OLEANNA
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1994 Scott Renshaw
Starring: William H. Macy, Debra Eisenstadt. Screenplay/Director: David Mamet.
The advertising campaign for OLEANNA features the line, "Whatever side you take, you're wrong." Behind that statement is the conceit that this adaptation of David Mamet's play, and by extension the original play itself, is a balanced presentation of a controversial issue. It is not. Whatever OLEANNA might be--provocative, infuriating, incendiary--it is not balanced; it is a technically proficient but inaccessible piece of reactionary agit-prop. There are two fine performances at the center of the film, but it was impossible for me to separate them from Mamet's smug attempt to pass this off as thought-provoking theater.
OLEANNA is essentially a study of two characters: an unnamed professor (William H. Macy) at an unnamed college, and Carol (Debra Eisenstadt), one of his students. Carol, having just received a very poor mid-term grade in the professor's social sciences class, comes to his office to find out what she can do to improve her grade. Though the professor is extremely busy, he decides to try to explain some of the concepts of the class to Carol, in a session that occasionally becomes quite emotional. The next day, the professor is stunned to discover that Carol has charged him with inappropriate conduct--in effect, sexual harrassment--during their encounter. When he confronts her, she attempts to show him how power has corrupted him, though he isn't even aware of it.
Those familiar with David Mamet's elliptical dialogue will instantly recognize OLEANNA as his work; those unfamiliar with it will wonder what the heck he's trying to do. The staccato rhythms don't sound conversational, and in fact sometimes seem even more stagey than conventional stage dialogue. But though the first act of OLEANNA is occasionally very rough going, there is something compelling about that dialogue. I found myself paying closer attention, and noticing recurring motifs and shifting roles. William H. Macy, who originated the role of the professor on Broadway, has a gift for making Mamet's words sound as close to natural as they can, and gives a haunting and haunted performance. Debra Eisenstadt is also impressive, alternately cowering and commanding, but the words sound more forced in her mouth. Unfortunately, that is symptomatic of what is really wrong with her role.
Here, then, is where OLEANNA becomes truly insidious. The conflict between Carol and the professor, as it plays out in the second and third acts, becomes one largely of interpretation. Has the professor, by virtue of the power inherent in his position, placed Carol in a compromising position, or is Carol reacting too much in accord with a pre-determined agenda? Mamet pretends to make a case for both sides, but in reality he has done no such thing. Though Carol talks a good talk bout how the professor has wronged her, and attempts to make her case both to him and to the audience, the way Carol is portrayed makes her completely unreliable. In the first act, she is deferrent to the point of neurosis, taking copious notes which it is later suggested might have been part of a plan to bring him down; later, she makes repeated references to an unnamed "group," a presumably radical campus organization to which she belongs and has as its insignia a pseudo-swastika design. At this point, while Carol speaks wearing this insignia on her lapel, nothing that Carol says can be taken seriously, even if we are inclined to thing that we may be seeing events through our own prejudiced lenses. When the voice for one side of an argument is presented as a devastated family man, and the voice for the other side is a caricature of a fascist, the author surrenders the right to claim that he is being balanced.
Issues of politics aside, OLEANNA just doesn't connect beyond a level of detached technical admiration. Perhaps seeing the play live, where post-performance discussions were almost always part of the experience, provided more immediacy, more intensity. On the big screen, for all its controversy, OLEANNA is just too cold and intellectualized.
Mamet expressed concern when audiences at advance screenings cheered when the professor struck Carol. I think that reaction might inspire Mamet to take a good, long look at the messages he is sending.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 power trips: 4.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
.
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