A Lovely Rock Dream

Rating: Null/10 (2 April 2004)

(spoilers)I absolutely love this film. Every time I watch it, I seem to get something different from it. At heart, it's a movie about true love-the love between Brian Slade and Curt Wilde. The way they look at each other, and react to each other, is just astounding. And when the illusion that Brian Slade is living in drives them apart, it's heartbreaking. But there are so many more elements to the film, that it takes repeated viewing to see and understand them. There's the whole 70's glam rock movement-how, as Curt Wilde remarks towards the end of the film, "We set out to change the world, and only ended up changing ourselves". There's the sharp hit at David Bowie-because Brian Slade is a sexual predator who's using his sexuality to get ahead at any cost. Jonathan Rhys Meyers gives a superb, understated performance as a young man on the prowl, who's bi-sexuality is simply another weapon he wields to make it to the top no matter what. The only time that his face is open and REAL is when he sees Curt Wild. That shy smile when he first glimpses Curt on-stage is the first open, non-calculating expression we ever see on him. He's not trying to play an angle with Curt. Which makes their break-up even more painful to watch. Todd Haynes was also slyly comparing the 70's and 80's with the closeted reporter played by Christian Bale. The 70's may have been an empty, glittering decade of drugs, wild sex, and out of control behavior, but was it any worse than the drab, lifeless, conformist 80's? The film is saying that no matter what changes, the music will go on. It might change it's look and style, but it will continue. And there are of course bonuses in the film-Ewan MacGregor's full frontal nudity, the glittering costumes and make-up, and Jonathan Rhys Meyer's lovely singing voice(he sings over half of the songs in the movie). The songs alone are worth watching this film for, but the tangled layers of ideas are what makes me come back to it time and time again.