AMATEUR
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1995 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Hal Hartley gives us three humorously
dysfunctional characters on the run from equally
strange thugs. The pacing is slow, but more
interesting than the plot are the strange
characterizations. Still, even they are not
sufficient to float this often leaden film.
Rating: low +1 (-4 to +4) text
Hal Hartley is something of a rogue filmmaker, producing, writing, and scoring the films he directs. Of late he is making them for PBS's American Playhouse. I have seen only his THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH, though I found that an original and well-made film, perhaps better than AMATEUR.
In the current film Hartley brings together a mixed bag of characters who are unfortunately less than totally believable. One problem with his style is that he will completely change our understanding of a character for the sake of a funny or bizarre line. The main character is Isabelle (played by Isabelle Huppert). For fifteen years Isabelle was a nun. Then she gave it up to write pornography and give vent to her nymphomaniacal tendencies. Unfortunately, her pornography does not sell because she cannot resist the temptation to turn it into literature. She is still holding off on her nymphomaniacal binge because she is very choosy about her choice of partners. So with absolutely no experience with sex, she wants to bea pornographer. Into Isabelle's life comes a possible sex partner, an injured man (played by Martin Donovan) with no memory of who he is or how he came to be injured. Also into Isabelle's life comes Sofia (Elina Lowensohn of SCHINDLER'S LIST), a woman who is a porno film star who has run afoul of a powerful criminal international arms dealer. The dealer has sent two strangely erudite thugs to murder her. Sofia knows who the amnesiac really is, but does not want to tell him. Complicating matters is a former associate of the amnesiac and Sofia, Edward (played by Damian Young).
Hartley's dialogue is as bizarre as Quentin Tarantino's in PULP FICTION, but with characters not quite as bright. Hartley leaves long pauses between spoken lines and this tends to slow the film down. While some have classified the film as a thriller, the slow pacing tends to sap any thrills that AMATEUR might have delivered. In truth, because of their bizarre behavior and motives it is difficult to identify with or even believe any of the characters. One character who has gotten an electrical shock seems to mimic the childish, brutish mannerisms of the Frankenstein monster, particularly when he comically lays siege to a pizza shop.
Hartley wrote, directed, and even scored this film, much as he did with his previous film SIMPLE MEN. That film also featured performances by Martin Donovan, Elina Lowensohn, and Damian Young. This is Isabelle Huppert's first performance with Hartley, though she is a familiar actress in France, particularly from Jean-Luc Goddard's films. Seeing similarities in Goddard's and Hartley's styles, she wrote to Hartley suggesting that she act in his films. Hartley admits contritely her letter went unread for several months due to his own disorganization. When he realized what the letter was, he paid its owner more respect.
This is a film that turns out to be more entertaining than it might at first appear, but its style does not allow it believable characters, nor is the humor strong enough to qualify it as a comedy, nor does the film function as a thriller, nor is the style really interesting. The combination of what it contributes in these aspects is sufficient to make the film watchable, but it is little more than that. I give it a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
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