Multiple Sarcasms

This might be Timothy Hutton's best performance, and all the acting was great; but the development of why Timothy Hutton and Mira Sorvino truly loved each other was missing.

Yes they knew each other and were friends / comfortable, but love requires the desire. The discussion of fear causing that not to shine might be true, but not in a long standing relationship/ friendship.

So with as deep as the portrayal was and discussions were, the one that was never deep (albeit comfortable) was Timothy Hutton and Mira Sorvino's characters. I don't blame the acting as much as the writing.

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Another reviewer here characterized the whole premise of the movie as "preposterous". Obviously, that person has not known many people of wealth and privilege. I have personally known many people of great "success" and wealth who were not very happy. They may have fulfilled the "American Dream" of job, family, etc... but they did NOT feel contentment, fulfillment or joy. One recently committed suicide... a very well-off and talented guy.

So, it's not "preposterous" at all. It's quite common and very understandable since our values here are based almost completely on money -- which is only a tool and you can't purchase happiness, only distraction.

I was really looking forward to "Multiple Sarcasms". With a story about a man, basically at a mid-life crisis, who is looking for happiness in writing and in films, I thought I could really relate. But for a film about playwriting at its heart, it's rather poorly written. Many scenes telling us things that we already know. The first third of the film was introducing us to the main characters, over and over again. But I got everything I needed to know about the characters in the first scene so the rest just became a lesson in boredom.

It was supposed to be about Gabriel discovering that his happiness is rooted in writing, but then out of nowhere the main story became about crossing the line of infidelity. Not writing at all. Boredom, crossing into confusion just becomes frustration. Even with the many underrated actors, "Multiple Sarcasms" is not worth the frustration and boredom.

This film examines an interesting aspect of life...friendship between men and women without sex or romance. It's something I personally relate to because my best friends are women (and most of them are also close friends of my wife.) It also is a very well written and well directed film. The lines are good and they are well delivered in a very natural and understated manner, almost as though the scenes were improv. The concept of the play within a play, certainly not an original dramatic device, is, nevertheless, done effectively. This wasn't a big buck film, either in its production costs or its box office. But I suspect the people who made it are motivated more by artistry than by avarice.

I guess it all depends on what one brings to a movie. If I were only going to watch this film once, I would miss most of it. On a film binge, long vacation, I watched 2 other films of other genres before I got to _Multiple Sarcasms_. I wouldn't classify it as a comedy and I got unsorted mush. I even stopped in the middle and went to bed. The next morning I decided to see it through. I will watch it again. Scenes of exceptional beauty, characters that are real, believable (uh, is this a movie or did I get into somebody else's head). Terms one learned at school, well, for example about theater -- for example, "vraisemblance" -- help to "defamiliarize the text". We may have seen movies with bits, tropes, business, cutting and editing like this before, but this one is still original, subtle, and inviting with sufficient refractions with stage and staging to place us both inside it and outside it. Very near the end of the film, the writer places himself as an actor on the stage, then also to one side as editor/actor critiquing the writer/actor. This was not over done. Life into stage or film is very strange and wonderful. There are characters playing the role of audience members whom we have gotten to know during the course of the film. The music was excellent, the scenes, the character development of supporting characters was fine (getting good and drunk with "Eric"). We could probe the messiness of the protagonist's life "as life" with the "vraisemblance" probe (Living out of a suitcase? His dwelling was no suitcase.) By the end of the film we have seen a man's life shuddering into chaos as he takes up writing, and the miracle of the process is that a beautiful coherence emerges. He has become more grounded, centered and real. The process works! I should write a play. This is pretty good film alchemy. India Ennenga's "Liz" was radiant.