The Popcorn Reel: Reel Observations
Amidst a previously harsh landscape of films, several of this summer's crop of films show that for women and men on the big screen, the use of power to love and un-love has never seemed greater
by Omar P.L. Moore
THEN: Robert Redford in "Indecent Proposal" (1993); Linda Fiorentino in "The Last Seduction" (1994); Aaron Eckhart in "In The Company of Men" (1997) [Photos: Paramount Pictures, Miramax, and Sony Pictures Classics]
This summer on the big screen there's a visual meaning to the song "The Power of Love". Huey Lewis and The News and the late Luther Vandross sung that song with very different sets of lyrics, and there's no denying that some of the summer films released in North America this summer show women (and a few men) using powers abundantly in the game of love, albeit in funny, cruel and interesting ways.
For instance, in the comedy film "Click" (June 23) Adam Sandler exercises power via a remote control to rearrange the events and people in his life, including his wife. In what might be a fantasy of some married men, preview trailers for "Click" show Mr. Sandler's character fast-forwarding his wife's argument with him. "I skipped the whole fight!", Mr. Sandler whispers after happening upon his wife (Kate Beckinsale) sleeping in the bedroom.
In the film "The Break-Up", about an ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend's fight to avoid moving from the apartment they inhabit, Jennifer Aniston uses the power of persuasion to get Vince Vaughn's attention. Seductively walking around the apartment in her birthday suit, she distracts him to a point. Ms. Aniston tries several things, including bringing in a guy home to get Mr. Vaughn's jealous goat going -- only that backfires when it turns out that the guy is the perfect video-game playing buddy for Mr. Vaughn.
Two other films symbolically or substantively use power for revenge or for altruistic motives. In the film "Superman Returns", Brandon Routh's Man of Steel uses his superpowers to try and save the world from the evil clutches of Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), while keeping discreet his love for Lois Lane, who has more than a small crush on Clark Kent's alter ego. And in "My Super-Ex Girlfriend", a comedy opening next month, Uma Thurman discovers she has been imbued with super powers and duly uses them to exact revenge on the former boyfriend who dumped her.
STILL THEN: Rachel Weisz in "The Shape of Things" (2003), Clive Owen, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Jude Law in "Closer" (2004) [Photos: Sony Pictures Entertainment]With these aforementioned summer films exemplifying a mostly humorous approach to the use of "power" to get what one wants in a relationship, does this mean that Hollywood is taking a cynical approach to relationships? Is the reality television era demonstrating an influence that Hollywood is being forced to take notice of? Is Hollywood running out of ideas?
Earlier this year, Sharon Stone recreated her 1992 role as author Catherine Tramell in the sequel to that year's film "Basic Instinct". In Michael Caton-Jones' "Basic Instinct 2", Ms. Stone uses the power of sex appeal and mind games to confound the male psychiatrist played by David Morrissey. Yet audiences the world over didn't feel the sexual heat generated by Ms. Stone's character as they generally shunned the film, which died a quick death at the box-office. The worldwide gross for "Basic Instinct 2" was $38.5 million, less than $6 million of which was from audiences in North America, according to numbers published by the internet box-office trackers Box Office Mojo.
By contrast, perhaps the most successful movie that demonstrated the entanglement of love and power was the 2004 film "Spider-Man 2". Audiences warmed to the dilemma that Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker character faced when trying to be himself by openly loving the woman (Mary Jane) he has desired for a long time, or trying to use his powers to maintain the title of world savior. Finally, in that film, directed by Sam Raimi, Mr. Maguire's character just throws up his hands and lets love shine in. Power it seemed, worked in a different way in the "Spider-Man" sequel: Mr. Maguire's superhero character used power to shut himself off from love's possibilities, but by movie's end love was the power that allowed Peter Parker to let go of his worldly responsibilities and declare his love for Mary Jane (played by Kirsten Dunst).
For several years there has been a flurry of Hollywood and independent films that dealt with the power to win over or destroy in a serious, or more malevolent way. Emotional violence was a recurring theme in some of those films, which were typically released in the United States during the Fall season to capitalize on any potential Oscar nominations that were there for the taking. For example, films like Mike Nichols' "Closer", the Oscar-nominated drama starring Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Natalie Portman and Jude Law, showcased love as a pitched battle, where the power dynamics between men and women turned raw to the core. Love, as Tina Turner might say, had very little to do with whether the married couples in Mr. Nichols film cared that they were hurting each other with their infidelity, or whether the unbridled, spoken truth about such philandering crushed a spouse's feelings (or the audience's tolerance for emotional pain.)
THE RECENT PAST: Steve Martin in "Shopgirl" (2005), Sharon Stone in "Basic Instinct 2" (2006)
[Photos: Touchstone Pictures, Sony Pictures]
Similarly, films like "In The Company of Men" follow the track of using power to destroy the opposite sex, with love or the promise of love, as a guise to hook a prospective lover in. In Neil La Bute's "In The Company...", Aaron Eckhart's misanthropic and misogynist character Chad uses the power dynamics of the corporate boardroom to humiliate a hearing-impaired woman whom he has lead on, purely to later hurt her feelings and stab a knife in the back of his go-along-to-get-along buddy played by Matt Malloy. Since his seminal 1997 film, Mr. LaBute has returned to such treacherous emotional terrain between the sexes, exploring power dynamics and misogyny in "Your Friends and Neighbours" (memorably featuring an emasculated Ben Stiller), and in "The Shape of Things", a film based on Mr. La Bute's 2001 Broadway play. In that film, the women took their turn, with Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz making Paul Rudd's life hell by completely remaking him over from head to toe, in exchange for the apparent promise of sex, love and companionship.
And Linda Fiorentino expertly threw men for a curve with her performance as Wendy Kroy (an approximate spelling of "New York" in reverse) in the film "The Last Seduction". She used her sex and her intellect as she made men froth and foam at the mouth to get what she wanted, ensnaring Peter Berg and Bill Nunn among other male victims. Ms. Fiorentino's character didn't necessarily love any of the men she encountered, she simply loved power and the idea of teaching men a lesson. In the same vein, "Thelma & Louise" showed men behaving boorishly and obnoxiously, and the lessons about how to treat a lady were taught by Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon in a way that crushed the egos of some of the men who went to movie theaters to see Ridley Scott's film. In terms of power -- symbolized here by a gun -- the characters of Ms. Davis and Ms. Sarandon were only doing what men had been doing on the big screen for decades: shooting first and asking questions whenever they felt like it. Love was not part of the duo's tutorial -- but men learning respect for women was.There is power that comes with money, which Steve Martin uses to his slimy advantage in '"Shopgirl", where he plays a disconnected millionaire who manipulates Claire Danes in order to bed her without the slightest pretense of a relationship. Ms. Danes' character is seduced, even as she suspects she's made a big mistake. But Mr. Martin's character appears to be so beneficent and kind that on the face Ms. Danes finds him irresistible. The power to seduce through money, without substantive ingredients of personality, remains an overwhelming issue in today's society. Another film that exemplifies this so well is Adrian Lyne's 1993 film "Indecent Proposal" where Robert Redford who plays a suave millionaire, pays Demi Moore $1 million to spend the night with him, with the blessing of Ms. Moore's husband played by Woody Harrelson. As is seen in that film, the power to buy "love" comes at a heavy price.
NOW: Super Men and Women -- Brandon Routh in "Superman Returns" (2006), and Uma Thurman in "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" (2006).
None of the films just mentioned did appreciably well at the box-office. These films, "Men", "Seduction" and "Closer" typcially performed solidly in smaller art house theaters and won the kudos of numerous movie critics. So just what is it about the growth, or at least the re-emergence in some of this summer's films, of men and women who are either subtly using power games on each other, or using power to gain affection, or using artifical power to gain revenge against former love interests?
Does this play out in the overactive imaginations or screenwriters or is it just a sign of the times in the relations between men and women as reflected in society at large? During "The Break-Up", Jon Favreau suggests to Vince Vaughn that he should buy a software keystroke program that records every letter keyed, so that Mr. Vaughn's character can read the e-mail of his ex-girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston) to find out who "she really is". Technology then, may provide a hint at some of the gadgetry and gimmickry utilized in some of the current films in theaters this summer. Based on this techno-premise it would seem that the best way to avenge a lost lover or meet a new one is through the power of technology via some kind of strange of iPod kinship with the intended target of one's affections. In many ways the iPod has proven to be the perfect conversation starter between the sexes (with the headphones off, of course.)
But whatever happened to plain, good old fashioned communication between the sexes? At least the films "Last Seduction" and "In the Company..." get down and dirty with direct talk -- straight up and down, salty, acidic and acerbic -- words shredding the heart of the soon-to-be heartbroken, cutting like a hot knife through butter. Though "Closer" does deal with a brief internet episode that is amusing, that film also gets to the heart of the matter. There is no mincing of words, nor is there any stumbling block, no impediment to speech, no technological device or magic power to cramp someone's style.Maybe the ages of the directors of some of these films provides an answer to the largely technology-absent films that is also telling. Mike Nichols, director of "Closer", is in his seventies, John Dahl, who directed "The Last Seduction", is fifty, and "Thelma" helmer Ridley Scott is in his late sixties. By contrast, Frank Coraci, director of "Click", and "Superman Returns" director Bryan Singer are both forty. "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" director Ivan Reitman is 59, and "Break-Up" helmer Peyton Reed is 41. "Shopgirl" director Anand Tucker is 43. These ages may mean very little, or it may reflect the sensibilities behind the emotional turmoil in some of these films.
In the final analysis, it will be interesting to see whether the comparatively light-hearted films like "Click", "My Super Ex-Girlfriend", "The Break-Up" and "Superman Returns" will be successful while inspiring any visceral response when onscreen characters use power either naturally or unnaturally, to gain love or lose it.
