PANTS ON FIRE Elevator Pictures
Credits: Director/Writer: Rocky Collins; Producer: Stephen Apicella; Director of Photography: Rufus Standefer; Editor: Sherry Daniel; Original Music: Robert Miller. Cast: Julie: Christy Barron; Max: Harry O'Reilly; Barry: Neil Maffin; Diedre: Karen Young; Marriage Counselor: Alice Playton; Mom: Eileen Brennen. No MPAA rating. Running Time 107 minutes. Color.
Julie (Christy Barron), a grammar school art teacher and would-be illustrator, is by repute "the nicest woman on earth." But she maintains that front mostly by grinning broadly and telling people what she thinks they want hear from one moment to the next; whatever it takes to keep things bouncy and upbeat. But Julie is also carrying on an impulsive affair with Barry (Neil Maffin), a co-worker with a self-rightious streak. As the fibs proliferate and start to pile up and intertwine, Julie's sunny grin locks desperatly into place. The set up is promising, but Rocky Collins' "Pants On Fire" a mild, sleek attempt at a domestic black comedy in a middle-class, yuppie-American setting, is neither as savage or as concise as it should be. This triangular farce of suburban adultery could be a lot tougher on its characters, though, and at times writer-director Collins seems to pile on plot complications for the hell of it. In the work of a great cruel humorist of passion like Pedro Almodovar, there's a consistant world view, the sense of a malign universe toying with the characters. The darkness of the comedy in "Pants on Fire" lacks conviction; it's an attitude Collins is trying on for size. There is sharp dialog on display here, and skillfully nuanced performances in the major roles. Christy Barron's Julie, a femme fatale by default, emerges as a tactical rather an pathological liar. She lies in order to keep her options open, to evade a hard-and-fast choice that she just isn't ready to make. Julie dithers and dodges, and the film does, too. The one character who knows exactly what she wants, Karen Young ‘s Diedre, Barry's abandoned wife, is almost too passionate a presence, and Collins also ends up dumping her, simply omitting her from the makeshift "lifestyle choice" that is "Pants of Fire's" limp subsitute for a finale. The most engaging character is Julie's clueless husband, Max, well played by Harry O'Reilly. A big man whose strong features have gone soft around the edges, Max is a workaholic Assistant DA embroiled in a mud-slinging election battle for the top job. He comes on like a typical callow careerist, clutching his security-blanket cel phone. But there's something dazed and hesitant about him from the start, as if he's been awkwardly miscast in his own life---miscast not just as a high-powered lawyer but as a grown up human being. Unhinged when the affair is exposed and his wife threatens to bolt, Max torpedoes his own campaign with visible relief. Rocky Collins is no fumbling amatuer, but he, too, may be miscast, here, as a subversive dark humorist; he may simply have a more conventional sensibility than he thinks he does. --David Chute
David Chute
chute@loop.com
www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Island/3102
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"I don't believe in inspiration.
Inspiration is for amatuers."
--- Chuck Close
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