A Little Elishy, but No Risky

Rating: Null/10 (25 April 2004)

When I think of directors in love with their female leads, I think of Hitchcock absolutely loving Grace Kelly with the lens of his camera, as in `Vertigo' or `Rear Window.' Not just making love to her, but truly, absolutely in the act of love with her; a true and honest act of creation and expression and fusing of acting and directing as forms of art. Elisha Cuthbert (Danielle) deserved such treatment with the subtlety and grace that she brought to this role, in addition to her breathtaking beauty, which is, I admit, rather obvious, hardly worth mentioning, like an earthquake. She was trying to give us something memorable, but it seemed the director wanted her to demonstrate her physical attributes (to fill the seats, I suppose); however, only at an arms length. Normally I would be okay with this approach if it was done intentionally to titillate and leave us wanting more. But in this case it seemed to be an inability for the director to grasp the material and develop a rapport with his actors and we were left squinting at the screen afraid to blink, thinking Elisha must be along any second.
The first third of the movie, despite some awkwardness and unevenness in the collage of high school life, was promising. I must say that the Cambodian exchange student sequence was brilliant. At some point the story twisted in numerous madcap directions (and no, not like Tarentino, not even Three Stooges). Elisha took a back seat, and too many silly sidelines stifled the momentum and failed to propel the story. And the arcs that had been set up poofed away like mortar round duds fizzling overhead. The sputtering story and the inconsistent production values sucked all of the life out of the piece. It is disappointing that such wonderful, rife material could be so squandered.
Ms. Cuthbert often seemed to be in a different movie. She was always graced with the MTVesque light and shadow, with the ever present wisps and mist. However, many frames, especially at the beginning, only consisted of her alone without any of the other lead actors. Many of these frames were long shots which, to me, dissipated the intimacy between the viewer (me), and the material, as well as between the romantic leads. All of us, even the people in the movie, became voyeurs, lusting after Elisha, with no apparent artistic intent. In later scenes she was completely in the background, more as a concept or idea, or maybe ideal, rather than an actual person. However, there were some scenes, especially those at the beginning before we `knew' she was porn actress that she delivered masterfully. Even the scene in the motel room had its charm, though again here I think her raw talent completely overwhelmed the awkwardness of the director. I could almost tell the points at which she was under the influence of direction (i.e. went she removed her overgarment eyes completely downcast or went she assumed the doggie position and you couldn't see her eyes) and those in which she was riffing (i.e. went she was positioned direct and uncompromising or at the moment she detached herself from the childish game Emile's character was playing, honestly, though awkardly). I must say that I gasped for air when she said `Do you want to f**k me.'
Although the beginning of the film worked nicely, the editing did seem irregular, which I took as artistic intent. However, it appears from the `make it up as you go along' quality that took over when Emile's bud discovered the damning movie, there may have some re-shoots and added material and/or numerous disjointed, assembly line direction and production droids. I couldn't tell if it was the story that had gotten off course or if the editing was just completely outside the loop (pun!).
I did become fixated upon Ms. Cuthbert who seemed to want to do justice to the promising material. But she was overshadowed by the corporate collaborative who wanted to throw in a lot of silly gags, ill conceived t&a, and mangled plotlines. It was obvious, this was a corporate effort giving a golden boy a shot, actually setting him up for success, and the poor guy just couldn't bring it off. There may have been focus groups involved in the ending, which was typically American as Emile (Matt) cruised into Georgetown driving a spiffy sports car, silver, no less. I took this sendoff as homage to the movie's precursor, `Risky Business.'