Ellie Parker

"Ellie Parker" is the sort of movie that you wish you could have made in college. It's funny, somewhat different, and has a beautiful leading lady, that of which goes by the name of Naomi Watts in this case. It also has an incredibly low budget.

As a matter of fact, it looks as though it could have been a college student's project. An hour and a half showcasing Naomi Watt's fantastic amount of talent as Ellie Parker: A struggling actress jumping from audition to audition with the hope of landing a part in anything she can get. Her loser boyfriend is no help, neither is her agent, and as the days go by, she loses more and more hope.

Whether she's cruising down Sunset Strip to her next audition, or yelling into her cellular flying down the 101, there is a part of us throughout the entire movie that wants to know what is going to happen to Ellie next. She's lovable. She's talented. She's been through more than we (the audience) can begin to understand. But most importantly, she's determined.

If you adore Watts as much as this reviewer does and you want to see her in something realistic (as close as it gets), check out "Ellie Parker". You won't get to see her like this in "King Kong." That's for sure.

I've always suspected that some movies make Sundance mainly because a famous Hollywood personality is involved. If said star chooses to make a low-budget non-commercial film, it warrants a free pass to the big dance based on risk-taking and "independent spirit." So it is with Ellie Parker, a movie produced by and starring Naomi Watts (and directed by actor Scott Coffey) about the travails of a young actress searching for her identity in L.A.'s shallow and artificial cultural wasteland. It is clear that it was made for industry insiders, who saw in it a painful mirror to their world. The rest of us enjoyed a few funny moments in a movie that had no apparent beginning, middle or end, no discernible plot, plenty of conflict but no resolution. I'm sure there was a point in all that depressing futility. To make it worse, it was shot on a Sony HD cam, so the quality was maybe a tad better than my home movies.

Ellie Parker would be useful if one were trying to thin the herd of aspiring actresses. Maybe they should show it in high schools, kind of like Reefer Madness 50 years ago.

By the way, Chevy Chase has a small and rather cryptic role as an agent. (The audience wasn't sure if he was trying to be serious or comedic.) I love Chevy Chase, but unlike his old SNL partner Dan Akroyd, he should stick to comedies. He gives a really dreadful performance. But he was refreshingly funny at the Sundance Q&A.

Scott Coffey's Life of A Lower-Rung Hollywood Nitwit, Ellie Parker, is interesting only as a showcase for the shape-shifter charms of Naomi Watts, a performing chameleon with an endless repertoire of faces (sultry, girlish, devious, ravishing, vacant). The film might actually be more worthwhile, and would certainly be more bearable, with the sound off, sparing us the interminable feather-headed nattering of its deliberately shallow, narcissistic characters, and allowing us to concentrate more fully on the thespic acrobatics of Watts, who, through the character of struggling, stubborn, wayward Ellie Parker, is afforded a chance to show off her near-freakish ability at sudden metamorphosis, going from harried phone-talking California twit to foul-mouthed gum-chomping Jersey girl and back, working the shift, the brakes like a race-car driver navigating the twists and turns of Watkins Glen. It's a show-off performance but Watts is not a show-off, she occupies the character of Ellie Parker fully, never tipping her hand. Her commitment to the role is commendable, her willingness to place herself in absurd situations, to unmask herself a little (some of Ellie's struggles are no doubt culled from Watts' own biography), but it's all in service of material that's not worthy of her, that cheapens her accomplishment, diminishes her. It's a thin gruel of a movie, lacking in insight, full of scenes that don't go anywhere, shot like a film student making an audition reel.

The movie has a depressing overtone as the main character "Ellie Parker", struggles to find her identity after plodding through various auditions. While the film quality isn't great, Ellie still manages to persuade the audience to feel for her struggles while she shuttles between auditions and the people who try to take advantage of her. It is perhaps one of the least glamorous roles that I have seen Naomi Watts play, but she still acts with the same conviction although sometimes it seems a little annoying and over-the-top. While some parts of the movie seem overly dramatic and a little unbelievable, it still reflects the versatility the actors need to have (such as mastering different accents and being prepared to switch roles quickly) and the little support that they receive during auditions, especially among seemingly disinterested producers.

If you are a fan of Naomi Watts, as I have been since seeing her for the first time in Mulholland Drive, you will not want to miss Ellie Parker - a veritable tour de force for the actor, who gives us not a caricature but rather a sympathetic, flesh-and-blood, 3-dimensional human being whose plight pertains not only to the acting world but to anybody who has ever felt rejected, misunderstood and/or unappreciated by the world at large. This makes its audience much wider than merely the 'Hollywood community' without ever becoming preachy about it, which I especially liked. Some of the scenes feel completely improvised, which I also enjoyed, and her audition scene near the beginning is more than worth the price of admission alone.