The Exterminating Angel
Monday, January 23, 2006
THIS CHARMING MAN
Saw Breakfast on Pluto at the Landmark Century Centre a few weeks ago.
Ever like a film and not like it at the same time? That was my reaction to Breakfast on Pluto.
Plot: The ubiquitous Cillian Murphy play Patrick/Patricia “Kitten” Braden, found on the doorstep of the local church in a small, Irish town in the early 60s (?). Patrick grows up to be a young man with no doubt of his femininity and its power over men. After a particularly nasty quarrel with his foster mother, he decides to strike out on his own, and is immediately picked up by a glam rock band. Patrick becomes the lover of the lead singer of the band and even insinuates himself into the act, until the other band members rebel and kick him out. The lead singer of the band installs him in a remote hideaway, which we soon learn is an IRA weapons stash. Patrick is nearly murdered by some thugs after he throws the weapons into a lake, but is spared because he happened to go to high school with ones of their colleagues.
Patrick then moves on to London, in hope of finding his long lost mother. There he has a series of comic misadventures: He has brief stints as a children’s theater puppeteer, a magician’s assistant, a street hustler, and is even accused of being an IRA terrorist after he happens to be in a nightclub that is blown up by a bomb.
The latter incident underlines the recurrent theme of Breakfast on Pluto: the world of politics and violence intruding on happiness. Patrick just wants to be himself and live his life, but the rest of the world with its nasty seriousness keeps threatening to destroy him. However, Patrick will just not let that happen. This is a powerful idea, but I’m not sure I liked how it was handled by Neil Jordan. Patrick conducts himself with admirable dignity, even when he seems to know that he’s being slightly ridiculous. But we never get a sense that anything is a stake for his character. Even though the film has some very serious moments, it’s mostly played for laughs. I understand that it’s the point of the material to show us that Patrick will never give in to the seriousness of the world around him, that he will always hold his head high. The problem is that Patrick holds the rest of the world at such a distance that he seems almost inhuman by the end of the film. He remains untouched by life. If only one of those violent incidents had shaken or touched him in some way, instead of leaving his confidence untouched.
But still there is much to admire in Breakfast on Pluto, particularly, the performance of Cillian Murphy. All I can say is that he looked so much like a woman that it made me uncomfortable at times. Now, even though he looked like a woman, that doesn’t mean he acted like one. He acted like all drag queens do, like a man thinks a woman would act or perhaps, more accurately, what a man thinks a woman should act like. All I can say is that his Patrick/Patricia was a hoot from beginning to end. And hey, any movie that has the line, “Officer, would you marry me if I weren’t a transvestite, Irish terrorist?”, can’t be all bad. ¶ 7:02 PM 0 comments
Ever like a film and not like it at the same time? That was my reaction to Breakfast on Pluto.
Plot: The ubiquitous Cillian Murphy play Patrick/Patricia “Kitten” Braden, found on the doorstep of the local church in a small, Irish town in the early 60s (?). Patrick grows up to be a young man with no doubt of his femininity and its power over men. After a particularly nasty quarrel with his foster mother, he decides to strike out on his own, and is immediately picked up by a glam rock band. Patrick becomes the lover of the lead singer of the band and even insinuates himself into the act, until the other band members rebel and kick him out. The lead singer of the band installs him in a remote hideaway, which we soon learn is an IRA weapons stash. Patrick is nearly murdered by some thugs after he throws the weapons into a lake, but is spared because he happened to go to high school with ones of their colleagues.
Patrick then moves on to London, in hope of finding his long lost mother. There he has a series of comic misadventures: He has brief stints as a children’s theater puppeteer, a magician’s assistant, a street hustler, and is even accused of being an IRA terrorist after he happens to be in a nightclub that is blown up by a bomb.
The latter incident underlines the recurrent theme of Breakfast on Pluto: the world of politics and violence intruding on happiness. Patrick just wants to be himself and live his life, but the rest of the world with its nasty seriousness keeps threatening to destroy him. However, Patrick will just not let that happen. This is a powerful idea, but I’m not sure I liked how it was handled by Neil Jordan. Patrick conducts himself with admirable dignity, even when he seems to know that he’s being slightly ridiculous. But we never get a sense that anything is a stake for his character. Even though the film has some very serious moments, it’s mostly played for laughs. I understand that it’s the point of the material to show us that Patrick will never give in to the seriousness of the world around him, that he will always hold his head high. The problem is that Patrick holds the rest of the world at such a distance that he seems almost inhuman by the end of the film. He remains untouched by life. If only one of those violent incidents had shaken or touched him in some way, instead of leaving his confidence untouched.
But still there is much to admire in Breakfast on Pluto, particularly, the performance of Cillian Murphy. All I can say is that he looked so much like a woman that it made me uncomfortable at times. Now, even though he looked like a woman, that doesn’t mean he acted like one. He acted like all drag queens do, like a man thinks a woman would act or perhaps, more accurately, what a man thinks a woman should act like. All I can say is that his Patrick/Patricia was a hoot from beginning to end. And hey, any movie that has the line, “Officer, would you marry me if I weren’t a transvestite, Irish terrorist?”, can’t be all bad. ¶ 7:02 PM 0 comments
NO GREATER SORROW
Saw Brokeback Mountain with Viv about a month ago. Yeah, I know, that’s a long time, but you’re just going to have to trust my memory.
The film opens in rural Wyoming in the early sixties. (Actually, I suppose all of Wyoming was rural back then.) Two young men, Jack (Jake Gyllenhall) and Ennis (Heath Ledger), appear at the trailer/office of a rancher – nicely played with dyspeptic grumpiness by Randy Quaid – looking for jobs. They’re hired to herd sheep on the eponymous mountain for the winter.
Jack and Ennis are separated at first. They take turns staying at their camp and keeping watch on the sheep, only exchanging gruff words as they meet for breakfast. Neither wants to make the first friendly gesture for fear of seeming weak, but slowly, the isolation of the setting forces Jack and Ennis to reveal themselves to each other. Although both men gloss over it in conversation, we learn that they are not in touch with their families. We get the feeling that Jack and Ennis are holding back on the exact reasons why and, more importantly, we get a sense of utter loneliness and confusion emanating from them. Both young men seem completely alone, scared, and miserable. I don’t mean to downplay the fact that Brokeback Mountain is about two gay men who love each other, but as Jack and Ennis’s friendship continues to evolve, you get the feeling that what is most important about their relationship is not only that they are able to have sex with each other, but perhaps more importantly that, for the first time in their lives, they’ve each found someone that loves them.
Well, as we all know, Paradise cannot last forever. The herding season comes to an end and Jack and Ennis have to part ways. The sad thing is that a film Paradise begins to crumble too. It’s not that the rest of Brokeback Mountain is bad, it’s just not as good as the beginning. The film becomes cluttered with too much stuff, too many things happening: Ennis has actually had a girl all the time he was herding, and he promptly marries her. Jack, meanwhile, tries his hand at rodeo riding and meets a vivacious, Annie Oakley-type on the circuit. They get married too.
The film proceeds to cut back and forth between the lives of these two young families. There’s so much cutting back and forth that the film’s narrative practically comes to a halt. Jack and Ennis meet up every few years, Jack tells Ennis that they should be together, Ennis says that they can’t, and the cycle repeats itself. I’m not saying that it couldn’t happen like that, only that what had been an exciting film, open to observing human behavior, becomes dull and repetitive, and then some big speeches and big moments creep in. Not a lot, just enough to make you feel like you’re watching an important film.
However, some good stuff comes out of this. Both actresses that play the wives acquit themselves well, particularly Michelle Williams as Ennis’s wife. It may be just a trick of casting, but when you see her girlish face prematurely aged by the pressure of being a young mother with an evasive, remote husband, your heart practically cries out in empathy.
Now, I know it’s not exactly fair to wish for a different film than dealing with the one that was made, and Heath Ledger’s Ennis is clearly the main focus of Brokeback Mountain, but I wish the film had focused on him exclusively. The scenes in the film that concentrate on his life are the strongest after those at the beginning of the film. It’s particularly harrowing to see how Ennis is unable to make emotionally meaningful contact with his wife, children, or anyone else over the course of his life. Again, not to downplay the character’s gayness, but you wonder if Ennis could ever be in a caring relationship with any human being. I suppose many would say that’s the point, that because of the time that he lived in, there was no hope for Ennis, that for fear of persecution, and more insidiously, because of the seed of self-hatred that had been planted in him by his culture, Ennis could never return Jack’s love. I’m not so sure about that, given what we see of Ennis’ character. All I can say is that it’s a relief when the end of the film offers some small hope that he will finally be able to make contact with another human being. ¶ 6:24 PM 0 comments
The film opens in rural Wyoming in the early sixties. (Actually, I suppose all of Wyoming was rural back then.) Two young men, Jack (Jake Gyllenhall) and Ennis (Heath Ledger), appear at the trailer/office of a rancher – nicely played with dyspeptic grumpiness by Randy Quaid – looking for jobs. They’re hired to herd sheep on the eponymous mountain for the winter.
Jack and Ennis are separated at first. They take turns staying at their camp and keeping watch on the sheep, only exchanging gruff words as they meet for breakfast. Neither wants to make the first friendly gesture for fear of seeming weak, but slowly, the isolation of the setting forces Jack and Ennis to reveal themselves to each other. Although both men gloss over it in conversation, we learn that they are not in touch with their families. We get the feeling that Jack and Ennis are holding back on the exact reasons why and, more importantly, we get a sense of utter loneliness and confusion emanating from them. Both young men seem completely alone, scared, and miserable. I don’t mean to downplay the fact that Brokeback Mountain is about two gay men who love each other, but as Jack and Ennis’s friendship continues to evolve, you get the feeling that what is most important about their relationship is not only that they are able to have sex with each other, but perhaps more importantly that, for the first time in their lives, they’ve each found someone that loves them.
Well, as we all know, Paradise cannot last forever. The herding season comes to an end and Jack and Ennis have to part ways. The sad thing is that a film Paradise begins to crumble too. It’s not that the rest of Brokeback Mountain is bad, it’s just not as good as the beginning. The film becomes cluttered with too much stuff, too many things happening: Ennis has actually had a girl all the time he was herding, and he promptly marries her. Jack, meanwhile, tries his hand at rodeo riding and meets a vivacious, Annie Oakley-type on the circuit. They get married too.
The film proceeds to cut back and forth between the lives of these two young families. There’s so much cutting back and forth that the film’s narrative practically comes to a halt. Jack and Ennis meet up every few years, Jack tells Ennis that they should be together, Ennis says that they can’t, and the cycle repeats itself. I’m not saying that it couldn’t happen like that, only that what had been an exciting film, open to observing human behavior, becomes dull and repetitive, and then some big speeches and big moments creep in. Not a lot, just enough to make you feel like you’re watching an important film.
However, some good stuff comes out of this. Both actresses that play the wives acquit themselves well, particularly Michelle Williams as Ennis’s wife. It may be just a trick of casting, but when you see her girlish face prematurely aged by the pressure of being a young mother with an evasive, remote husband, your heart practically cries out in empathy.
Now, I know it’s not exactly fair to wish for a different film than dealing with the one that was made, and Heath Ledger’s Ennis is clearly the main focus of Brokeback Mountain, but I wish the film had focused on him exclusively. The scenes in the film that concentrate on his life are the strongest after those at the beginning of the film. It’s particularly harrowing to see how Ennis is unable to make emotionally meaningful contact with his wife, children, or anyone else over the course of his life. Again, not to downplay the character’s gayness, but you wonder if Ennis could ever be in a caring relationship with any human being. I suppose many would say that’s the point, that because of the time that he lived in, there was no hope for Ennis, that for fear of persecution, and more insidiously, because of the seed of self-hatred that had been planted in him by his culture, Ennis could never return Jack’s love. I’m not so sure about that, given what we see of Ennis’ character. All I can say is that it’s a relief when the end of the film offers some small hope that he will finally be able to make contact with another human being. ¶ 6:24 PM 0 comments
