BEFORE: I've hit a good vein of recent films, and eventually that's what my watchlist of films will become - a list of last year's releases, with maybe a couple classics worked in. Noting some similarities between "50/50" and this one, I'm renting from iTunes again tonight, even though that doesn't help my list get any smaller. Linking from "50/50", Anna Kendrick ties back to George Clooney, who was also in "The Perfect Storm" with John Hawkes.
THE PLOT: A man in an iron lung who wishes to lose his virginity contacts a professional sex surrogate with the help of his therapist and priest.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "My Left Foot" (Movie #849)
AFTER: I get to read up on polio tonight - for some reason I thought the disease had been eradicated. I guess I was thinking of smallpox. The polio vaccines were developed in the early 1950's, but there were still plenty of people affected in the 1980's, when this film is set. Anyway, tonight's subject, Mark O'Brien, contracted polio in 1955, spending much of his life in an iron lung. Despite this, he attended college at UC Berkeley, and wrote several books of poetry and essays about his experiences.
I also get to read up on iron lungs - I never really thought about how they worked or what their exact function was. Technically a negative pressure ventilator - all human breathing is just muscles causing negative pressure by expanding the rib cage, and then air rushes in more easily to counteract the resulting vacuum. Then the muscles relax and the cavity gets smaller, and air rushes out. Unless you're being checked out by a doctor or a state trooper, you don't even have to do anything to breathe, your muscle memory just knows to keep this process going. For people who don't have the muscle strength, the iron lung creates a space with alternating higher and lower pressure, thus non-invasively causing air to flow in and out of the lungs.
See, I'm hoping to get some kind of educational grant out of this. If I just talked about Helen Hunt (last seen in "Twister") being super naked in this film, there go my chances. But OK, let's talk about it, since sex sells and hot girls sell movie tickets. There's been some flak recently for the Oscar telecast cheekily featuring a musical number named "We Saw Your Boobs" (yet pretending that it was from an alternate timeline, subtly distancing themselves from any possible offense at the same time). Reaction has been mixed, ranging from men who hastily grabbed a pen and paper to jot down what films to rent to see certain actresses in the buff, to women who may not have been so amused. (I'm sure there were some women out there who grabbed a pen and paper too - come on, admit it...)
Jamie Leigh Curtis, most notably, didn't find it funny. A veteran of a few topless scenes herself ("Trading Places", "Love Letters", and "The Tailor of Panama", for those of you playing along at home...), Ms. Curtis pointed out that most often actresses don't have control over topless scenes (right, because they're not usually the director) and most often those in control are men (no, duh) even pointing out that Jodie Foster's topless scene in "The Accused" shouldn't count because her character was getting raped. (Should've gone with "Nell", Mr. McFarlane - plus, it's easier to rhyme.)
Thus the "exploitation" of nubile actress is tantamount to rape itself. Well, I say nay nay. Any actress is free to turn down any movie role she wants - if she's not comfortable with nudity, she can find another role, or even another line of work. I don't care if you're a man or a woman, if you're in the acting business, you're a part of the scenery, a moving pound of flesh. As Vonnegut said, we're all just walking meatbags full of chemicals anyway, what's the big deal? It's a rough business, but if it's too much for you, there's the door. There are a dozen other actresses happy to take whatever role you turn down.
So, hats off to Helen Hunt (and shirts and pants and just about everything else), turning 50 this year and looking swell. I don't know what happened to her face, though - she doesn't look a bit like she did in "As Good As It Gets". Her face is much more angular now, I don't know if that's age or if she had work done, or she got caught up in the botox craze a few years ago. But she's clearly very comfortable with her body.
Where it probably gets weird for actors and actresses is having to be naked and intimate with people on camera, as part of the job, and then going back to their regular lives, their wife or husband, and not letting the two worlds affect each other. Do they develop ways to just turn their emotions on and off? I can draw a direct comparison to the sex surrogate seen in the film - after a session with her client, she's got to go back to her life and her husband, and not get attached to her client.
Of course, sometimes that line gets crossed, or at least blurred. Funny, that also happened in last night's film, with a therapist getting too emotionally involved with her patient. Makes for a better movie, but probably more complicated in real life. Also, I can see the need for a sounding board character, but why would anyone go to a priest, even a hip 1970's San Francisco one, for sex advice? I can't think of anyone less qualified - you might as well go to a witch doctor for your heart surgery or ask an Amish person to tune up your car engine.
They sneak this one in by depicting O'Brien as a religious type, not someone who blames God for his condition, but someone who feels that God has a sick sense of humor. God created polio (and typhoid, and malaria, plus earthquakes, tornadoes and the Jonas Brothers) and you think he's got a sense of humor? He's apparently the sickest mofo in the universe - instead of all this "working in mysterious ways" crap, isn't there a much simpler answer? The earth formed naturally, and it's not perfect. The ecosystem isn't perfect, humans aren't perfect, viruses and diseases aren't perfect, and why is that the case? Because nobody is running the show.
My takeaway: if you live your life in shame for your perceived sins, and adherence to an arbitrary code, with the promise of an eternal punishment/reward system, think of all the fantastic pleasures you'll miss out on.
Also starring William H. Macy (last seen in "Seabiscuit"), Adam Arkin, Moon Bloodgood, Robin Weigert, with a cameo from Rhea Perlman.
RATING: 6 out of 10 motel rooms
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