Summer of Sam (1999)
a review by Christian Pyle
New York City, 1977. Coming home from a disco, Vinny (John Leguizamo) sneaks into a crime scene and sees the bloody corpses of a couple shot by the ".44 Killer." The killer would soon by sending letters signed "Son of Sam" to newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin (who appears at the beginning and end of "Summer of Sam" as himself). However, Sam (Michael Badalucco) and his murders serve mostly as background in Spike Lee's new movie.
"Summer of Sam" is really about Vinny and his friend Ritchie (Adrien Brody), who's just returned to the neighborhood with spiked hair and an affected British accent. Vinny is cheating on his wife, Dionna (Mira Sorvino), because he refuses to ask her for the oral and anal sex he desires. Dionna feels Vinny slipping away from her but cannot figure out how to please him. Because of his punk look, Ritchie finds himself an outcast in the neighborhood. While trying to get a band together, Ritchie makes extra money by dancing at a gay club and turning tricks in the john. He finds a soulmate in Ruby (Jennifer Esposito), a neighborhood woman whose sexual history makes her an outcast as well.
As the murders mount and the summer heat wave goes on, tensions rise. The guys in the neighborhood start their own investigation to find the Son of Sam. They make a list of everyone who is odd, and Ritchie rises to the head of the list. Just as his marriage is collapsing, Vinny is called upon to choose sides between Ritchie and the other guys in the neighborhood.
This is familiar territory for Lee. His best-known film, "Do the Right Thing," also chronicles the disintegration of a neighborhood and the search for a scapegoat, and it did so with more complexity and sophistication. However, the center of "Summer" lies not in its portrait of a neighborhood but in its exploration of Vinny. The dynamic of miscommunication and misunderstanding between Vinny and Dionna is sensitively played by Leguizamo and Sorvino. Vinny is caught up in the madonna/whore dichotomy of his Catholic upbringing and cannot see his wife as a suitable object for animal lust or Ruby as a suitable wife for Ritchie. Knowing that Vinny goes to other women to fulfill his baser needs, Dionna is forced to the embarrassing necessity of asking Ruby (who used to sleep with Vinny) for advice. The tension between Vinny and Dionna reaches a breaking point when they take part in an orgy.
Lee's style has grown increasingly pretentious over the years. The greatest flaw of "Summer" is the way that Lee draws attention away from the characters with overplayed technical tricks such as tinting scenes and jump cuts, techniques which seem intended to shout, "Hey look at me, I'm an auteur." Like "Get on the Bus," in which Lee overused many of the same techniques, "Summer" has a strong, character-driven script and a talented cast. The director's style should enhance these strengths, not distract attention from them.
Look for lots of familiar faces in small roles. Bebe Neuwirth (Lilith on "Cheers" and "Frasier") is Vinny's mistress of the moment. Patti LuPone (of "Life Goes On") and Mike Starr (a thug in numerous movies) play Ritchie's parents. Anthony LaPaglia is a detective tracking the killer, and Ben Gazzara is the local mob boss. Michael Imperioli (from HBO's "The Sopranos") manages the gay strip joint; Imperioli also co-wrote the screenplay and served as an executive producer. John Turturro provides the voice of the dog that orders Sam to kill. Spike Lee plays a novice TV reporter; he has a wonderfully sly, satiric scene when his character broadcasts from a black neighborhood with "the darker perspective."
Grade: B
© 1999 Christian L. Pyle
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