SUITE 16 (director: Dominique Deruddere; screenwriter: Charlie Higson/Lise Mayer; cinematographer: Jean-Francois Robin; cast: Pete Postlethwaite (Glover), Geraldine Pailhas (Helen ), Antonie Kamerling (Chris ), Tom Jansen (Receptionist, Paul), Suzanne Colin (Woman with dog), 1995-UK)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Set in the French Riviera, this erotic thriller directed by Dominique Deruddere (Crazy Love/Wait Until Spring Bandini), is a story about whose got control: a virile, not too bright, arrogant, handsome young hustler on the run, Chris (Kamerling); or, a very wealthy, crafty, older impotent invalid, ex-playboy Glover (Postlethwaite), who is in a wheel chair and living in a ritzy hotel with nothing but time on his hands. Into his suite 16 stumbles the dazed Chris, bleeding profusely from his head wound, suffered when his gigolo robbery took a bad turn. Chris believes he might have murdered the older woman with the pooch, whom he enticed while hanging out in the hotel lobby to take him up to her room for sex, but when she refused to be robbed that easily and conked him on the noggin, he threw her against the wall, thinking he killed her.
The ego-maniacal Glover has grown lonely and twisted inside, and strangely enough is not frightened of the young murderer on the run, who holds him hostage. Instead he makes him an offer he can't very well refuse, stay with me and I'll give you everything you want. Chris' needs are material things such as clothes, beer, food, cocaine, and women. In return, Glover receives a vicarious thrill watching him on a hidden video camera while Chris makes it with the prostitutes he supplies him. It all turns out to be a tedious game to see who is in control: brains or brawn. The kid plays his part like he's a lump of coal and the sex is so uninviting, making it seem just as boring as watching paint dry on a wall.
Glover's servant, Paul (Jansen), serves as the intermediary, looking out for Glover and carrying out all his orders. And like all the characters in this film, is not developed. There is no rhyme or reason for all this sleaze to be taking place, except for making the audience into voyeurs, like the invalid.
What is quickly resolved, is that Glover isn't queer, just manipulaive and mentally sick. It is also determined that Chris is a misfit, unable to accomplish even his mundane aim in life to become rich and live in the Caribbean. That he is a failure in everything he does, even as a hustler, blaming all his misfortune on a poor-upbringing, is never followed through storywise. That explanation of him doesn't ring true, anyway, as he always has a blank and uninteresting look on his face, and nothing he does throughout the film is taking him to anything but a dead-end. So it becomes hard to feel anything for him, but pity and contempt.
The film hit a dry spot for a long while, until a pretty school-age working girl, Helen (Geraldine Pailhas), enters the picture and the threesome play off each other's flaws. She livens things up a bit, brought into the picture because Glover has upped the ante, he now wants Chris to pick out a woman in the street and murder her, and she's the one he picks.
Chris doesn't have it in him to be a cold-blooded murderer, so he pretends to be killing her so he can collect the huge sum of money offered him to do the job. Glover is disappointed in the young man and ends up inviting Helen back to the suite for some more fun (sic) and games. The sadistic games are better delivered now with the presence of Helen, but the menage a trois doesn't have the nuances, wit, or actors to pull off the macabre effects it was trying desperately to get away with. And the new rivalry between the girl and boy, never amounts to much of a story.
The film tries to build to a powerful climax. It becomes obvious that Glover has a death-wish and has been preparing all-the-time for this and now seems ready, as he reads from a poem by a zen monk who is about to die, which goes something like this-- "In all my 56-years alive, I've seen no miracles. It is okay to die today. Day after Day does not the sun rise in the east?"
But even that attempt to get some life into the story fizzled, as the film just wound down trying to outsmart itself with shockers to its denouement, but ended up not being a very thrilling thriller or even living up to its reputation of being a controversial film. It was just a dull, exploitive movie, distinguished only by the fine performance of a good actor, Pete Postlethwaite, who was overwhelmed by being in such a trying film.
REVIEWED ON 9/25/99 GRADE: D
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews