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Hurlyburly (15)
Running Time: 123 minutes
CAST
Kevin Spacey, Meg Ryan, Sean Penn
DIRECTED
Anthony Drazan
Can solipsism be an art form? For a couple of Hollywood movers and shakers named Eddie (Sean Penn) and Mickey (Kevin Spacey), along with their parasite friend Artie (Garry Shandling) and Eddie's pal, Phil (Chazz Palminteri) -- an outright loser with an unyielding optimism and violent streak -- the answer is almost yes. The selfishness that bonds these four dissimilar men (along with their shared interest in drugs and whores) is very nearly a thing of monstrous perfection. The only problem: Phil actually wants something out of life -- love, work as an actor, respect -- while Eddie's increasing desperation for a connection to someone or something has undermined the group's collective indifference.
Make no mistake, these are despicable characters who sink to some low, low levels before the end credits. Early on, Eddie -- who yearns to re-establish his relationship with Darlene (Robin Wright), who in turn had a brief fling with Mickey -- greedily welcomes into the house he shares with Mickey a homeless teen (Anna Paquin) brought over as a sex toy by Artie. Later, a stripper (Meg Ryan) whom Eddie and Mickey have loaned to professional acquaintances for sex, is thrown out of a moving car by a distraught, confused Phil.
But the more savage or coked up or monstrously cool (that would be Spacey's role, natch) these overgrown boys get, the more evident their iced-over souls become. This story,written by David Rabe as an adaptation of his stage play of the same name, is a windy affair based on voluminous dialogue, which in turn slowly gives way to more concisely articulated truths by Eddie (the film's moral centerpiece) about nothing more complex or painful than the fact of loneliness. The film's central relationship, between odd couple Eddie and Phil, eventually acquires a certain logic and beauty -- one that seems improbable in the first half-hour -- as each man wants very much to believe in the other.
Filmmaker Anthony Drazan (Zebrahead) is guilty of some over-direction. Visually, the film is unnecessarily busy and patchy, but Drazan also knows this project truly belongs to the extraordinary cast and it is best for him to keep out of the way. Sean Penn is absolutely brilliant, but if Spacey seems to have gone down his character's disinterested road one time too often, Palminteri brings a fresh intelligence to his familiar stance as a snarling muscle. Add to that Ryan's simpleminded decadence as the hapless stripper, Paquin's effective sweetness, and Shandling's grasping persona, and this film turns out to be a winning experience.
Fadi Khawaja
[email protected]
4 out of 5 stars
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