andy-74756

A clever, perverse, erotic love story anchored by a great performance by Reed Birney and the magnetic, beautiful Kieron Moore. Strong, sensitive direction from Elliot Tuttle with an effective use of minimal staging and camera placement. I saw it at the New Fest and was very impressed. I hope it has a life beyond the film festivals.

Sadly disappointed in this film by a director I admire. The characters seem like they are refugees from the entertainments industry in Los Angeles who have been propped up against Seattle backgrounds. The women in particular are so flawlessly featured and coiffed that it is hard to believe that they are anything other than aspiring stars even when filmed against posters announcing grunge bands and environmental organizations. The biggest problem with the script is that it doesn't settle on one story but rather covers a number of stories of young "singles" who aren't interesting enough to hold the film together. Except for perhaps Matt Dillon, none of the characters seem to carry any special charge or reason for why they are living in Seattle. Perhaps that's an unintentional comment on what the early 1990's youth movement to Seattle really was like in reality. It still leaves one with a rather sad feeling of a film that could have been a record of a unique time and place but feels more like a tourist's visit to a place that could be anywhere at anytime.

The cast is well chosen and does what it can with a weak adaptation. "Northanger Abbey", though delightful, is one Austen's least adaptable novels because much of the action is inside the heroine's head. The book is about how Catherine's romantism is always being thwarted by mundane reality. This adaptation tries to remedy the issue by staging the heroine's fantasty sequence. It's a good choice but the film doesn't stick with it. Instead when the action shifts to Northanger Abbey itself, the film tries to pretend that the Austen material is actual gothic romance rather than a sly parody of it. The whole comic logic of Austen's tale thus falls apart. The lush green locations that were shot in Ireland are breathtakingly beautiful but they also confuse the adaptation by being too romantic for a story about the shortcomings of romanticism. Still, the choice and direction of actors here is good. Costumes are beautifully done and nicely restrained. It's not a silly adaptation of Austen like the recent "Emma" but that in itself is not enough of a reason to recommend it.