Friday, 26 January 2001

SUNDANCE: DAY EIGHT

Robert Altman is somewhere laughing.

Michael Rymer's Angel Baby was a pretty good movie. In Too Deep was not, though it had moments. But his Sundance premiere, Perfume… well, it stinks! (Someone had to say it!) Rymer takes a pretty remarkable cast, including Paul Sorvino, Peter Gallagher, Jared Harris, Harris Yulin, Leslie Mann, Jeff Goldblum (who also exec produces), Rita Wilson, Sonja Braga, Michelle Williams, Omar Epps, Michelle Forbes, Carmen Electra, Estella Warren, Amber Valletta and Harry Hamlin. Almost every one is wasted. Paul Sorvino does a nice job as a Gucci-like design king, as does Gallagher as his queen. (Actually, one of the few scenes I like has Sonia Braga talking to Gallagher about "our husband.")

I guess Perfume is good for you if you want to be convinced that everyone prettier and more famous than you is disgustingly self-indulgent, dumb and doomed to unhappiness. Me, I don't have an unending need to be trapped in a room with stupid people who have nothing to say and nothing to add to my life other than physical beauty. And I certainly don't need to sit in a theater watching them at their most thoughtless and mindless.

There is not a single memorable line in this bad imitation of the lamest of Altman (think Pret A Porte with even less story development and without Mastrianni or Lyle Lovett or Julia Roberts to keep it interesting.) The images are pretty, but we learn almost nothing about modeling, designing or the tenuousness of relationships from this film. All we get it the bile. And now, it's getting a little bit back. Less than it deserves.

On the flip side, Raw Deal: A Question of Consent is everything the buzz says it is and more. There are definite weaknesses in the work of director Billy Corben, especially in some of the decisions about what to include and what to leave unanswered. But Corben handles this complex issue on various levels as the film progresses, which is a pleasant surprise. The issue is rape. This particular case involves the rape of a stripper at a frat party. And more importantly, it involves the rape of this woman again by the Florida State legal system. Yet, it is not hard to imagine that some people will walk out of the documentary feeling the exact opposite… that this woman caused unfair damage to the lives of the young men who she accused of rape. These people would be insensitive louts, but there are lots of those out there.

What really makes this documentary possible is the footage, taken by two frat members, of the entire evening's events, including the penetration and physical assaults that the woman accused them of putting her though. Not a film for the shy of heart. Like George Butler's The Endurance, much of Corben's work was done for him. The raw footage, which was released by Florida's courts when they decided, without a trial, that this woman had falsely reported this as a rape, is about as horrible and compelling as any documentary footage you will ever see. A big reason for that is that it is real and it is often ambiguous. Even as someone who starts with a level of sympathy for to the woman in this case, Corben's way of allowing both sides to speak at length and the way he introduces the footage changes one's perspective as the film progresses. It's kind of like arguing with a loved one and in the heat of passion, you hear it all one way and then as you calm down, the meanings of things changes.

The only major flaw of this film, for me, was Corben's failure to get an answer to one simple question, the answer to which is constantly inferred, but never explicitly embraced: Why would she do it? Why would a professional stripper, however low-end, run from a job crying rape? What was the upside for her?

The film came full circle for me around one idea. Certain people, perhaps a large minority or even a majority, don't think about how anyone else feels. The way the men talk about the woman in this case feels like a verbal form of rape in and of itself. The ongoing accusations, such as the one that she performed oral sex on a number of frat brothers, hang there in the air, never substantiated in any way by the video tape.

This film should be shown to every kid heading into college… not so much as a preventative measure, but as a pleading for the humanity that is so easy to lose touch with. America tends to forget the law is here to protect everyone, not just the people we like. And it is the most important test of law to hold it most dearly when if protects people we really don't like.

Until tomorrow ...