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Suitable for Mature Audiences 16 Years and over. Contains Offensive language
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Zone 1 Item.

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In 1990, novelist Paul Auster was asked to contribute a Christmas story to the New York Times. The resulting piece, "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story," forms the basis for his screenplay for SMOKE. Directed by Wayne Wang and set in a Brooklyn cigar store, Auster expanded the story to include four other characters whose lives intertwine with Auggie Wren's.

As Aggie, the manager of the store that serves as a neighborhood meeting place, Harvey Keitel gives a restrained, mellow performance. The other characters, Paul [William Hurt], a blocked writer; Rashid [Harold Perrineau Jr.], a troubled youth; Paul [Stockard Channing], Auggie's former lover; and Cyrus [Forest Whitaker], Rashid's long-lost father, form a web of relationships over a few summer days.

Auster, who previously adapted his novel THE MUSIC OF CHANCE into a taut script, here exhibits a loose, almost improvisational style as he lets his characters simply talk about their lives.