Chaos Theory & Sex and Death 101 (2008)
The romantic comedy is as strict an endeavor as one is likely to encounter in the theatres. Some people love the genre for that, some hate it, some love it but pretend to hate it, and so on. Critics are normally thought to be warped-over-weight-over-studied-under-secure crones whose bitterness trumps their enjoyment of the romantic comedy; but many of those adjectives have (to an extent) made me an easier sell than I care to admit. And I don’t mean Lubitsch and Capra and McCarey and Wilder and all the others anyone who has attended a 101 film course likes-I mean the movies you’re a little bashful about, the pictures that scratch that lonely itch that haunts (I hope) even the writers possessing the thickest coats of indifference and superiority.
The search for that usually elusive scratch has something to do with a few of my recent spur-of-the-moment movie choices, two of which were barely released sometime earlier this year: Chaos Theory and Sex and Death 101. Both pictures feature familiar romantic heroes: a neurotic crippled by his neuroses in Chaos, and a cocksman crippled by his cocksmanship in Sex. Both pictures begin surprisingly promisingly, and both fizzle out toward the end (one more so than the other) but both, I’m assuming, provided a little more in the way of personality than Fool’s Gold.
Chaos Theory stars Ryan Reynolds, and it sounds somewhat similar to another Reynolds release this year (Definitely, Maybe-so far unseen by me). Reynolds’ daughter is soon to be married, and her fiancée has doubt about a brief fling she had while they were in time-out. The fiancée wanders into the bar of the hotel and finds Reynolds in the corner, waiting for him with index cards and a story of his own marriage. The flashback their talk details is the majority of Chaos Theory-the tale of a controlling time-maniac who learns to go with karma and trust his beautiful wife, played by the quite beautiful Emily Mortimer.
Before it gets to the usual-the theory of the title if we wish to be cute; Chaos Theory packs a surprising amount of chaos. The surprise of the specific plot wrinkles is half the battle; but the picture allows itself to get messier-without really backing out-than I expected. Ryan Reynolds, who I’ve been rooting for now for some time, comes through in a performance that’s charismatic and human-the mugging is turned on simmer-which allows it to be funnier when it still occasionally surfaces (as with the fiancée in the beginning). Chaos Theory is one of those rare pictures nowadays that’s actually too short (it’s 85 minutes, and doesn’t really have a second act) and there’s a plot hole (the fiancée walks away knowing something we wonder if even the daughter knows) but the film, partially because you actually believe a little of its despair, gets to you. The inevitable wedding at the end works-you feel those gushy things you feel at a friend’s wedding but think you’re above.
Sex and Death 101 thinks its above quite a bit too-it’s been written and directed by Daniel Waters, the wannabe devilish screenwriter of the bafflingly overrated Heathers and the equally underrated Batman Returns. I enjoyed Sex and Death 101 quite a bit more than Heathers-it doesn’t have a ridiculous Jack Nicholson impersonation to wade through; and for an hour it has a refreshing cynicism that appears to be digging into the little cracks of loathing that open up between sexual tyrannosaurs and their mates; but then the picture, like Heathers, buys jarringly and disappointingly into its own bullshit. The picture initially bucks at the ways people rationalize sleeping or not sleeping with or marrying one another-then magically validates those rationalizations.
There’s also an irredeemably ridiculous-bordering on offensive (if it were more effective) subtext: that pussy hounds and serial killers exist on about the same plane of moral awareness-and are curable by the same Oprah intervention. That could be quite astute as a joke of self-actualization as ultimate cleanser of all guilt and responsibility, but it’s played straight (just like the youth pandering slop of the Heathers finale). We can tell Waters senses his problem-because he keeps further and further softening the blow-to the point of the film’s non-existence. One must give Simon Baker credit for effectively embodying a role of near impossible sympathy though; and Winona Ryder, one of the most endearing eccentrics of the 1980s, still has something. Someone needs to let her freak flag fly-and bring weirdness to a genre that desperately needs it.
Chaos Theory: ★★★
Sex and Death 101: ★★½
July 9th, 2008 at 11:04 am
I like to think you’re baiting me personally with that “bafflingly overrated Heathers” crack, but I know better than to think I’m the center of the known universe. But back to that in a moment.
My primary issue with most Romantic Comedies is that most of them these days are simply so flaccid. I’m pretty much ready to cross anything with Kate Hudson or Matthew McConaughey in it off my list.
Having said that, I do like a movie that leaves me feeling at the end that love will win out, as long as it doesn’t make me feel stupid for feeling that way. No mean trick.
This is why I like Kaufman’s stuff so much. It’s demented enough to appeal to the cynic in me, yet it yearns for the same thing we all yearn for.
On the other end of the scale is Definitely, Maybe. At the time I saw it, it was almost completely ordinary, but it worked for me. It was skewed just enough to keep me from feeling like an idiot for being moved by the eventual conclusion. Combine that with several likeable performances and I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I keep wanting to pull my punches because I know many cynics like me will see it and hate it, but I guess I have to be honest.
Are you annoyed yet that I’ve done all this talking without even mentioning the movies in question? Alas, I don’t have much to say about them. I think I snarkily dismissed them both in the Weekend Forecast (as is my pattern) and didn’t think much about them since. I have to say though, you’ve made me curious about the first one. Not every movie has to be perfect. It sounds at least like this one tries to jumble up the formula a little bit.
As for Heathers. Well, I can’t really defend it. The truth is, the last time I watched it many years ago it didn’t hold up very well at all. I really liked it when it first came out and I was 19 or 20 though. I was in prime cynical shape and still vaguely loathing all the people I’d gone to highschool with and this seemed like a breath of fresh air. A shout of rebellion.
I’m older now and I can see it’s really none of those things, but I still have a nostalgic place in my heart for it, not to mention an abiding crush on Wynona Ryder…one of the things that actually made me consider Sex and Death 101.
July 9th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I really, really want to get involved in the comment section of your reviews, but alas, I barely ever see the films in time to give my views as well. Nonetheless, I am curious about both of these.
As soon as I see them, I’ll be back.
July 10th, 2008 at 5:15 am
Craig-We see pretty eye to eye on the romantic comedy thing. I think they can be even worse than you’re saying-some of them imply that looks and money are a requisite to find love-that may be true in certain or even most circles-but our art or entertainment shouldn’t be beating people down and celebrating that truth like it’s a positive thing. There’s little spontaniety in the connections in most of these movies-just numbing obligation, and that’s a problem.
Kaufman has gotten around that well.
I’ve never liked HEATHERS. The film thinks it’s some sort of major lancing of hypocrisy but it’s just more of the same jumbled bullshit. A major unintentional problem-the so-called outcasts are much sharper and better looking than the so-called hipster elite-so-regardless of what the film pretends to be about-it just becomes a movie of pretty little people killing slugs who inconvenience them. Again-that COULD have worked, but Waters takes it seriously! And strives for pathos at the end! Just to make sure we understand that none of the venom was intentional you see.
Nick-come back whenever you can, always glad to have you.