Director: Alan
Rudolph | Starring:
Campbell Scott, Denis Leary, Robin Tunney,
Hope Davis
Released: 2002
| Runtime: 105m
| Rating (out of 5):
*½ |
|
Well, the title is intriguing,
right? What's not intriguing is Campbell Scott's mustache. That thing
is just plain creepy. The funny thing is, I can't ever see that guy
as anyone else but Steve from Singles. Yes, sad but true.
As you can probably tell from the title, this is an odd little movie.
And because it's on the Sundance Channel, you know that nothing much
will happen in its 105 minutes. There will be some sort of meandering
plotline that will degenerate into melodrama and eventual resolution,
gunplay or general apathy. Despite only seeing this a couple of days
ago, a lot of the details escape me. It's that kind of movie; light
as air. The plot entails a married couple--both dentists--who share
a practice, a family and a home, but apparently not the same sense
of what makes life interesting and exciting. The husband, Campbell
Scott, seems to be the husband that every woman dreams about. He's
a professional, who is loyal, steady, helpful, takes care of the kids
and provides for everyone. Sure, maybe he's not the most sunny, upbeat
guy, but you can't have everything. The wife, Hope Davis, is more
of a dreamer, even singing in an operatic chorus on the side. He's
the rock. He's the meat and potatoes. She's the storyteller, the one
always looking for more. So, we have the set up. The good guy. The
good woman. And we all know that good guys finish last. Being a nice,
solid, straight-shooter in a film is like the kiss of death. Think
about all those characters that Bill Pullman used to play before he
was the President in Independence Day. So, of course, the
wife is having an affair with someone in her opera group. The husband
accidentally witnesses them in a moment of intimacy--although a somewhat
innocent moment of intimacy. Rather than confronting his wide, Campbell
swallows it and tries to live for his family as his relationship with
his wife slowly dissolves. The elephant is in the room as she continues
to "work late" and whatnot, but Campbell continues on as
if everything is fine. Then the movie seems to completely stall for
about forty-five minutes as the stomach flu ravages the family and
we watch each and every member barf for three quarters of an hour.
That about clinched the awfulness for me. Just when you thought the
sickness was over, another kid would puke on the carpet. And all the
while, nothing much happens. Really bad. And then everyone gets well
due to Campbell putting in long hours nursing them back to health,
and the wife gets even more turned off by the husband for some reason
(either his disgust with his wifeishness or her guilt over her own
lack of it) and becomes more brazen with her affair. Interspersed
between all the upchucking and melodrama were some internal dream
sequences envisioned by the husband that felt completely out of place
in the film. The wackiness finally ends with one of those kind of
non-resolved resolutions that indie films are so good at--the kind
that make you feel like you really just wasted a couple hours of your
time on nothing. [Sundance]
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