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THE
SHAPE OF THINGS
7/10
USA (US/Fr/UK) 2003 : Neil LaBUTE : 96 mins
LaBute finally back to something like form of 1997 debut In the Company of
Men. In between, lost way somewhat with smartarse Your Friends
and Neighbours (1998); patchy Zellweger-vehicle Nurse
Betty (2000); Paltrow-vehicle – and still-baffling material choice
– Possession (2002).
No coincidence during this period became better-known as playwright, West
End/Off-Broadway. The Shape of Things originally one such transatlantic
success. Theatrical origins apparent: stagey delivery of reference-laden
dialogue takes some getting used to; only four speaking parts, most scenes
talky two-handers between central couple, Adam (Paul Rudd) and Evelyn
(Rachel Weisz).
He: chubby, dowdy, bad-hair, prominent nose, bad dress sense. Pleasant non-entity;
mid-20s postgrad student supplements income working in campus museum,
small California coastal college town (looks like San Luis Obispo). She:
provocatively intelligent, knockout-looking art-student. Full of radical
ideas, playfulness. Makes the move on Adam. Starts ‘making him over’ bit
by bit: weight-loss, confidence gain, trendy haircut and clothes, nose-job.
Transformation amuses/bemuses of Adam’s frat-boy ex-roommate Philip (Weller);
leads to friction with Philip’s fiancee Jenny (Mol). Adam can’t believe
his luck - and neither can we, given writer-director’s track-record as
king of nasty ulterior motives… (unfair) reputation as “Mormon misanthrope.”
Starts off as a sitcom-satire look at power-dynamics of amusingly one-sided
relationship: but LaBute and his manipulative anti-heroine have maliciously
clever intellectual twist in store. Unfair to say more, but payoff works
well. Strong idea: audacious conceit, smoothly executed and expertly acted
– Weisz is major revelation – with bonus of well-chosen Elvis Costello
numbers giving soundtrack suitably brainy, jagged edges. Prosthetics used
for Rudd slim-down remarkable and utterly invisible: leap ahead of Kidman’s
Hours proboscis and, closest
comparison, Robert John Burke from Thinner. Goes from jowlier version
of scruffy Jason Lee in Mallrats to shorter real-life Ben Affleck
(Rudd spookily resembled Affleck in Two
Days). However… LaBute still prisoner of own cleverness? Over-articulate
characters pawns/tools in schematic formula/experiment? Nagging artificiality
of what is basically just In the Company of Woman…
21st November, 2003
(seen 1st November : Odeon West End, London – London
Film Festival)
click here for a full list of films covered
at the 2003 London Film Festival
by Neil
Young
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