TEN BENNY
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Palisades Pictures/Artistic License Films Director: Eric Bross Writer: Eric Bross & Tom Cudworth Cast: Adrien Brody, Sybil Temchen, Michael Gallagher, Tony Gillian, Frank Vincent
When you're young, the worst thing that can happen to you is to be a misfit: to be shunned by fellow students in your junior high or high school. Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse" brings this out better than any other American movie about 12-year-old kids. Then in that writer-director's astonishing "Happiness," Solondz portrays the disastrous effects of being a nerd right in the opening scene, with Jon Lovitz playing the hapless cipher who has just been given his walking papers by his 30-year-old date. But what about the young people who are accepted by their peers, who have a lot going for them in their own, supportive circles? Director Eric Bross interprets the lives of a clique of people in their early twenties, working-class stiffs who appear to have no emotional maladjustments, but who get into a mess because the ambitions of one of their number outclass his background. "Ten Benny" is a low-budget job that has made the rounds of the indie circuit in L.A. and Sundance, a small picture featuring earnest acting but one which leaves the viewer unsatisfied.
Its overriding problem is a lack of transcendence. In laying out a misadventure that befalls its principal figure, Eric Bross-- who wrote the screenplay with Tom Cudworth--introduces a story that has the stamp or autobiography. Bross, who states in the production notes that he knows people just like the ones in his movie, shows us a slice of life which has no surprises, little tension, and is deficient in originality. It is an inconsequential tale that makes for a somewhat involving 98 minutes, largely because the young performers play decent sorts of guys-next-door who get into a jam because of their inexperience with the hard rules of the fast-money world. Ray (Adrien Brody) does not really crave a life of glamour and fame but wants only to attain normal, working-class goals of marriage, family, and a measure of financial stability. Though he has not gone through the rite of passage needed for success in today's world--four years of college--he has the gift of gab and can sell people things that they never knew they wanted. Why he did not put his talent to work in pushing more than shoes is anybody's guess.
The story takes place in suburban New Jersey with a stint in Atlantic City and involves Ray's plans to make big bucks fast in order to get his girl friend Joanne (Sybil Temchen) a diamond ring and set himself up in his own business. Getting a tip on a race at the trotters in the town of Freehold, he borrows $10,000 from a loan shark he has known since childhood, Donny (James E. Moriarty) but is staggered by the failure of the horse to come through for him. Threatened by the hoodlum should Ray fail to come up with the money-- surely not an innovative idea for a film--Ray faces a bleak future, his relationship with his girl threatened by a night of passion she has with Ray's best friend, Mike (Michael Gallagher).
While at least one critic who has seen the film when it was on the festival circuit calls Ray a "charismatic" fellow, a young De Niro or Pacino, he does no come across as particularly magnetic or handsome, witty or expressive possessing the depth such a protege requires. A droopy-faced character, Adrien Brody does not inspire his audience to care all that much about what happens to him, nor do his pals--who are a typical bunch of suburbanites who celebrate one another's birthday parties and spend most of their leisure time together- -offer much in the way of audience curiosity. Frank Vincent as the boy's father, Ray Sr., stands out in a relatively small role, bearing the professionalism and soignee of an established performer in a movie that is nothing distinctive or bearing the flavor of a work you could not see any night on TV.
Not Rated. Running Time: 98 minutes.(C) 1998 Harvey Karten
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