8mm (1999)
Director: Joel Schumacher Cast: Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, Peter Stormare, Christopher Bauer, Anthony Heald, Catherine Keener Screenplay: Andrew Kevin Walker Producers: Judy Hofflund, Gavin Polone Runtime: 124 min. US Distribution: Columbia Rated R: Strong violence, sex, language
Copyright 1998 Nathaniel R. Atcheson
About four years ago, Andrew Kevin Walker wrote the intelligent and subtle script for Seven, which is easily one of the best films ever made. Walker writes about normal people who go face-to-face with evil forces they can't possibly understand. His script for 8mm is nearly as good as that of Seven, but Seven had David Fincher in the director's chair. 8mm has Joel Schumacher, who was responsible for the ludicrous failure of Batman & Robin. Indeed, 8mm is not as good as it could have been: I constantly got the feeling that Walker and Schumacher wanted to tell different stories.
Walker wants to tell the story of an average guy confronted with moral decisions so deep and disturbing that he nearly loses his mind. This kind of conflict, while slightly contrived, is still immensely interesting if handled with care. But Schumacher is more interested in mood than in characters, and often handles scenes in ridiculous and unbelievable ways. There are moments when the writer and director are in sync, and those are the best in the film. And, as a suspense picture, the movie works more often than it doesn't. I just can't help but think that 8mm could have been an existential thriller with the same force and conviction as Seven.
The likable Nicolas Cage stars as Tom Welles, a private investigator who is commissioned by an elderly lady to determine the authenticity of an 8mm film she finds in the safe of her dead husband. The film is referred to as "snuff" pornography -- pornography in which a woman is raped and murdered in the movie. Welles initially believes that "snuff" is an urban myth -- the movies that do exist are all phonies. But he watches the film, and sees a teenage girl get hacked to death by a giant man in a leather mask. The movie looks real, but he can't tell, and so he goes searching.
His searches lead him all over the country, from Cleveland to Hollywood to New York, and back again. While Tom is roaming all over the country, his wife (Catherine Keener) is left in the dark as to his whereabouts. While searching through missing children files, he stumbles across the girl's true identity. Later, he meets Max California (Joaquin Phoenix), a adult bookstore clerk who leads him down a strange and twisted path through the underworld of illegal pornography.
Walker is better at writing thrillers than most other screenwriters who specialize in the genre, simply because he knows how to characterize, and how to integrate character with the turns of the story. The film opens with development of Tom's marriage, and we immediately take a liking to both him and his wife. This sets us up for the rest of the film because we care about Tom -- we want him to succeed. Too many films abandon character and story in favor of spectacle, but Walker knows how to construct a good script. It also helps that Cage is in the main role; he's such a powerful, believable actor, and he brings the necessary desperation to Tom without going over-the-top. The other actors all fill their roles nicely, with standout performances from Phoenix and Peter Stormare (as a nutty porn-god).
But the emotional center of 8mm is what rings true; the way this dirty, disgusting world affects Tom is a truly interesting conflict. He develops an attachment to the young girl in the movie, and fights for her, even when no one else does. He doesn't understand what makes these people do what they do, why they're willing to destroy young women to make a buck. And there's one scene towards the end of the film that truly moved me: Tom is on the verge of killing a man, but he can't do it. He's not a murderer. He goes to his car and calls the girl's mother, saying, "Tell me how much you loved her." That he needs the girl's mother to give him permission is a perfect, subtle comment on his character, and gives a moral side to the film that is both meaningful and moving.
But I just didn't get the feeling that Schumacher was as interested in the characters as in the mood. Atmosphere is definitely important in a film like this; 8mm is a dark movie, but it looks great, and Mychael Danna's musical score underlines the eerie visuals smoothly. But the film frequently falls head-first into absurdity: one scene, which features three psycho porn-freaks and a crossbow, is particularly silly, and I could have done without a climactic stabbing in the rain. I also think Schumacher takes the wrong tone with a lot of the material: he often seems a little too fascinated with the porn stuff, and so the film often comes across as exploitative.
I don't know if Walker worked directly with Schumacher, but their intentions don't seem to correspond. At the heart of 8mm is an exceptionally well-conceived conflict, a situation in which a real character is confronted with terrible things and is forced to do terrible things himself. But Schumacher almost drowns out the substance with his style, and so the film misses the mark. 8mm is a thriller worth seeing, but I can't shake the thought that it could have been the truly disturbing experience Walker wanted it to be.
Psychosis Rating: 6/10
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Nathaniel R. Atcheson
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