BEFORE: Catherine Keener carries over from "Enough Said", so the linking has led me here. I've managed to avoid the work of Neil LaBute up until now, because I've read about how misogynistic his plays tend to be, but I've never watched one, or any film based on one of them.
THE PLOT: Unhappy couples fall apart and hop into other beds with other people.
AFTER: Well, I said that this year's chain would be about the ups and downs of relationships, this one definitely focuses on the downs - it's a real downer, I guess. None of the characters are happy, they all want to be sleeping with someone other than who they're married to or living with, and this ultimately leads to the fracturing of marriages and, one assumes, the dissolution of friendships. This is ground that's been covered many times in the films of Woody Allen, except he remembers to include comedy in (most of) his films, and the music is much better.
I'm paying careful attention here, because I would also like to write an ensemble story with 6 characters who come together, fall apart and come back together in various ways, except I would like to do it in a much more enjoyable fashion, if that's possible - mix the comedy with the tragedy. People cheating on each other and separating from each other is serious business, sure, but it doesn't have to drag the whole film down, does it? I mean, I get that you have to show people being annoyed with each other or sexually unsatisfied in some way to justify the infidelity, but do they have to be annoyed and dissatisfied all the freakin' time?
I guess a story has to cover a long period of time if you're going to institute a progression, some sea change before which they're content, and after which they're discontent. People do change, but it happens over time, so I'll have to think about this some more. My story was going to try and compress my experiences over several years into just a few months, but now I think if there's going to be a radical change in the characters' outlooks, a longer scope might be better. In tonight's film, there's no way to be sure how much time passes over the course of the film - not like in "Hannah and Her Sisters", where Woody threw in a Thanksgiving party every so often so we'd get a clue about the passage of time.
It's a valid comparison, this film to "Hannah and Her Sisters", because the catalyst is the same - a man wants to have an affair, and the other events spiral out from there. But I walked away from Woody's film liking nearly all of the characters, while still understanding that none of them are perfect, and with this film, I hate all of the characters, because they're all assholes. Is that the point? Is everyone, everywhere an asshole? I might be inclined to agree, except I don't think that everyone's an asshole all the time, as LaBute's film seems to suggest.
Wait, the names of the 6 characters are Mary, Barry, Cary, Jerry, Terri and Cheri? I can't decide if that's too cutesy or just plain stupid. The odds against 6 names forming 2 sets of rhymes like that are astronomical, I'm not buying it. Similarly, what was up with each character being in the same art gallery, starting the same conversation with the same person? Again, the odds are so against that happening that it just took me right out of the film's reality.
All I can say is, if these are your friends, then you need better friends, and if these are your neighbors, I'd seriously consider moving.
Also starring Amy Brenneman (last seen in "Daylight"), Aaron Eckhart (last seen in "Paycheck"), Jason Patric (last seen in "The Alamo"), Ben Stiller (last seen in "Keeping the Faith"), Nastassja Kinski (last seen in "The Claim").
RATING: 2 out of 10 gym lockers
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