CHASING AMY
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1997 Mark R. Leeper
(WARNING: This film is structured so that it is nearly impossible to discuss the themes of the film without revealing aspects of the plot that are left as plot twists. I will spoil nothing that is not spoiled by the trailer for the film.)
Capsule: A pair of 20-something buddies who
co-author a comic book are split over one's
interest in a gay woman. Kevin Smith takes what
could have been rather trivial and self-important
material handles it with a light touch, making a
film that is both engagingly serious and genuinely
funny. Fans of Kevin Smith will not be surprised
that the film is also at times fairly raunchy. The
frank and often sexual dialog is realistic, but
will be a turnoff to some. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4)
New York Critics: 9 positive, 3 negative, 3 mixed
CHASING AMY is the third film form writer/director Kevin Smith and is set in his native central New Jersey. While his first two were nearly purely comedies, this time around he mixes in some serious themes with his raunchy brand of comedy. It is about how fallible is the procedure of finding the right relationship and how delicate that relationship can be once it is found. Holden McNeil (played by Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) are two Red Bank, New Jersey comic artists who create the popular comic book BLUNTMAN AND CHRONIC. At a comic convention in New York a friend introduces them to Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams). Alyssa is cute, bright, and funny and Holden immediately feels they have a mutual attraction and are perfect for each other. It even turns out she comes from Middletown, a neighboring town to his. He tells the incredulous Banky that he and Alyssa "shared a moment." Anxious to share more than just a moment he goes to a club where his friend tells him he can find Alyssa only to discover in an embarrassing moment that Alyssa is a lesbian. In spite of knowing that his relationship cannot become mutually romantic, he continues his friendship with Alyssa, hoping to somehow convince her somehow to be interested in him. He hopes to win her in spite of her orientation. The story becomes an odd sort of a love triangle with Banky afraid of losing the friendship, now also a professional relationship, he has had since childhood with Holden. Banky finds Holden's love is even starting to affect their professional relationship. The other vertex of the triangle is the free-thinking Alyssa with her own history. In the end, Kevin's story has returned to a theme he covered, albeit more lightly, in CLERKS.
All three of the main characters are veterans of other roles in MALLRATS and of course writer/director Kevin Smith has played the wise Silent Bob in all three of his films. Ben Affleck as Holden is a bit confused by it all and at the same time nicely witty. There may be a bit of Albert Brooks in his role and of Jason Lee's Banky. But the actor who shines the most is Joey Lauren Adams who does a terrific job going through a wide gamut of emotions and always comes up genuine. Smith has a good ear for dialogue and the words seem to come out very naturally from the actors' mouths. The one problem that perhaps could have been better handled in a higher budget production is that they do not enunciate so that their dialogue is distinct.
Kevin Smith has a sense of humor to match better-known comic filmmakers like Woody Allen and Albert Brooks. He fills his script with some hilarious send-ups of popular films. Early on the film he give us a militant African-American appraisal of STAR WARS that is as funny as anything I have seen in a film in the last twelve months. Later he has a terrific send-up of a familiar scene from JAWS. And at the same time Smith treads the boundary near political incorrectness by implying that sexual orientation is really a matter of choice. Alyssa's has logical reasons for being lesbian rather than having her orientation come from an internal compulsion. It seems like a small thing, but it is a fairly radical departure from what we have seen before in films.
CHASING AMY is well-acted and directed and proves to be a very moving and personal film. After the critical misfire of MALLRATS, it looks like Kevin Smith is back on target. I give it a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.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