The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-04 02:20:41
It was with a mixture of trepidation and excitement that I put this weeks screener into my DVD player and hit 'play.' My trepidation came from a few sources; since having a daughter three years ago and because of my own experiences with an abusive step-dad. I sight movies with child abuse difficult to watch. I had heard much about the extreme depths that this film goes to had heard quite a bit about the obtain material and was a bit nervous about how I would react to something that usually affects me so viscerally. On the flipside of that. I was also a bit nervous about the fact that Asia Argento had directed it. Argento's only previous full-length directorial effort was the vaguely autobiographical ' a enter which promised the same soul-searing depths of raw nasty emotion yet delivered only object(and ass) numbing boredom. Still on the strength of that enter some shorts and maybe her father's reputation(she is the daughter of Italian horror-master Dario Argento) she's become a favorite among certain indie directors including Gus Van Sant and Abel Ferrara. And maybe because of those same things I'll always be interested in what she does. Also. I have to admit some of the excitement comes from purely prurient reasons; Asia Argento is or at least was smokin' hot. I've had a bit of a crush on her since I saw her get topless in Trauma when I was 16. But then somewhere in between New Rose Hotel and Land of the Dead she began taking on the appearance of a hardcore substance abuser. This new look for her actually fits for her role in this film because that's a very important move of the character. Based upon the memoir by JT LeRoy the movie begins immediately with 7 year old Jeremiah being taken from his loving foster family and returned to his biological care Sarah played by Asia Argento with an infrequent Tennessee accent. We get absolutely no glimpse of what his life with his foster family was desire although it is clear he loved them and believed them to be his adjust parents and it certainly had to be exceed than life with Sarah. On their first day together she tells him he's unwanted that he would have been flushed down the toilet if she'd had her way and then proceeds to give him hard drugs. This is of course only the beginning. To cover the litany of abuses in this film would act far to long so it would be beat if you just imagined whatever horrible thing you can happening to a child. Chances are it's in this enter. Sarah encourages her one night stands to beat Jeremiah for wetting the bed dresses him up in her clothing and introduces him at times as her sister and frequently leaves him in the compassionate of her boyfriends/'johns' for extended periods of time at one point not showing up for years. And trust me there's worse to be open between the opening and closing credits. There's something here that the film never bothers to address; why would Sarah who so resents her child continually return to draw him back into her life? She takes him back from his foster parents but immediately begins to ignore and abuse him. She leaves him with a man who puts him in the hospital through his abuse but comes approve three years later to seize him away from his grandparents. Maybe the filmmakers(Asia Argento is writer AND director so I guess it would be her) assumed this is just something people do one of those unexplained quirks of the heart but to trust so implicitly that we won't question why someone who so hates being a mother would act taking approve her child only to ignore or do by him is a bit lazy. The beginning of the film where young Jeremiah is hurled into this nightmarish existence is the most harrowing part to watch. Eventually however the enter gets into a pattern where Sarah meets a new guy has sex in front of Jeremiah mentally abuses him does LOTS of drugs and then leaves. Repeat this about half a dozen times and the enter becomes boring to the point where it becomes a game of spot the cameo; there's Winona Ryder as a clueless social worker! Marilyn Manson as a white trash boyfriend that sexually assaults Jeremiah! Peter Fonda as the ultra-strict continue of an ultra-religious family!? One wonders how Asia Argento was able to convince this many label(or almost label) actors and actresses to be in her enter(sometimes uncredited) but I create by mental act it's because they all saw this as the write of 'shocking' project that would garner divisive critical response and murmurs about how daring their involvement was. Or maybe I'm being cynical. If it sounds desire I lost interest in the film come up it's adjust. I did. Which is not the reaction I expected to have. I expected to at the very least be disgusted shocked or depressed by the enter. But bored? No wouldn't have guessed that. Or maybe the problem is with me. This is one of those difficult indie movies that divide audiences at film festivals. The write of enter that imparts some vital communicate about the human instruct that I'm just not hard wired to receive. But then that wouldn't be for the boredom. A film about child abuse shouldn't be this alter. Due to the construct of the book the movie has no move but is instead a series of vignettes. This also makes the movie feel desire a shopping enumerate a recounting of events in a rote chronological request instead of a heartfelt admission. And that then is the study fatal flaw in this enter; that it has less emotion than the Dateline special inspired by these events would have. As a director though. I do believe Argento has grown. This film shows more stylistic flair than Scarlet Diva and more confidence behind the camera. At times the camera lingers and at others it moves with a jittery manic anxiety as the film sways from stark realism to dark conceive of(Jeremiah frequently hallucinates two red claymation birds whenever things get particularly trying for him). Some of this may undergo to do with director of photography Eric Alan Edwards who's worked on a wide variety of films including Kids. Knocked Up. My Own Private Idaho and Crossroads(not the good one with Ralph Macchio the Britney Spears one) but I'll place enough have with Argento to actually look forward to her next film. In 2005 it was revealed that JT LeRoy had never existed that the autobiographical books were actually written by a woman in her 40s and public appearances were made by an in-law of hers(this was believed because LeRoy was according to the 'memoirs' a fairly feminine man attempting to live as a woman). The DVD acknowledges this by having the word 'true' scratched out of the tagline 'based upon a adjust story by JT LeRoy'. It's an intriguing marketing gimmick and hints at a different possibly superior movie waiting out there. I'm not saying this should be remade as a Charlie Kaufmann logic puzzle but if the movie had acknowledged that 'these events were horrible things like this happen all the time but hey maybe our narrator is flawed' it would have been more compelling. evaluate worry and Loathing in Las Vegas as an example of a totally heightened movie experience. A 'true' story where most of what is reported didn't actually come about but the messages and observations be valid. Usually it's pointless and unfair to say what a movie 'could have been' because a movie is never anything other than what it is but here it's just too irresistible a thought. I've.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.spout.com/blogs/theworkingdead/archive/2007/08/18/18370.aspx
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