NORMAL LIFE
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 7.5 Alternative Scale: *** out of ****
United States, 1996 U.S. Release Date: 10/25/96 (limited) Running Length: 1:42 MPAA Classification: R (Sex, nudity, violence, profanity) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Ashley Judd, Luke Perry Director: John McNaughton Producers: Richard Maynard and John Saviano Screenplay: Peg Haller and Bob Schneider Cinematography: Jean de Segonzac Music: Robert McNaughton and Ken Hale U.S. Distributor: Fine Line Features
During the Fall of 1996, while channel surfing late one night, I recall stopping on HBO when I recognized Ashley Judd. I put down the remote control and tried to figure out what the film was. The more I watched, the more intrigued I became. This wasn't the usual late-night, direct-to-cable fare. It was a motion picture of some intelligence and insight. I didn't find out its name, NORMAL LIFE, until it was over. And it wasn't until weeks later, when it received a blink-and-you'll- miss-it run in about a half-dozen markets, that I learned the story behind the movie.
For some reason which even now is unclear, Fine Line Features, NORMAL LIFE's distributor, elected not to release the film in theaters, opting instead for a run on HBO. This infuriated director John McNaughton (HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER), who claimed that he never would have directed the movie had he been aware of Fine Line's intentions. So, to placate him, the company gave the film a very limited theatrical release. Without publicity or advertising, it was dead-on-arrival, and was pulled after one week. Few movie-goers had an opportunity to see it. Now, NORMAL LIFE is out on both video cassette and laser disc, and its availability should generate a wider audience.
NORMAL LIFE is a character study loosely based on a true-life crime spree that occurred in Chicago's western suburbs. Since I don't live in or around Chicago, and don't remember any headlines about the situation, I can't say how closely NORMAL LIFE sticks to the facts. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter. NORMAL LIFE is compelling because of the characters and their twisted, co-dependent relationship, not because it falls into the often-sordid category of having its narrative built around a real criminal case.
Those characters are the husband-and-wife team of Chris and Pam Anderson (Luke Perry and Ashley Judd), and NORMAL LIFE tells their story over a two year period. The two meet in a bar one night when Pam has a fight with her boyfriend and cuts her hand on a broken glass. Chris comes to the rescue, bandages the wound, then asks her to dance. For their first "official" date, they go to a shooting range, where Chris, a police officer, teaches Pam how to fire a gun. Soon thereafter, they are married, and that's when the trouble begins.
Despite having the good looks of a cheerleader, Pam is not the perfect wife. Sexually, she's frigid; emotionally, she's unstable. Her self-destructive tendencies cause her to trash the apartment she shares with Chris, play Russian roulette, and, eventually, threaten to kill herself. Yet, through all of this, her husband sticks by her, never flagging in his support. There's something about Pam that holds him in thrall. He's determined to be her savior, no matter what the cost.
Chris loses his job and Pam's profligate spending traps the couple in an ever-widening vortex of debt. To save them, Chris robs a bank. Then another. Then another. It's easy for him -- he's good at it. Soon, he and Pam have paid off their creditors and moved into an upscale townhouse. Then, by chance, Pam finds out about her husband's new source of income. The idea excites her. She joins him in a robbery and, afterwards, experiences her first-ever orgasm during sex. But the pattern of self-destruction returns, and the resolution is inevitable.
Have I given away too much of the plot? Not really, since the film's non-linear chronology begins near the end, then flashes back to the beginning. NORMAL LIFE isn't really about whether Pam and Chris get away with their crimes -- they don't, and that point is never in doubt. Rather, it's about how they relate to each other, and how Pam's manic- depressive behavior destroys not only her own life, but Chris' as well.
Why would someone stay with a woman like this? Watching Ashley Judd's wrenching, uninhibited portrayal of Pam, it's easy to understand the reasons. Buried beneath the madness, there's a sweetness and vulnerability that cries out for protection and nurturing. Chris is drawn to that like a moth to a flame, and the outcome is just as gruesome. Luke Perry, giving the most convincing performance of his career to date, makes it clear how desperately, hopelessly smitten Chris is by his wild, troubled wife.
I have watched NORMAL LIFE twice now (well, one and three-quarters times, to be precise), and I don't understand Fine Line's decision regarding the movie's distribution. Maybe they felt it was too intense, but it's this intensity that draws the audience in. Perry and especially Judd do amazing jobs and McNaughton once again proves that he is capable of presenting an unconventional, psychologically-true picture of criminal behavior. By depicting the sham of "normality", NORMAL LIFE reminds us how fictitious and unattainable the "American dream" can be.
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin
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