The only reason I rented Boogie Woogie is the DVD box had on it the words "Gillian Anderson" and "Strong Sexual Content". However, the fact that Agent Scully did not get naked is the least disappointing thing about this film. This movie doesn't work as a comedy. It doesn't work as a drama. It doesn't work as a dramedy or a comada or any other genre or style that you could possibly imagine. Perhaps it all makes sense if you're an aficionado of the London art scene where this story is set, but for everyone else it's like looking at a wall of Egyptian hieroglyphics. You know it's supposed to mean something but you have no idea what it is and you quickly get tired of staring at it.
Like Love Actually..., this is a tale about a large cast of characters whose lives intersect. Unlike Love Actually, this one is neither funny nor touching nor remotely evocative of any other human emotion. Art Spindle (Danny Huston) is a big time art dealer and gallery owner who's been laughing a fake laugh his entire life and no longer knows how to not do it. Jean and Bob Macelstone (Gillian Anderson and Stellan Skarsgard) are a wealthy, art loving couple who live in a home that looks like the secret hideout of a Batman villain. Beth Freemantle (Heather Graham) is Art's assistant who's also working behind his back to launch her own gallery with Bob's help. Joe (Jack Huston) is a young artist who is banging Beth and quickly becomes the boy toy of Jean.
Continuing on, Dewey (Alan Cumming) is a hanger on in the art world who walks Jean and Bob's dogs and ineffectually manages the career of Elaine (Jaime Winstone), an edgy video artist who turns everything she points her camera at into part of her work. There's also Alfred Rhinegold (Christopher Lee), a sick old man who owns a legendary painting that Art lusts after, and Alfred's wife and butler (Joanna Lumley and Simon McBurney), who are pressuring him to sell it. Paige Prideaux (Amanda Seyfried) is a young girl who falls down and has a parasitic twin living inside her. Oh, and the entire cast of the 70s TV show "The White Shadow" also show up and play a charity basketball game. Yeah, I'm kidding about that but sweetness and light! There are far too many people in this lackluster motion picture.
I'm not going to go into any more of the plot because, honest to goodness, I don't understand it. I could follow along but I could never figure out what was supposed to be funny and what was intended to be serious and when it was being satirical and when it was trying to be earnest. Watching Boogie Woogie is like listening to a stranger tell you about the funny thing that happened one time at his place of work and you don't know any of the people involved in the story or what's funny about it. There's a point where it is revealed that a character is gay and the reaction to that revelation clearly indicates that it's supposed to be a big deal but I don't have slight slightest clue why that character being gay would be a big deal and whether I was meant to be surprised, shocked or amused by it.
Now there is some nudity here, though none of it involves Gillian Anderson, and there's more than enough talented and capable actors doing their level best with this script. The movie is also reasonably well directed and effectively paced. The only problem with Boogie Woogie is it's incomprehensible.
If you spent a summer interning at a London art gallery, you might be able to might sense of this thing. I could have watched it in reverse and it wouldn't have made much difference. Oh, and if you do want to see Gillian Anderson get naked, go rent a film called Closure. She looks good and the movie's not that bad.
Like Love Actually..., this is a tale about a large cast of characters whose lives intersect. Unlike Love Actually, this one is neither funny nor touching nor remotely evocative of any other human emotion. Art Spindle (Danny Huston) is a big time art dealer and gallery owner who's been laughing a fake laugh his entire life and no longer knows how to not do it. Jean and Bob Macelstone (Gillian Anderson and Stellan Skarsgard) are a wealthy, art loving couple who live in a home that looks like the secret hideout of a Batman villain. Beth Freemantle (Heather Graham) is Art's assistant who's also working behind his back to launch her own gallery with Bob's help. Joe (Jack Huston) is a young artist who is banging Beth and quickly becomes the boy toy of Jean.
Continuing on, Dewey (Alan Cumming) is a hanger on in the art world who walks Jean and Bob's dogs and ineffectually manages the career of Elaine (Jaime Winstone), an edgy video artist who turns everything she points her camera at into part of her work. There's also Alfred Rhinegold (Christopher Lee), a sick old man who owns a legendary painting that Art lusts after, and Alfred's wife and butler (Joanna Lumley and Simon McBurney), who are pressuring him to sell it. Paige Prideaux (Amanda Seyfried) is a young girl who falls down and has a parasitic twin living inside her. Oh, and the entire cast of the 70s TV show "The White Shadow" also show up and play a charity basketball game. Yeah, I'm kidding about that but sweetness and light! There are far too many people in this lackluster motion picture.
I'm not going to go into any more of the plot because, honest to goodness, I don't understand it. I could follow along but I could never figure out what was supposed to be funny and what was intended to be serious and when it was being satirical and when it was trying to be earnest. Watching Boogie Woogie is like listening to a stranger tell you about the funny thing that happened one time at his place of work and you don't know any of the people involved in the story or what's funny about it. There's a point where it is revealed that a character is gay and the reaction to that revelation clearly indicates that it's supposed to be a big deal but I don't have slight slightest clue why that character being gay would be a big deal and whether I was meant to be surprised, shocked or amused by it.
Now there is some nudity here, though none of it involves Gillian Anderson, and there's more than enough talented and capable actors doing their level best with this script. The movie is also reasonably well directed and effectively paced. The only problem with Boogie Woogie is it's incomprehensible.
If you spent a summer interning at a London art gallery, you might be able to might sense of this thing. I could have watched it in reverse and it wouldn't have made much difference. Oh, and if you do want to see Gillian Anderson get naked, go rent a film called Closure. She looks good and the movie's not that bad.