CHASING AMY (director/writer: Kevin Smith; cinematographer: David Klein; cast: Ben Affleck (Holden), Joey Lauren Adams (Alyssa), Jason Lee (Banky), Dwight Ewell (Hooper), 1997)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
This romantic comedy about the love life of comic book writers feels like a sitcom because that is what it basically is, not withstanding, that it pushes the envelope further out by having characters in it who are more sexually active than the usual sitcom. Its story is also a bit more arresting. Its strongest asset being the quick-witted and acidy dialogue it brings to the table by its capable cast who are most able to deliver those punch lines.
At a comic book fair in NYC, comic book writers and longtime friends, Holden (Ben) and Banky (Jason), are signing autographs for their hit comic "Bluntman and Chronic." In this scene we get a good dose of the ambiance of the comic book world and we get a chance to see what their readers are like and of how serious the writers are about the work they do. We learn that they want to be looked upon as artists and not to be taken for intellectual lightweights just because they work in the comic book business.
A comic book writer, Alyssa (Joey) is introduced to them by another comic book writer, Hooper (Dwight), who poses as a black militant, hiding from his comic book audience that he is gay. It turns out that Holden falls for Alyssa, and he also thinks they have much in common since they both come from the same town in the New Jersey suburbs, but what he doesn't realize, at first, is that she is a lesbian who is unwilling to get into a relationship with a man. Their first meeting, over a game of darts, gives Holden, what he calls a "shared moment." Banky has a blast with this explanation.
The would-be lovers must take risks to make their relationship work. Holden is the first to feel that he must be with Alyssa. He has led a sheltered, somewhat nerdy life till now, still living in the Jersey suburbs, while Alyssa is wild and alluring. She is very sexy, having a deep-throaty voice and an open manner that makes it easy to talk to her. But, having led a very active sexual life, experimenting with all sorts of sexual encounters, she comes with a checkered past. Holden is able to face up to her lesbian affairs but has difficulty in reconciling her reckless sex with multiple male partners whom she does not even care about. And it disturbs him that he has to find this out through gossip and not from her; especially, when she seems to make such a big thing about honesty in a relationship. Smith does an excellent job in showing the doubts men have about being with a loose woman who they are smitten with. Our hero is not a liberated hero, but it is his flaws that give him credibility.
The twist in this story comes about in the part his wise-guy partner plays in trying to destroy their relationship, out of jealousy. The film gives this a surprising psychological meaning.The relationship between the three of them becomes an unsmooth one, as they all battle the mundane worries most people have in regards to love affairs, friendships, and how it will affect them and their careers.
CHASING AMY is a moral fable. The title of the film derives from the story the director himself tells to Holden, as he portrays a character called Silent Bob. He tells them a story about a girl named Amy. She is the girl who ran away from him because he didn't know how to handle the situation he was in and he ended up losing the girl he loved. This scene was not needed, as the story itself was simple enough to follow. We did not need a ready made explanation of the film from the director.
Not everything worked or made sense, but the characters and their problems seemed real. And, the dialogue hit the mark more often than not. This is Smith's third film about the travails of young people growing up in New Jersey and influenced by "pop" culture. What I didn't like about the film, is that despite its attempts not to be viewed as a sitcom, that is what this film is, even if its mature story line adds more weight to it. Sitcoms are just not the way I like to see drama unfolding, as it always leaves me thinking that things are still being dumbed down, that even though, these are characters we usually do not see on the screen and it is refreshing to see them; we are, nevertheless, not going any deeper psychologically with this story and with character portrayal than other sitcoms go.
Smith's film does give us a real sense of a relationship and the struggle it takes to make it work, but there is still an air of superficiality about its presentation.
REVIEWED ON 1/13/99 GRADE: C+
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