TOO MUCH SLEEP A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 2001 David N. Butterworth
** (out of ****)
The most striking revelation about the indie comedy-drama "Too Much Sleep" is just how much it highlights the schizophrenic tendencies of its fledgling director, David Maquiling.
Now Maquiling, a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, can set up a shot well enough, from the sleepy suburban opener of a young boy playing with his Tonka trucks in the grass, to a Deli-ful of old duffers who sit around waxing idiotic. But often the scenarios that play out within Maquiling's excellent frame are scattershot and self-consciously told.
Likewise Maquiling has a perceptive eye for character; his film is populated with colorful brethren indeed. There's our hero, Jack Crawford (Marc Palmieri), the security guard who's distracted by a beautiful woman on a bus, loses his gun, and spends the rest of the movie trying to find it in the heat and the hostility of northern New Jersey. There's the beautiful woman herself (Nicol Zanzarella), a slight, diaphanous creature who appears as if from out of nowhere, haloed by the blazing midday sun. There's a funny guy with "connections" who helps Jack retrieve his missing piece (as played by Pasquale Gaeta, Eddie's a character with a capital C). And then there's Jack's mother, just a voice off-screen.
These are all finely written roles, all shapely individuals in one way or another.
But the director's ability to create unique characterizations is undone by his failure to cast competent performers in the roles; there's amateurism run rampant here I'm afraid. A lot is asked of Palmieri and frankly he doesn't have the presence to be on-screen as long as he is (and this is a short movie, relatively speaking: 86 minute's worth). Kate (Zanzarella) is really only asked to look good and with that she complies. Gaeta is amusing though. He's no De Niro (although a lot of the time he sounds like him) and his constant profanity--"if you pardon my profanity"--soon develops a comforting, lyrical quality. He's clearly the best of the bunch and well utilized by the director. Think Joe Pesci's funny uncle.
Maquiling, too, has an ear for dialogue. Unfortunately it's a tone-deaf one for the most part. He can create manic, "After Hours"-styled pandemoniums populated by complex and witty individuals but he has the hardest time coming up with a line of dialogue that doesn't sound forced or just plain awkward. At times he seems to be trying too hard. Some improvisation might have helped the film considerably rather than having the actors constantly forced to reel off the director's stilted conversations.
You would think that this schizophrenic style--everything coming together at one point, everything falling apart the next--would tend to even itself out after a while but it doesn't. Both scenarios are frustrating because they speak to what might have been. "Too Much Sleep" has potential written all over it; Maquiling knows what he's about and, with a little maturation in the writing and casting departments, he's going to impress soon enough.
Not this time though. "Too Much Sleep" is an unsatisfying mix that just leaves one feeling overtired.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@dca.net
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