..,.Gary Dretzka
..,.Leonard Klady
...David Poland
...Doug Pratt
...Ray Pride
...S.T. VanAirsdale

 

JANUARY 23, 2006

Magic... Or Just A Good Dream?

The mountain air is not creating drunken excitement by the distribution community this year. Things are pretty sober, even though pretty much every company could use a decent acquisition or two. What's really been missing from the mix this year is that combination of passion and skill.

Sunday night marked the premieres of The Illusionist and The Science of Sleep. One continued to create chilly cynicism and the other was so passionate and so unexpected - even though completely expected in an odd way - that it got everyone in the room thinking about trying to grab it. So much so that the small fries simply gave up hope before they got outbid.

The Illusionist is a long-gestating project that Bob Yari ended up backing with Michael London as one of the three producers. Edward Norton plays the humorless Illusionist. Paul Giamatti plays the not-as-funny-as-Giamatti-was-clearly-ready-to-make-him police chief who is under the thumb of the scenery licking, bulgy-eyed Rufus Sewell. And what brings them all together is the lovely Jessica Biel, whose creamy skin and bee-sting lips offset her modern woman vibe... along with some very... slow... dialogue... readings...

Unfortunately, the nice looking film, shot in Prague for 1900 Vienna, never digs deep into the passion. And for me, the tension of the narrative was shot dead when I realized exactly what would happen in the rest of the film sometime in the first hour. And indeed... every single expectation was met. Sad.

Worse, Giamatti was often reduced to mugging to make up for the lame dialogue. The sexy Biel was not really allowed to be that sexy. And Edward Norton looked more constipated than intense much of the time. (And where did he get that hair mousse in 1900 Vienna? He made Conan O'Brien's hair look subtle.)

It's not a horrible movie. But it's not a good movie. It's a decent made-for-Showtime flick. But little more than that. Notably, Ed Norton was not at the premiere and his absence was not spoken about.

On the other hand, The Science of Sleep appears to be Michel Gondry's "Fuck you, Charlie" to Charlie Kaufman, who seems to have gotten far too much credit for Gondry's taste for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Again, waking sleep is a focus. But, unfortunately, this time Gondry only has himself to structure the narrative and he could have used a real screenwriter.

That said, the first 30 minutes of the film are among the best I've seen in the last few years, making Garden State's attempts at a similar whimsy look like the sophomoric effort it was. Gondry's hero here is Gael Garcia Bernal, who gives one of his best performances as a young man who feels displaced, hates his day job, and is slowly falling in love with the girl next door. Bernal proves a deft comedian and a crossover performer, speaking English, Spanish, and broken French in his role. His opposite number in this one is Charlotte Gainsbourg (who didn't attend the premiere after injuring her back snowboarding). The other key player in the film is Alain Chabet, who plays a co-worker who is also a devil on one of Bernal's shoulders. Very funny.

But while Bernal shines brightly, the real star of the film is Gondry, who is as hyper-stimulated as ever but, for the first 30 minutes, relentlessly enchanting. As he hits the second 30 minutes, he begins to feel as though he is repeating a bit. Too much of a good thing. Yet he always brings the audience back into the fold with this magic trick or that. Gondry is a very funny man. And like Tati, even when the pudding sometimes feels a little thick, you can't help but to sit back and smile.

The Science of Sleep is one of those films you can watch over and over and over again, loaded with gags and gimmicks and spectacularly beautiful and memorable images. It is very imperfect. But damn, is it fun. Gondry is a master of what he does. And you can feel the passion in every frame of the film.

It would be easy to overstate the strength of the movie. But it would be equally easy to dismiss it too easily. I don't see it as a massive hit. It is in multiple languages, will irritate most people over 50, and has no American stars in it. But it is probably a better Saturday night stoner flick that Eternal Sunshine because it is less coherent. You really could view any 5 minutes like its own stand alone art project.

Thin is still the best film I've seen here so far. But The Science of Sleep is a strong second best. And you have to know which DVD will remain nearby the player for most people. It is a real landmark to come in the world of crossover international films, mixing languages freely, as only culturally accepted in Singapore-made films up until now.

January 22, 2006
January 21, 2006
January 20, 2006

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