Where do love..sex..music..sex and temptation come together? Laurel Canyon.
Obviously! I know, I was thinking my bedroom too. Lisa Cholodenko, who wrote and directed this gripping, heartfelt drama, must have been my personal voyeur while I was attending college and put it on film…all the way back in 2002. I am currently on a bit of a Christian Bale binge on Netflix and I thought that I might share this one with you. Elijah goes for the bigger picture; I like to focus on the details, i.e. the Indies.
The story follows Sam, a new resident at an L.A. hospital played by Mr. Bale, and Alex, his lover and medical student writing her dissertation played by Kate Beckinsale. Having left their East-coast med-school lives behind without having found housing in L.A., the couple is forced to move back into Sam’s mother’s home in Laurel Canyon. Sam’s mother, played by Frances McDormand, happens to be a successful record producer who had just broken up with a long-term boyfriend, gave him the beach house and moved back into her Laurel Canyon home. Sam, expecting the house to be an empty, quiet spot for Alex to finish her paper, is confronted with the very same world of drugs, music and compromised morals that he had purposefully left behind. While Sam struggles to cope with the realities of his mother’s twisted world and its affect on Alex at home, his hospital residency provides an equally tempting situation in the form of a sultry and innocent second year resident name Sara, played by “Californication” star Natascha McElhone.
I hope that I didn’t go too far with the plot synopsis. It’s juicy and I didn’t want to squeeze it all out but I still had to get at some of the pulp because I liked the story that much. The rest is for you to drink up.
As a writer and director, the success or failure of a movie is really in your hands. That can be stressful. For the most part, Cholodenko pulled it off and I applaud her for that. However, at the climax of this movie she took a potentially fierce scene, two strong actors and made “poop.” Sometimes it just happens; at least that is what they said in “Forrest Gump.” She did, in general, get a lot out of her actors and the cream did rise to the top. Bale and McDormand were fantastic, as I expected coming in. I was not disappointed. Beckinsale is in my guilt-free Top 5 and definitely looks great on camera, but she didn’t deliver the performance I was hoping for. Her journey is a long one but the internal conflict that had to have been boiling just didn’t translate. I wanted more.
To be brutally honest, Frances McDormand, in my opinion, may be one of the most asexual leading ladies in Hollywood but I found her strangely attractive in this movie. Her character, Jane, had this Sheryl Crow vibe going on and it worked well. It could just be that everyone loves the rock star syndrome. The real rock star in the movie is Ian McKnight, a Brit pop-rocker and Jane’s current love interest, played brilliantly by the talented character actor Alessandro Nivola.
In the end…Bale and McDormand stole the show and it made for a good if not great rental. The movie is in the same vein as “Almost Famous” with the rigid world of the collegiate professor or medical practitioner juxtaposed with the loose, free-love and zero consequences of rock-and-mother-f*n-rollers. For a rating, I’m strumming this film with 3.5 Stratocasters out of 5 Stratocasters. Whatever happened to zero-consequences and free popcorn? Oh yeah, we skipped the concessions. I forgot.
Jake
Obviously! I know, I was thinking my bedroom too. Lisa Cholodenko, who wrote and directed this gripping, heartfelt drama, must have been my personal voyeur while I was attending college and put it on film…all the way back in 2002. I am currently on a bit of a Christian Bale binge on Netflix and I thought that I might share this one with you. Elijah goes for the bigger picture; I like to focus on the details, i.e. the Indies.
The story follows Sam, a new resident at an L.A. hospital played by Mr. Bale, and Alex, his lover and medical student writing her dissertation played by Kate Beckinsale. Having left their East-coast med-school lives behind without having found housing in L.A., the couple is forced to move back into Sam’s mother’s home in Laurel Canyon. Sam’s mother, played by Frances McDormand, happens to be a successful record producer who had just broken up with a long-term boyfriend, gave him the beach house and moved back into her Laurel Canyon home. Sam, expecting the house to be an empty, quiet spot for Alex to finish her paper, is confronted with the very same world of drugs, music and compromised morals that he had purposefully left behind. While Sam struggles to cope with the realities of his mother’s twisted world and its affect on Alex at home, his hospital residency provides an equally tempting situation in the form of a sultry and innocent second year resident name Sara, played by “Californication” star Natascha McElhone.
I hope that I didn’t go too far with the plot synopsis. It’s juicy and I didn’t want to squeeze it all out but I still had to get at some of the pulp because I liked the story that much. The rest is for you to drink up.
As a writer and director, the success or failure of a movie is really in your hands. That can be stressful. For the most part, Cholodenko pulled it off and I applaud her for that. However, at the climax of this movie she took a potentially fierce scene, two strong actors and made “poop.” Sometimes it just happens; at least that is what they said in “Forrest Gump.” She did, in general, get a lot out of her actors and the cream did rise to the top. Bale and McDormand were fantastic, as I expected coming in. I was not disappointed. Beckinsale is in my guilt-free Top 5 and definitely looks great on camera, but she didn’t deliver the performance I was hoping for. Her journey is a long one but the internal conflict that had to have been boiling just didn’t translate. I wanted more.
To be brutally honest, Frances McDormand, in my opinion, may be one of the most asexual leading ladies in Hollywood but I found her strangely attractive in this movie. Her character, Jane, had this Sheryl Crow vibe going on and it worked well. It could just be that everyone loves the rock star syndrome. The real rock star in the movie is Ian McKnight, a Brit pop-rocker and Jane’s current love interest, played brilliantly by the talented character actor Alessandro Nivola.
In the end…Bale and McDormand stole the show and it made for a good if not great rental. The movie is in the same vein as “Almost Famous” with the rigid world of the collegiate professor or medical practitioner juxtaposed with the loose, free-love and zero consequences of rock-and-mother-f*n-rollers. For a rating, I’m strumming this film with 3.5 Stratocasters out of 5 Stratocasters. Whatever happened to zero-consequences and free popcorn? Oh yeah, we skipped the concessions. I forgot.
Jake
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