INVENTING THE ABBOTTS
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
(20th Century Fox) Starring: Liv Tyler, Joaquin Phoenix, Billy Crudup, Jennifer Connelly, Joanna Going, Will Patton, Kathy Baker. Screenplay: Ken Hixon, based on the short story by Sue Miller. Producers: Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Janet Myers. Director: Pat O'Connor. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, sexual situations, nudity) Running Time: 108 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Picture, if you will, the final moments of THE GODFATHER: Michael Corleone is greeted as the new Godfather by his underlings, and his wife Kay, played by Diane Keaton, stands outside the door of his study. As the door closes on Kay and on the film, a voice-over by Keaton intones, "At that moment I realized that there was a part of Michael's life I would be shut out of forever." Voice-over narration is a common cinematic device, particularly in nostalgic period films, yet I can think of few narrated films in the last thirty years which wouldn't have been better without it. Narration tends to be a crutch, an attempt by a film-maker to be more "literary" which instead suggests that he lacks the patience to reveal the characters' psychology without short-cuts. INVENTING THE ABBOTTS is a pleasant period drama for a while, until the episodic story grinds to a halt as the actors sit around waiting for the narrator to tell us how they feel.
INVENTING THE ABBOTTS opens in 1957 in the fictional Illinois town of Haley, and focuses on two families from different social circles. Doug Holt (Joaquin Phoenix) and his older brother Jacey (Billy Crudup) are working class teenagers living with their widowed mother (Kathy Baker); the Abbott sisters -- Alice (Joanna Going), Eleanor (Jennifer Connelly) and Pamela (Liv Tyler) -- are the daughters of office furniture entrepreneur Lloyd Abbott (Will Patton). Though class divides the Holts and Abbotts, family history connects them -- Doug and Jacey's father was Lloyd's business partner, and Jacey believes that Lloyd cheated the Holts out of their rightful share of the business. Jacey's bitterness leads him to a fling with the rebellious Eleanor, but Doug is also fascinated with the "bad girl." Further complications develop when Pamela confesses to feelings for Doug, and when Jacey's obsession with the Abbotts leads him into conflict with the protective Lloyd, as well as with his own brother.
The opening half-hour of INVENTING THE ABBOTTS is by far its best, energized by the awkwardness and buzzing hormones of its teen-aged principal characters. Doug is established as a good-hearted square, showing up at a fancy Abbott party with a greased pompadour and India-ink sideburns in honor of Elvis, while brother Jacey flirts confidently with Eleanor. It is Jennifer Connelly's funny, sexy and sly performance as Eleanor which provides the real spark to the first act of ABBOTTS, her every scene punctuated by a wicked smile, a glimpse of underwear (her own) or a grab of the crotch (not her own). She is even a presence when she's not on screen, her photograph acting as Doug's true objet d'amour while he makes a clumsy pass at Pamela on her living room couch.
Then, thirty minutes into the film, Connelly is banished from the narrative, and the whole production goes into a stupor trying to figure out what its about. There are really two separate plot-lines in INVENTING THE ABBOTTS -- Jacey's attempts to live vicariously through the Abbotts and Doug's off-and-on romance with Pamela -- but once Connelly is out of the picture, the episodic story is sluggish and rarely involving. The single predominant reason for that lack of involvement is the narration, provided by an uncredited Michael Keaton to underline the action whenever and wherever possible. It becomes ever more obtrusive as the film moves along, first providing merely background information but eventually announcing the motivations of every character. It is the narrator who tells us how Jacey _really_ feels about Alice, not Billy Crudup's performance; it is the narrator who make sure we understand how wonderful Mrs. Holt is, not the interactions between the characters. And, as though aware that they are under no obligation to convey their emotions through anything as mundane as acting, the actors simply don't bother. Joaquin Phoenix and Liv Tyler -- who needs to learn a different emotional shade before she's too old to play "the virgin" -- make a perfectly nice couple, but neither delivers a personality. Both are pleasant to look at, and they might as well be modeling for still photographs.
Given the way Fox has marketed INVENTING THE ABBOTTS to focus on its "hot young stars," it's not unreasonable to think of them as models in a story. It's not that they can't act; they're simply not given much of a chance to do more than look as warm and inviting as the 1950s suburban middle-America director Pat O'Connor (CIRCLE OF FRIENDS) creates. The audience isn't given much of a chance either, which ultimately may explain more of my dissatisfaction with INVENTING THE ABBOTTS. As artfully made and sensitively plotted as it might be, INVENTING THE ABBOTTS ends up insulting the audience with its over-reliance on narration. TV's "The Wonder Years" became a parody of itself when Daniel Stern piped up every forty seconds or so to clarify significant details which required absolutely no clarification, and that's the way INVENTING THE ABBOTTS feels after 108 minutes. AMERICAN GRAFFITI didn't need Richard Dreyfuss in voice-over to explain his wonderful days of innocence; STAND BY ME got that honor. When narration makes a film feel more lazy than literary, as happens in INVENTING THE ABBOTTS, it's time to shut up and follow the old writer's rule: show, don't tell.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 omnipresent narrators: 5.
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