By Dan Cohen
As summer comes to a close it’s time to recognize a few small films that may not play the local theaters, but will make for a pleasant viewing on your DVD/flat screen set up. These aren’t hits; they’re more like ground rule doubles. But none will insult your intelligence.
“Tell No One,” is probably the surprise art house hit of the summer. Even after it won a number of French “Cesars,” the larger American distributors passed on it, probably because some of it is unusually talky. At the same time there’s much to recommend here. Finally a little company out of Chicago called Music Box picked it up and it’s playing to packed houses of the middle aged all across the country. Proving once again, adults like intelligent suspense films, and they don’t mind reading subtitles.
Written and directed by Guillame Canet, (from an American novel, “Tell No One” is an eclectic mix of styles and moods. Everybody in the insanely attractive cast has his or her quirks and the story takes us into every strata of current French society. It’s a voyeur’s treat.
A doctor’s wife is murdered at her country home. Her husband is beat up and left for dead. Eight years later the still grieving spouse gets a message that she’s alive, but to “tell no one.” Things get messy when the cops make him the number one suspect. Complications follow; a daring chase, striking reversals, and finally, a credibility gap. But along the way there’s enough intrigue and color for three films.
“Frozen River” won the big award at Sundance. At the time critics fretted that it might not get a release. But here it is.
The movie’s depiction of life just above the poverty line in a godforsaken, frozen hell just south of the Canadian border is truthful to a fault. But it wears its deliberate, almost witless tone like a badge of honor, and suffers as a consequence. Still, for its candor and compelling performances, the picture is an achievement.
Melissa Leo is a middle aged woman saddled with two kids, a dead end job and a gambler husband who takes off with all their money. As a last ditch effort to keep the family together she ties up with a similarly disadvantaged, native American, who uses the Indian lands and their immunity from the law to smuggle illegals across a perilously “frozen” river. The metaphors is worked for all its worth.
The movie is so lacking in sentimentality I hate to fault it, but Leo has trouble busting out of the constrictions of the material. You cringe as she moves closer and closer to disaster, but at the same time wonder how she got where she is, and more important, what’s keeping her there. She appears smart and resourceful but the best she can get is a part time job in a dismal dollar store. Is she in any way responsible for her circumstances? The movie doesn’t tell us.
A lot of the explanation is fobbed off on a husband who never appears, but it isn’t enough. And yet the situation is entirely fresh, and some of the imagery striking.
Ben Kingsley stretches just south of credibility, in “The Wackness,” a look back at a group of privileged but disoriented New Yorkers in the mid 90s. He plays a pot addled psychologist who’s just as confused as his patients, including a smart kid, played by Josh Peck, who, in spite of good looks and attitude, can’t seem to lose his virginity.
Olivia Thrilby, as Kingsley’s step daughter, stands out as a willful brat with more experience than Peck and probably most other boys her own age. Thrilby overwhelms everybody else in the cast, almost effortlessly. She also has the best lines.
“Wackness” is sexy and funny in fits and starts, but succeeds more at creating atmosphere than compelling drama. And when it ends we feel like we’ve spent the time pleasurably, but to little effect.
There are so many coming of age “dramadeys” every year that the bar has been set pretty high. Time and place are just not enough to compel us, especially when the characters are as privileged s they are here. And there are better examples of the genre. I think back to “Igby Goes Down,” from 2002 (available on disc) for its skill in mixing incongruous elements while remaining thoroughly grounded. “Igby” found genuine loss in its protagonist, played by Kieran Culkin, without resorting to melodrama. It also required a little more than a passive viewing, and as a result, got lost in the shuffle in the same way that “Wackness” has. The two films would make for an interesting double feature on your home screen.
