Good grief, what HAVE I stumbled upon in Bobcat Goldthwait's 2005 film "Sleeping Dogs Lie"? How is one supposed to respond to it? By lauding it? By providing it with a lukewarm response? By despising it and turning off five minutes in? I would certainly recommend the film, but to whom? And how? For sure, what is admirable about "Sleeping Dogs Lie" is its refreshing amount of self-confidence, in spite of its level of budgeting; it is also periodically funny and possesses a surprisingly rich palette of characterisation in the supporting department. But what to really MAKE of any of it?
Thematically, "Sleeping Dogs Lie" seems to want to be about the past and the secrets from years, even decades, gone by which one might harbour; but also how one responds to the fact one possesses these secrets and, more broadly, how they impact on life once they've been shared. One character, for instance - a woman who was a bit of a floozy in the 1960's who slept around with rock stars - is now a rock-solid Christian in her middle age. For sure, the film covers some fairly repugnant ground when it unearths the things people '...are not proud of', but this is not an exploitation film and possesses too much brain to merely dismiss off the bat.
In a broader context, the film is about the impact of the societal reforms of the 1960's and its effect on the generations born into the wake of them, but it is about these things without necessarily reaching a conclusion on them, never-mind attacking them. Amongst the many things (what some would refer to as poisons) that characterise the western world today, people smoke drugs; women undergo abortions; many engage in pre-marital sex and many other poor souls are addicted to all manner of nasty vices. It is along these lines that the film's defining event takes place when, alone in her university dorm room ten years ago, Amy (Melinda Page Hamilton) performs a sex act - but an act performed on someone very specific whom it would be both too coarse to actually put down into words right here AND be unfair on the grounds it would spoil the surprise...
The burning question is as to why she did it; indeed, why would it even cross a sane individual's mind that they might try such a thing? It is not a question even she can answer - she just couldn't resist... The film does not venture particularly deeply into these waters, either because it is not depicting people who are aware of the West's Cultural Revolution or because the makers of the film don't want to look at themselves for too long in the mirror. It concludes that it was, in her own words, a moment of madness and since she was alone and no one has since been told, the event passed into a form of personal mythology as the years progressed.
In the current year, Amy is a nursery school teacher and gets engaged to John (Bryce Johnson), but her old secret is beginning to gnaw away at her and she can't help but tease herself at addressing it. At work during break, she sits and talks with a male co-worker about honesty in a relationship and sexual turn-on's in a room which gloriously juxtaposes their conversation with Kindergarten mise-en-scene that includes stuffed animals and the ridiculously low table at which they sit.
Misleadingly, Goldthwait moves the film on to a weekend at Amy's parent's house, where we foolishly assume the film is actually all about John's having to win them over as the man fit to wed their daughter; done so via the introduction of her no-nonsense father and her rock-solid Christian mother. Present in the house is Amy's meth-head brother, who seems to be making his very own little life-mistake right in front of our eyes. Still prickling away at Amy, however, is her big secret. But the film isn't really about John's trials and tribulations at the hands of these people, instead merely using it as a base to unearth more about Amy - the twist Goldthwait pulls in his inverting of John with Amy as being the butt of this particular gauntlet is quite striking and worthy of some praise.
What the film turns into from here is fairly standard in the narrative sense: the lead tackles relationship troubles; friends in other places are there to help out and familiar faces re-enter their life to offer convenient salvation. The film seems to conclude, on the one hand, that the social evils which lurk around every corner of this new-fangled world can only lead to the damaging of one's life and the alienation of those we love, although tantalisingly tries to have it both ways when it refuses Amy any kind of closure on having somebody accept her for who she is and what she did.
Perhaps the film's trump card is the way it tackles its subject matter when compared to many other (mostly teen orientated) sex comedies, which are just too keen to throw sexualised humour and bodily function-orientated jokes at you for 90 minutes without a care in the world. In "Sleeping Dogs Lie", everybody who hears about 'the act' seems to conclude it was a hideous and disgusting thing to do - in some instances, entire scenes are dedicated to them sitting down and talking about it - but when a character consumes dog excrement in "American Pie: The Wedding", however, nobody blinks. In Goldthwait's film, these zany scenarios and spontaneous acts affect relations and actually impact on people's lives. As a result, people are forced into philosophising on them - no one can really move on until they've digested it. I would recommend the film, and don't keep anything back from anyone when they ask you what you thought of it...(!)
Thematically, "Sleeping Dogs Lie" seems to want to be about the past and the secrets from years, even decades, gone by which one might harbour; but also how one responds to the fact one possesses these secrets and, more broadly, how they impact on life once they've been shared. One character, for instance - a woman who was a bit of a floozy in the 1960's who slept around with rock stars - is now a rock-solid Christian in her middle age. For sure, the film covers some fairly repugnant ground when it unearths the things people '...are not proud of', but this is not an exploitation film and possesses too much brain to merely dismiss off the bat.
In a broader context, the film is about the impact of the societal reforms of the 1960's and its effect on the generations born into the wake of them, but it is about these things without necessarily reaching a conclusion on them, never-mind attacking them. Amongst the many things (what some would refer to as poisons) that characterise the western world today, people smoke drugs; women undergo abortions; many engage in pre-marital sex and many other poor souls are addicted to all manner of nasty vices. It is along these lines that the film's defining event takes place when, alone in her university dorm room ten years ago, Amy (Melinda Page Hamilton) performs a sex act - but an act performed on someone very specific whom it would be both too coarse to actually put down into words right here AND be unfair on the grounds it would spoil the surprise...
The burning question is as to why she did it; indeed, why would it even cross a sane individual's mind that they might try such a thing? It is not a question even she can answer - she just couldn't resist... The film does not venture particularly deeply into these waters, either because it is not depicting people who are aware of the West's Cultural Revolution or because the makers of the film don't want to look at themselves for too long in the mirror. It concludes that it was, in her own words, a moment of madness and since she was alone and no one has since been told, the event passed into a form of personal mythology as the years progressed.
In the current year, Amy is a nursery school teacher and gets engaged to John (Bryce Johnson), but her old secret is beginning to gnaw away at her and she can't help but tease herself at addressing it. At work during break, she sits and talks with a male co-worker about honesty in a relationship and sexual turn-on's in a room which gloriously juxtaposes their conversation with Kindergarten mise-en-scene that includes stuffed animals and the ridiculously low table at which they sit.
Misleadingly, Goldthwait moves the film on to a weekend at Amy's parent's house, where we foolishly assume the film is actually all about John's having to win them over as the man fit to wed their daughter; done so via the introduction of her no-nonsense father and her rock-solid Christian mother. Present in the house is Amy's meth-head brother, who seems to be making his very own little life-mistake right in front of our eyes. Still prickling away at Amy, however, is her big secret. But the film isn't really about John's trials and tribulations at the hands of these people, instead merely using it as a base to unearth more about Amy - the twist Goldthwait pulls in his inverting of John with Amy as being the butt of this particular gauntlet is quite striking and worthy of some praise.
What the film turns into from here is fairly standard in the narrative sense: the lead tackles relationship troubles; friends in other places are there to help out and familiar faces re-enter their life to offer convenient salvation. The film seems to conclude, on the one hand, that the social evils which lurk around every corner of this new-fangled world can only lead to the damaging of one's life and the alienation of those we love, although tantalisingly tries to have it both ways when it refuses Amy any kind of closure on having somebody accept her for who she is and what she did.
Perhaps the film's trump card is the way it tackles its subject matter when compared to many other (mostly teen orientated) sex comedies, which are just too keen to throw sexualised humour and bodily function-orientated jokes at you for 90 minutes without a care in the world. In "Sleeping Dogs Lie", everybody who hears about 'the act' seems to conclude it was a hideous and disgusting thing to do - in some instances, entire scenes are dedicated to them sitting down and talking about it - but when a character consumes dog excrement in "American Pie: The Wedding", however, nobody blinks. In Goldthwait's film, these zany scenarios and spontaneous acts affect relations and actually impact on people's lives. As a result, people are forced into philosophising on them - no one can really move on until they've digested it. I would recommend the film, and don't keep anything back from anyone when they ask you what you thought of it...(!)