the perennial malaise of the middle-class American male

Rating: 3/10 (5 October 1999)

Although there are some things in this film that are indeed exceptional (art direction and set decoration, besides the more obvious acting etc.), I am just about shocked by the ease with which Hollywood manages to fall back on its most insinuating and pernicious attitudes towards women, the suburbs, the repression of desire, and moral bankruptcy. Okay, so: the American suburbs bread discontent and potentially explosive sick fantasies under a patina of well-behavior and perfectly manicured front lawns. And: children are the designated victims of adults' failure to keep off the edge on moral and existential insanity. How many times do we have to be told this? Isn't it what, for instance, The Ice Storm reminded us of recently? It, at least, had the historical decency to take place in the 70's. At the end of the 90's, I'd like something more meaty, more political, less self-indulgent, thank you very much.
As for politics, the sexual politics of this film are so sneakingly backwards as to make one wonder if feminism is really fallen off the edge of the world. Did you sympathize with the sad-but-heroic struggle of Kevin Spacey? I did, and I hated the director for making me do it. Annette Bening is great in this film, but her character is simply bitchy and monsterish and unredeemable. Her frigidity is so impermeable that she manages to resist EVEN Kevin Spacey's most touching "let's start over" efforts. Now isn't it sad? No, it isn't. It's sexist, and misguided and wrong. In fact, all through the film women are viewed as nothing more than the object of male desire, and if we are expected to look at this as some sarcastic criticism of male culture, well, there's simply no space in the film for the critical distance needed to do this.
5/10 for artistic merit, with a lot of misgivings.