Review: Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas
Starring: Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro
Directed by Terry Gilliam
Approx running time: 120 min.
Terry Gilliam is a very strange fellow. But why he thought Hunter S. Thompson's book would make a good film is beyond me. It isn't as if Gilliam and his team of talented artists didn't make a fine attepmt, indeed they did. But Fear and Loathing is a two hour mind trip. And like a trip it has no substance and no purpose.
What makes the film watchable is the performance of Johnny Depp. Though some may wonder why he chose such a pointless story to work with, it is clear that the character was a challenge to re-create. (Apparently , he did a great amount of research on Thompson.) Benicio Del Toro gives a fantastic performance as well, perhaps the best of his career to date. But Del Toro's character is as unappealing as Depp's is strangely compelling.
Depp plays the part with a certain goofiness that never crosses the line into menace or threat. Del Toro plays a slob of a scary scumbag that never approaches goofiness or appeal. The two have a great deal of screentime together, sharing acid and ether trips in various Las Vegas locations. But there is never really a development of comraderie between them. Seeing as the film lacks a central point, it seems that the least Gilliam and co-screenwriters Todd Dunes and Alex Cox could give us a good pair of buddies to carry the film. But sadly, we are left only with Depp's funky facial expressions and whacky walks to amuse us.
Johnny Depp, who is rapidly proving why he is one of the most gifted actors of his generation, also creates a fantastic vocal sound for his character, a kind of cross between Elvis Presley and Robert Mitchum. That voice, combined with the cigarette holder which dangles from his lip in every single shot, helped form an otherwise bland character into something watchable and slightly entertaing.
Fear and Loathing begins with numerous trips that required digital effects. Carpet paterns coming to life, bats flocking toward Depp's eye, and faces being pulled and distorted in all directions. It is rather a letdown, then, when the effects suddenly stop and all of the following acid trips are portrayed only in the reactions the actors have to them. One is an incredibly vivid and rather annoying scene in which Depp trys to calm Del Toro who is sitting in murky bath wather with grapefruit peels floating around him.
Indeed, the visuals in Fear and Loathing are unique and often cool to look at, but if Depp's fine performance can't save this film, then neither can they. Nor does the fine camera work by Nicola Pecorini do enough to save it.
Gilliam is certainly better than this. Fear and Loathing suffered from a lack of point, drive and in some spots, ambition. Other than telling you that Depp is a writer on an assignment and he goes to Vegas with his junkie attorney, I can't tell you what I really watched for two hours. That's about as far into plot synopsis as I can get. But one thing I can tell you...Terry Gilliam is a very strange fellow.
* * out of * * * * stars ©copyright 1998 Nick Amado Please email me with your thoughts namado@concentric.net
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