A

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