REMEMBER MY NAME (director/writer: Alan Rudolph; cinematographer: Tak Fujimoto; editors: William A. Sawyer/Tom Walls Jr.; cast: Geraldine Chaplin (Emily), Anthony Perkins (Neil Curry), Berry Berenson (Barbara), Moses Gunn (Pike), Jeff Goldblum (Mr. Nudd), Alfre Woodard (Rita), Jeff Perry (Harry); Runtime: 94; Lion's Gate Films; 1978)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A strange, moody, engrossing, modernized film of the 1940s noir genre, from director/writer Alan Rudolph (Choose Me/The Moderns). It is noted for the understated but tense performance by Anthony Perkins and the electric and a very passionate performance by Geraldine Chaplin, where you can actually feel her pain and sympathize with her even though she's the aggressor. Setting the dark and torturous mood with her soundtrack is Alberta Hunter's most appealing blues score, which she also performs. Tak Fujimoto's camera is sharp in its character delineation, cutting deeply into this tale of revenge with its powerful close-ups.
Emily (Geraldine Chaplin) is just getting out of prison after serving a long stretch for murdering the girl her husband Neil Curry (Anthony Perkins) was having an affair with. Neil is now her ex-husband, married to Barbara (Berry Berenson). He has never told Barbara about his ex-wife.
Emily is a nervous, chain-smoking, emotionally troubled woman who rents a boarding-house room in an unnamed suburban community, gets a security guard who is in charge of the house, Pike (Gunn), to fix up the room and make it livable by playing on his attraction for her, and goes about her main business, which is stalking Neil and harassing his wife.
She gets a job as a cashier in a small general store, because she got to know the store owner's mother while in prison. Mr. Nudd (Goldblum), the nerdy boss, has a history of hiring those his husband-killer mother recommends, but is quick to fire them at the first-sign of an irregularity.
Neil is a construction worker, blissful in his new marriage, with plans to build a more luxurious house for them to live in, which pleases his wife. Neil seems like a regular guy, drinking beer and working hard to make ends meet.
A sense of foreboding violence and a quirky sense of humor go very well together in this film, as Emily has this crazed and confused look about her and speaks in an unnatural almost comical tone, as if she forgot how to speak and is learning it anew. From her perplexing demeanor, it's hard to figure where she's going with this stalking, revenge thing she has for her ex-husband. When she breaks a window in Neil's house and confronts Barbara inside the house, she scares Barbara, who doesn't know what she wants. What Emily wants to know from Barbara, "Is she a good fuck ... a good cook?"
She succeeds in messing with Neil's life and gains the viewer's sympathy, as she seems to be more of a victim than at first thought. Her aggressive behavior always comes at being frustrated by something she can't handle. What is clearly seen on her face, is all the pain she feels inside. In the background TV news flashes about an earthquake in Budapest are repeated, and each time the death toll keeps getting higher, until it reaches an attention grabbing one million deaths. The irony in it, is all the main characters watch the news report, but it is too impersonal for them to even react to it, they are too overwhelmed with the problems in their personal life to care about anyone else.
I remembered Emily's name by the time the film ended, and felt moved by her strained performance and all the emotions, pathos, and humor that was in it. The film was too arty at times, as is the want of the director, but it is a gripping film, one that I recommend for the way it outstandingly depicts the subtleties in the way the characters act.
REVIEWED ON 10/30/2000 GRADE: B
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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