BEFORE: I do have another Meg Ryan film on the watchlist, but it's also a boxing film, and I'm going to watch 5 or 6 of those together in a couple of months. So instead, Kevin Bacon carries over from "In the Cut" - though his role in yesterday's film was uncredited, he's front and center in this one.
THE PLOT: A young journalist known for her celebrity profiles is consumed with discovering the truth behind a long-buried incident that affected the lives and careers of showbiz team Vince Collins and Lanny Morris.
AFTER: This was based on a book by Rupert Holmes (yes, the guy who sang the 1970's earworm "The Pina Colada Song"), and the jumping-off point here is a weekend telethon hosted by a 1950's comedy/music duo - a thinly-veiled version of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, although the telethon is for (sorry, against) polio, and nearly everything about this team's career is presumably fictional. This includes the fact that one of them is British, when neither Martin nor Lewis were, but whether this was done to further separate them from reality, or was a casting choice, or was a concession because only a British actor was available, I can't say.
The timeline is split between 1957 and 1972 - and the scenes don't necessarily spool out in order, the flashbacks appear in the order that the truth is revealed. What happened on that holiday weekend that ended with a dead woman found in a hotel room? And why do I have to do all the work, assembling the timeline back together? It's so much easier when they're already in the right order.
This ties in neatly with all the films I've watched this year that are set in hotels, more than I can keep track of. For famous people, that's where a lot of the kinky stuff happens, right? Yes, the theme of kinky sex carries over from "In the Cut", as well as a particular plot point that I can't mention for fear of spoilers.
But there's a warning here for young actresses - in an ensemble piece with only three main characters, if you're cast to work with two accomplished heavy hitters, you've got to be really good, or you'll easily be outshined. Flaws in technique will be magnified, to the point where the lead actress here seems confused or stoned most of the time - and she's supposed to be the one researching things, so her chances don't seem all that good.
Speaking of drugs, it's relevant that performers used to take "uppers" so they could give longer or more lively performances - I remember reading about the Beatles during their Hamburg days taking "pep" pills, which were essentially a form of speed. Also, swingers back in the day used different drugs like amyl nitrate "poppers" recreationally during sex - perhaps they still do, but you don't hear about it as much. I remember learning about them from a couple of stashed Harold Robbins novels I read as a teenager, and not knowing much about sex, this made it all seem very complicated.
My point is, the 1950's were a different time, and certain drug use took place then, and carried on through the 1970's, or until cocaine took over as the recreational drug of choice. Perhaps this sheds some light on the Bill Cosby scandals - not that this makes anything he's accused of OK if it's true, but some of it allegedly happened back when celebrities were known for taking some drugs to be up, other drugs to get down, and still other drugs before or during sex. Eventually these morphed into club drugs, but before that, they were used in more intimate settings, at least among the jet set.
Also starring Colin Firth (last seen in "Circle of Friends"), Alison Lohman (last heard in "Beowulf"), David Hayman, Rachel Blanchard, Maury Chaykin (last seen in "Entrapment").
RATING: 4 out of 10 grapefruits
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