Hard to categorize this movie, but many things come to mind. My boyfriend described it as Blue Velvet filmed by the Farrelly brothers and I think that is an excellent description. My problem with this film is that it sets up its premise so exquisitely in the beginning - Renee Zellweger trapped in a waitressing job that she can actually do in her sleep, who watches her favorite soap so zealously that she can pour coffee while staring at the screen.
As we follow her around in a day we begin to realize how desperately she is trying to keep going by losing herself in a false positivity sustained by soap opera platitudes, but that these are becoming increasingly more difficult to apply to her sad life and bad marriage. As she soldiers on through the day, more and more things unravel around her, so that by the time she witnesses the brutal murder of her husband, she is completely consumed by her imaginary world.
Up to this point, Zellweger balances the tension of her delusional positivity with a buried sadness that is so delicate, when it comes out every once in a while, it is heartbreaking to see. Then LaBute just abandons ship with her and launches into a road trip movie that loses all dramatic tension by creating extremely cartoonish interactions and characterizations that do not come into balance again until Bette meets up with her soap opera star at a charity event.
The scene where Bette introduces herself to the writer and some of the cast of the soap opera "A Reason to Love" is one of the best balancing acts of conflicting views of reality I have ever seen on screen. But once again LaBute abandons Bette to one-dimensionality so he can rush over to the Grand Canyon for yet another badly written scene where Morgan Freeman is trying to have a conscience and Chris Rock is just trying to get the job done.
The point at which I got anything out of their interaction with each other was the point at which Chris Rock decided to stop "acting" and just start doing his foul-mouthed comedy routine. Finally there seemed to be some spark and life to their relationship, and the road trip aspect started to pick up for me.
I feel like Mr. LaBute is very good at theatrical manipulation of audience expectation, but not so adept at filmic flow and continuity. I am glad he exists, and the film was very interesting and very watchable, but I think he still has a lot to learn about how to create and sustain a convincing oddball reality throughout the duration of a feature length film.
You can't have intermissions in a modern movie theatre, but I felt as if there were intermissions in this film, that plot lines would ebb and flow like tides until each character was plucked out of the group and given meaning. Perhaps this would have been best done as a play first, and then the ensemble cast rounded up to do the film. I was underwhelmed by the artistry but entertained by the quirky story, so I think I will just leave it up to other viewers to determine - is the film half-empty, or half-full?
As we follow her around in a day we begin to realize how desperately she is trying to keep going by losing herself in a false positivity sustained by soap opera platitudes, but that these are becoming increasingly more difficult to apply to her sad life and bad marriage. As she soldiers on through the day, more and more things unravel around her, so that by the time she witnesses the brutal murder of her husband, she is completely consumed by her imaginary world.
Up to this point, Zellweger balances the tension of her delusional positivity with a buried sadness that is so delicate, when it comes out every once in a while, it is heartbreaking to see. Then LaBute just abandons ship with her and launches into a road trip movie that loses all dramatic tension by creating extremely cartoonish interactions and characterizations that do not come into balance again until Bette meets up with her soap opera star at a charity event.
The scene where Bette introduces herself to the writer and some of the cast of the soap opera "A Reason to Love" is one of the best balancing acts of conflicting views of reality I have ever seen on screen. But once again LaBute abandons Bette to one-dimensionality so he can rush over to the Grand Canyon for yet another badly written scene where Morgan Freeman is trying to have a conscience and Chris Rock is just trying to get the job done.
The point at which I got anything out of their interaction with each other was the point at which Chris Rock decided to stop "acting" and just start doing his foul-mouthed comedy routine. Finally there seemed to be some spark and life to their relationship, and the road trip aspect started to pick up for me.
I feel like Mr. LaBute is very good at theatrical manipulation of audience expectation, but not so adept at filmic flow and continuity. I am glad he exists, and the film was very interesting and very watchable, but I think he still has a lot to learn about how to create and sustain a convincing oddball reality throughout the duration of a feature length film.
You can't have intermissions in a modern movie theatre, but I felt as if there were intermissions in this film, that plot lines would ebb and flow like tides until each character was plucked out of the group and given meaning. Perhaps this would have been best done as a play first, and then the ensemble cast rounded up to do the film. I was underwhelmed by the artistry but entertained by the quirky story, so I think I will just leave it up to other viewers to determine - is the film half-empty, or half-full?