Great Balls of Fire

REVIEW
A high-energy, slick bio on rock ’n' roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis. Quaid, in a gutsy though rather one-dimensional performance, plays the rock pioneer, whose life is traced from his meteoric rise on the music scene to his controversial marriage to his teenage cousin to the infamous British tour which nearly ruined his career. Though the film is short on dramatic development, and its characters behave as music biz/Southern stereotypes, it is at its best (and agreeably entertaining) in the superior and razzle-dazzle musical numbers featuring some of Lewis' greatest hits. Ryder deftly plays Lewis' child bride.