Review

Review Date: 27-April-03
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Laurel Canyon (2003)

Although it has a very different backdrop and feel, writer/director Lisa Cholodenko's "Laurel Canyon" reminded me of Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut." Both movies tell the story of a "perfect" couple whose relationship is challenged by the realization that their carefully guarded security is an illusion, and that neglected forces within their very selves might pose a threat to their future together. And both movies fail to generate any real emotion or resonance because the couples are so poorly delineated but generally unpleasant that you don't care where the journey presented in the film will lead them. "Laurel Canyon" has a tastier setting, generates more sexual heat (notwithstanding Kubrick's famous orgy scene), and is much less esoteric, but that isn't enough to make it a good film.

Christian Bale and Kate Beckinsale star as Sam and Alex, a pair of affianced young intellectuals from New England (alert! this is movie code for "repressed") who move to California so that Sam can work as a resident psychiatrist in a noted hospital while Alex completes her Ph.D. dissertation. Their well laid plans are disrupted when they learn that the house they thought to have for their own is still inhabited by its owner, Sam's bohemian mother Jane (Frances McDormand), a successful record producer. The hard-drinking, pot-smoking, free-living Jane is more than happy to share her pad while she and her much younger lover (Alessandro Nivola) complete the album on which they're working, but of course Sam and Alex find the whole situation awkward --- at first. After only a few days in the atmosphere of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, the young couple begins to unravel, becoming prey to the lure of experimentation and sexual abandon. While Alex finds temptation at home, Sam finds it at work, where he is drawn to a coworker (Natascha McElhone) who proves to be almost as forthright and irrepressible as his mother. The ending is somewhat enigmatic but seems to conclude that everyone has their heart in the right place, so that while the revelations that emerge aren't too unexpected or heartbreaking, one is not entirely sure what the outcome of the whole affair will be.

"Laurel Canyon"'s strongest asset is a very specific sense of place (as the title would suggest); you really feel enveloped by the landscape and lifestyle of the eponymous suburb of Los Angeles. Unfortunately, this clear-cut and appealing portrayal of location doesn't extend to the characters. Despite the fact that everyone in the film looks like a model (an unlikely circumstance which Cholodenko tries to exploit), no one is all that compelling. While it's probably difficult to play repressed and make it interesting, Bale and Beckinsale are both really dull --- he all squints and pressed lips, she all overdone posturing and coy sidelong glances --- and since they are shown doing little else but lying to each other, they aren't exactly the most sympathetic pair. McDormand and Nivola are both quite sexy and do their best to steal the show, but it isn't really theirs; they are but the catalyst for the growth of Sam and Alex.

In addition, it's never fully clear whether these characters are meant to represent stereotypes or unique individuals; consequently, they don't make much of an impression one way or the other. Is the whole movie a condemnation of a structured existence based on rationalism and rules, as opposed to a no-holds-barred lifestyle based on impulses? (The stereotype theory is supported by recurring scenes with Jane's record label agent, a non-character who seems to appear only so we can detest the shallowness of the power yuppie.) Or is the story about the complexity of human relationships, which require commitment and structure as well as an acceptance of our messy but natural urges and curiosities? (All the characters are at fault because they have skewed their lives toward one of these facets of life, while both are needed in moderation.) Either of these conclusions is arguable, but due mostly to the blandness of the lead actors, the real meaning of the movie is made irrelevant by its own obscurity.

Copyright © 2003 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.