I Melt With You is an easy film to dismiss as crass, unnecessary nihilism. It's easy to look at the four wealthy, healthy main characters and scoff at the idea that they are in any kind of turmoil or crisis, and patronize them for going to the staggering lengths of excess portrayed in this film. Take a second. Empathize. Everyone, rich or poor, healthy or terminal, is going through their own private hell in some way, shape or form. These four guys, meeting together for a week long getaway to gorgeous Big Sur, are manically stoked to be together and appear outwardly happy in their revelry. But as the days pass, we see this is just not the case. Thomas Jane plays the failed writer turned schoolteacher who is at the end of his rope. Jane displays here that he's got more going on than just the strong hero type, showing a sadsack depression and wicked energy in his scenes. Jeremy Piven brings his usual spitfire, hopped up parade of mannerisms, and they click wonderfully with the writing and direction as a hedge fund prize boy who has embezzled money and is on the guilt train straight to insanity. Rob Lowe surprised the crap out of me, as I was never a huge fan. But here he shows stinging vulnerability and an utter, soul sucking sadness as the pill popping MD who's in dire straights for peddling wares outside the boundaries of prescription, as well as living with a broken family and kids he can't see through no fault but his own. Christian McKay, who I've never heard of before this, just owns his role as the fourth, a sensitive, guilt ridden and deeply troubled man who was responsible for the death of his boyfriend many years ago, and is clearly not okay about it even years later. The four of them descend into a chaotic cacophony of extreme drug and alcohol abuse, everything from coke to downers, tranqs, and every other substance you can think of is consumed in this film. The scenes of excessive consumption are hard to watch, but also have a go for broke, kamikaze approach to them, set to one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard. Seriously, I could list the 100+ amazing songs that show up throughout, and I'd still be missing some. The film progresses to some really dark, unsettling places, involving a pact the four of them made 25 years before, and the ramifications of where their self disappointed lives have ended up. It's easy to watch this and hate it, to be bombarded with its sensory overload of various gimmicks, unconventional styles and brutal onslaught of despair and self loathing. It's much harder to try and put yourself in these guy's shoes and imagine what it might be like for them. Each one, personally as an individual, to truly not be right in your soul, and what that might look like bursting out into one's life. Kudos to Mark Pellington for undertaking such a brave, unique venture. Indeed in the last five years it's truly like no other film I've seen, with an energy and operatic stream of consciousness all its own. Oh and the cinematography. It's a breathtaking one to look at, some of the images like pure silver and gold distilled into cinema. Between the beaches, wide amber sunsets the same colour as the whiskey in their glasses, to the sand dunes that stretch into the beyond, endless and desolate like their collective psyches, it's a wicked looking movie. I'm almost reminded of Stephen King in a way, like if the kids from Stand By Me or Dreamcatcher grew up to be in some kind of nightmare sequel. There's great supporting work too, from porn star Sasha Grey as an enigmatic local prostitute, Carla Gugino as an inquisitive local cop, and the excellent Tom Bower as a heartbroken fishing vessel captain. This one isn't for everyone. But anyone open to pure excess, emotional destruction, beautiful scenery and the best soundtrack in a while needs to watch this.
