DVD Review: The Lodger (2009)

The Lodger Has Arrived:
Alert the Neighbors
On DVD 2/10/09

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Instead of Ralph Fiennes ripping the dress off of Kristin Scott Thomas and then sewing it back together in amorous passion in Anthony Minghella's adaptation of his uncle Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient, Ondaatje's nephew--the debut writer/director David Ondaatje-- opts instead for a Jack the Ripper styled serial killer ripping apart West Hollywood prostitutes and then sewing them back together in a grisly mystery.

Obviously, the apple fell very far from the tree but Ondaatje's aim is true-- using the same source material that the master of suspense, Mr. Alfred Hitchcock employed for his 1927 classic silent film of the same name-- more specifically the 1913 novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes-- he decided to go for a more contemporary slice of Hollywood noir, paying homage to some of Hitch's most famous pieces of cinematographic trickery in an ultimately weak potboiler that wastes its A-list talent.

Seemingly working in the same vein as L.A. Confidential, Hollywoodland, and The Black Dahlia (with as many have noted a nearly identical poster to director Brian DePalma's awful mess of Dahlia) and blending together some elements of '40s style noir ambiance and mood, thankfully Ondaatje doesn't relish in the rather grisly C.S.I. or Dexter like elements of the string of murders on the Sunset Strip which finds organs neatly removed and matches Jack the Ripper's Modus Operandi perfectly.

Instead he tries to pay homage to the great Agatha Christie in a Murder on the Orient Express sort of presentation where every single character we meet seems shady and--much like the real Ripper case-- there's a handful of strong suspects we want to pin the murders on throughout but unfortunately with so many Christie like "guests" to his cinematic dinner party, there isn't enough substantive nourishment to go around so the actors get shortchanged and audiences are left starving for a much better resolution than the obligatory Psycho meets Shyamalan blend of "surprise" that he whips up.

Borrowing the same body-cam style utilized in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream in a few key scenes and trying to dazzle with fast-motion cuts that indicate the passage of time-- while the intricately story-boarded film and strict attention to a specific color scheme and emotional tone told through the inanimate elements from wardrobe and production design (all crafted by Franco-Giacomo Carbone) are first rate as evidenced in the behind-the-scenes featurette, unfortunately, so much dedication was spent ensuring that our main heroine Ellen (Hope Davis) blends into her muted surroundings in a 1908 home that in the end, it all felt far too claustrophobic and lifeless.



While Alfred Molina's West Hollywood cop Chandler Manning investigates the series of murders with his up-and-coming handpicked partner Street (What We Do Is Secret's Shane West) and find their case falling under professional and public scrutiny when FBI profiler Rebecca Pidgeon and Philip Baker Hall oversee every move since the crimes seem to all fit the exact same style as ones for which a decidedly now innocent man was executed-- Ondaatje unevenly balances that action with the stuff of '40s melodrama involving the film's title.



As Ellen, the mentally unstable housewife who speaks to her imaginary child, Hope Davis is given a mostly thankless role but it's at least a step above the one embodied by both her security guard husband played by Donal Logue and new secretive yet seductive lodger, Simon Baker. When more evidence about the deaths is revealed and they begin to tie together neatly with the Ripper case as an intricate copycat maniacal puzzle, Molina's Channing becomes dangerously obsessed and Ellen realizes that the killer could very well be occupying her residence.



Pretty ho-hum for a thriller, overall The Lodger is one that may have played infinitely better debuting on Dexter's home channel of Showtime. And despite the fact that the cast is magnificent elsewhere yet under-valued here and Ondaatje's clever ideas and intricate puzzle is admirable if muddled in the execution and man, will viewers feel angered by the easy "cheat" of the ending which makes zero sense at all other than to try and startle, it still manages to surpass DePalma's trashy Black Dahlia. It does this by slowly (and I mean very slowly) building up enough tension that makes the last thirty minutes genuinely riveting... until that is, Ondaatje's script takes an easy way out in deciding whom to pinpoint for the murders.



However, granted for a Ripper styled film, it's still much easier to absorb than the superior yet grisly Hughes brothers work From Hell but unfortunately, nowhere near the same league as its Hollywood noirs L.A. Confidential and Hollywoodland since it's uneasy repetitive night shots of faceless hookers being dragged off to their death makes a strange bedfellow to Ellen's Leave It to Beaver styled life during the day.

Although it's never a good idea to tackle superior Hitchcockian material, Ondaatje gets bonus points for trying to do something new with it and the Saw lensman David A. Armstrong (who amusingly confesses on the DVD that he doesn't even like gore) deserves a special mention for making the dull work filmed during a breakneck twenty-five day shooting schedule look as A-level as its cast and Ondaatje's extensive storyboards.

Yet, unfortunately it's doomed from the start given its sleepy pace and tired plotting as the uninspired, overly stiff performances ultimately feel as though they were drawn in in conversational clouds on those very same storyboards. So in the end, for my preferred version of slicing and stitching, you'd be better off sticking with Mr. Fiennes at least until we get the second chance to view another film by David Ondaatje.

Charlie Bartlett

Director:
Jon Poll

In Charles Schulz’s beloved Peanuts comic strip, eight-year-old enterpriser Lucy van Pelt ran a psychiatric version of a children’s lemonade stand offering questionable advice for the budget price of a shiny nickel, and in the hit 1970’s television series Happy Days, the compulsively leather jacket clad Fonzie commandeered the men’s room at Arnold’s which he turned into his “office” in order to share his own brand of questionable pearls of wisdom to the Milwaukee teens, preferring his age group’s highly coveted currency of cool points in lieu of coinage. More than thirty years later, when it comes to the perilous task of coming-of-age-- whether you’re eight or eighteen-- popularity still reigns supreme. And in the feature filmmaking debut from both director Jon Poll and writer Gustin Nash, the two combine the aforementioned pop culture concepts with pharmacological precision, managing to mix in classic teen films from the decades that followed including Harold and Maude, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Say Anything, Clueless, Rushmore, and Mean Girls to create the perfect prescription cocktail with minimal side effects, aside from a high likelihood of audience addiction to their film, Charlie Bartlett.

In the titular role, television actor Anton Yelchin turns in a winning performance as the mischievous yet terribly bright wealthy high school student Charlie Bartlett who, after getting ejected from the latest in a string of prep schools for unacceptable behavior including running a fake ID laminating press in order to be liked by his classmates, finds he’s left his exasperated, neurotic mother Marilyn (Hope Davis) no choice but to pack him off to public school. Fearing he’d make the wrong impression by arriving via his family’s chauffeur, unfortunately Charlie (like Jason Schwartzman’s Max Fischer in Rushmore) neglects to realize that perhaps wearing his prep school uniform and packing an attaché case isn’t the wisest way to fit in and sure enough, after first accidentally boarding the “short bus” for challenged students with special needs, he arrives only to find himself the victim of a toilet “swirlie” by the school bully Murphy Bivens (Tyler Hilton). Undaunted, he continues to try and put his best foot forward by greeting everyone with “Hi, I’m Charlie,” even going so far as to write it in a note to Susan Gardner (Kat Dennings), the beautiful girl who’d originally caught his eye but assumed he was a teacher, although ultimately Charlie ends up sitting with his friends from the short bus at lunch.

After spending time with the family shrink they have on retainer and being erroneously prescribed Ritalin, Charlie has an epiphany to recruit Murphy to become—if not his friend—then his business partner in selling the prescriptions at the school dance. Soon enough, Charlie’s access to mood altering medication makes him the go-to guy for all of his fellow classmates who begin lining up in the hallway for their opportunity to have a psychiatric consultation with the precocious new kid. By this time, Charlie has not only begun reading psychiatric and medical books to aid what ails his classmates but has also started shrink shopping to get the right pills in the hands of the right students who want to avoid parental embarrassment and HMO woes on their path to mental stability.

Naturally, the long lines for the men’s room begins to garner the attention of Principal Gardner (Robert Downey Jr.), who not only has professional concern for the well-being of his students but is especially irked when he realizes that his daughter Susan has become the target of Charlie’s affections. Worried the boy is just after his daughter for bragging rights, Principal Gardner tries to put a stop to all of Charlie’s extra-curricular activities, alienating himself from his colleagues, students and Susan in the process before viewers begin to realize that-- despite their age and situations-- Gardner and Charlie have much more in common than one would think as they both desperately want to be liked and are prone to self-medication,with the principal's preference being unwinding with a bottle of booze while piloting a motorized boat in his family’s pool. In a different world, it’s apparent the two could have been friends but when fatherhood and professionalism enters the equation, all bets are off. However, it’s the genius of the writing by Gustin Nash and in Jon Poll’s sensitive direction, that they never manage to sweep these issues under the rug, making every character equally vulnerable, equally innocent, and equally culpable in the scheme of things.

And while it seems like it’s the darkest subject matter for a teenage comedy to involve such a plethora of prescription medication, the filmmakers don’t handle this lightly at all, as Charlie’s actions do involve consequences, yet the tone of the film is far sunnier and more approachable than the superior yet icy Wes Anderson film, Rushmore. With a strong homage to Harold and Maude throughout as Cat Steven’s “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out,” is utilized numerous times to great effect, Bartlett seems to be the latest Generation Y incarnation of Matthew Broderick’s Ferris Bueller in that you just know he’d never do anything to actually endanger a fellow human being, instead realizing that-- much like his clueless friends-- he’s also lost the unattainable map directing them on their path from adolescence to adulthood as they struggle to find their way.

And while Bartlett's final act seems a bit rushed and far fetched to believe, the intelligence of the writing and the refreshingly earnest and sweet natured approach to the otherwise tired and overpopulated genre of crass, highly sexualized and cynical teen films, not only reminded me of a junior companion piece to Lawrence Kasdan’s Capraesque Mumford (also starring Hope Davis) but also earned Bartlett a spot at the head of the class of 2008 as this reviewer’s pet.

American Splendor (2003)

Directors: Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini

Husband and wife team Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini created one of the very best films of 2003 with this adaptation of the life of “American Splendor” comic book writer and creator Harvey Pekar. Creative and surprising in its storytelling structure, the film alternates between documentary footage of the real Harvey Pekar along with friends and family and the actual fiction film itself. Brilliant, touching and admirable in its simplicity and humanity-- some of the film’s very best moments probably would’ve been left on the cutting room floor if it would’ve been written and produced with strict adherence to the traditional Hollywood three act structure. The people in the film are real—- they breathe and feel and it’s riveting for the viewer. For example, in one of my favorite scenes, Harvey runs into a former college classmate at a local bakery and the two share stories and literature recommendations before venturing home. This subtle, brief encounter highlights the preciousness of life and the seemingly random human connections we find around each corner. I love the segue right into the introduction of Harvey’s wife-to-be Joyce, wonderfully played by Hope Davis who manages to steal most of her scenes away from the always exceptional Paul Giamatti. Destined to gain in popularity on DVD, I believe American Splendor will become a cult-favorite and fans of Ed Wood should take note.