BAD MANNERS
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Phaedra Cinema/Davis Entertainment Classics Director: Jonathan Kaufer Writer: David Gilman, from his play Ghost in the Machine Cast:David Strathairn, Bonnie Bedelia, Saul Rubinek, Caroleen Feeney, Julie Harris
If you were a married woman, would you invite your former lover and his girl friend to your home? If so, maybe you never saw Edward Albee's play, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," which features an alcohol-soaked battle royale between two couples with host George doing his utmost to humiliate his wife Martha and his guests Nick and Honey. You've got to wonder, then, what was going through the mind of Nancy (Bonnie Bedelia), a tenured college professor, who invites her former beau Matt (Saul Rubinek) and Matt's sexy girl friend Kim (Caroleen Feeney) to her Cambridge home. Did she have any idea what effect such an engagement would have on herself and her husband Wes (David Strathairn)? There are many such puzzles in Jonathan Kaufer's movie, with a screenplay by David Gilman--based on his 1993 play "Ghost in the Machine." Appropriately enough, the staged comedy/drama was performed by Chicago's Steppenwolf Company, a repertory group known for its visceral dramatizations. Translated quite effectively to the screen, "Bad Manners," which is loosely modeled after "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,"actually improves upon that classic tale of marital breakdown with verbal pyrotechnics and in-your-face audacity. If this sort of story is your favorite genre--the kind of narrative that explores the implosion of relationships rather than explosions of planets--you'd be strongly advised to see Neil LaBute's "Your Friends & Neighbors" as well.
The question that consumes viewers as they watch the story unfold is "Why the heck didn't the host and hostess kick their guests out long before the fireworks petered out?" If so, remember that the essence of intimate drama is a performance involving two or more people physically or psychologically trapped in a room, playing out their conflicts and obsessions. In this essentially four-piece chess game Wes is a childless, forty-something academic married to Nancy, who has established herself in the teaching profession. She has tenure: Wes is in an acerbic mood, having just been passed over for tenure at a woman's finishing school. The two are playing host to Nancy's old flame, Matt, a now pudgy musicologist who is enjoying a relationship with his much younger research assistant, Kim--a smart, arrogant, seductive computer whiz. Matt is in town to deliver a lecture at Harvard on a contemporary composer, Vinh Schuman, in whose 12-tone composition he has discovered a direct musical quotation from a work by the 15th Century theologian, Martin Luther. Since there is no way that the Vietnamese composer could have come across that medieval work, Matt holds that that quote must have been implanted by God and seeks to establish a reputation by publishing a paper on his discovery. The audience is asked to consider that perhaps the playful Kim had doctored the tape to ruin Matt's career.
The agitation begins when Wes discovers that he's $50 short and tells his wife that he suspects Kim as the thief. Wes has Nancy stealthily remove $50 from Kim's purse and begins the night of clever word games by suggesting to Nancy that if Kim does not bring up her own loss of $50, it is because she had stolen the money and is embarrassed to report it. When Kim does report the loss, Wes counters with a round of "You know that I know that you know" and Kim retaliates with her own bloc of word games. As the alcoholic- soaked night continues--the guests occasionally coupling off with their hosts--Kim comes on seductively to Wes and the accusations fly. So do the protestations of innocence. Allegations and rebuttals drift so freely that even Ken Starr would have serious doubts as to which statements were accurate and which were spurious. The audience is left to ponder the same dilemma, to sort out the events of the evening and indict the parties as it chooses.
The actors mine the taut, lacerating script with unflagging ardor. David Strathairn is perfect as the repressed, caustic teacher who takes quite a bit of time to ignite, while Bonnie Bedelia effectively transforms from a smug, married woman to a questioning and more liberated femme. Saul Rubinek, who has seen thinner days, is at his best when in conference with his would be publisher (played by Julie Harris), changing from full-of-himself pomposity to utter defeat when given the publishing board's opinion of his article. Best of all is the chain-smoking Caroleen Feeney, previously seen to great advantage in "Denise Calls Up." Though the chain-smoker probably smells like an ash tray, we can understand the utter powerlessness of men to avoid her enticing charms. As the old song goes, "Cigarettes and whiskey and wild wild women,/ They'll drive you crazy, they'll drive you insane."
Rated R. Running time: 90 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998
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