THE MICHELLE APARTMENTS
A film review by T. Robin Sutherland
Copyright 1995 T. Robin Sutherland
Directed by John Pozer
When I was in the middle of a three-film-per-day schedule at the Toronto International Film Festival, THE MICHELLE APARTMENTS seemed a relief from the more intense fare I had picked for myself. In retrospect, I find it difficult to find much about the film itself which I really enjoyed.
THE MICHELLE APARTMEMTS is not a difficult film to watch. Athough somewhat out of place in the noirish camp of this film, Henry Czernys acting is credible and amusing throughout (for better black comedy see him in Notes From Underground). Equally (though differently) entertaining are Mary Elizabeth Rubens as the psychotic femme fatale with many secrets, her manic boyfriend (Daniel Kash), and the slightly deranged couple who maintain the apartment complex.
Czerny plays government auditor Hatwell who is investigating a Turnbull Chemicals (We make the food you eat look better!). His hotel room is given away to a convention and he must take an apartment in a very odd complex. He becomes involved with a beautiful woman (Rubens) at the laundry room, and through an underwear mixup at the dryer, eventually ends up on the wrong side of her ex-con boyfriend. Meanwhile, Turnbull Chemicals seems to be running half of the town from its confines and is not happy with the presence of an auditor.
But it maybe that the film was just a little too easy to watch. The audience is engaged primarily by being kept off balance--how do you dispose of a body and who might catch you, for example--but as often as not, the screwball sequences come across as a bit contrived, cliche, predictable once set in motion, or just not very original in their resolution. Of course the ceiling (for example), which has been rotting throughout the film, will collapse on everyone at the films climax. A diner where unusual food is the usual fare (probably yesterdays special at another restauraunt) seems to serve no real purpose beyond a change of locale. And its no surprise that the local chemical plant being audited is crooked, and will resort to criminal actions to protect itself--seriously complicating Harwells already outrageous situation.
The film does succeed at creating unusual situations--golfing at midnight in an industrial park was a favorite of mine--but it doesn't sustain them. We are too easily taken to our own expectations, and although we get a few genuinely funny one-liners along the way, the movement of the story remains one-dimensional and only occasionally witty.
THE MICHELLE APARTMENTS is well-acted and competently produced, providing enough cornball and moments of weirdness to keep you watching--but this is not a particularly good film. If it comes to cable and you cant sleep this will keep you entertained, but don't rent a room and a projector.
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