ISBN: 0788848291
Review:
Steve Martin reveals his serious side in this movie, by writing the book, co-writing the screenplay and by hardly cracking a smile through the whole movie as one of its leading actors. And hey there, he succeeds! It is a calmly flowing movie that might seem a little overdone to some in the early scenes when Jason Schwartzmann’s character, Jeremy, first bumbles on to the screen. Why would Mirabelle be interested in him? The flow carries us along and builds credibility for this relationship, losing a little when Jeremy becomes hooked on self-realization, motivation and meditation, emerging as a super cool guy. Only a momentary glimpse of Mirabelle’s dad enlists our understanding of what might draw her to him. However, what seems like a caricature of Jeremy as I write it is transformed into a real person by the directors’ skill. We come to love Jeremy and sympathize with his inadequacies. Martin underplays the role of Ray Porter with some excellent portrayals of private emotional struggle so that his rich guy with everything exterior doesn’t convince us, but he captivates the maiden for a time. We don’t like him but we don’t hate him because we suspect there are things we don’t know about why he lives the life he does, and we think they might be sad reasons. We never find out. Claire Danes is everything she ought to be, the country girl alone in the big city, the romantic young woman desperate to reveal her passionate side, and the matter-of-fact mistress who knows it will all end some day. In the magic way of women she understands it all intuitively though her mind is having difficulty sorting through it all and she’s going to survive because she expects the worst will come. Like Jeremy and Ray we fall in love with her, at least for the duration of the movie and a little while after. She’s gorgeous and we can’t resist her. The directors’ sparse approach, rejecting the temptation to use Martin’s comedic talents to enliven Porter, rejecting erotic intensity in the love scenes, avoiding deep and heavy psycho-theorizing on the characters’ behaviour, just draws us deeper into the complex of relationships and leaves us still diving at the end of the movie. Well done director Tucker and well done Steve Martin for stepping out of your public stereotype. Which is the real you? You have created a very un-American movie full of quiet humour, thought provoking and replete with meaning, European in its depth. Congratulations to Jason Schwartzmann, Claire Danes and the rest of the cast. It is a movie I won’t forget, I’m still thinking about it.