GRAY'S ANATOMY
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
Spalding Gray is arguably the premier monologist of our time. Although at his best in a live monologue, his screen adaptations shine as well. To most people, sitting through a movie where one guy talks for an hour and a half sounds like torture. (Even MY DINNER WITH ANDRE had two characters to provide variety and for them to bounce thoughts off of each other.) Spalding Gray talks a blue streak in his monologues, weaving tales so mesmerizing that he entrances his audiences.
Gray bases his stories on a single theme. Although he generally writes his routines himself, in his latest movie, GRAY'S ANATOMY, he credits his longtime friend Renee Shafransky with helping with the script.
Unlike his previous monologue pictures, GRAY'S ANATOMY opens with someone other than Spalding. In a series of interviews, filmed in a grainy black and white, ordinary people tell unordinary stories about their eyes. Each has suffered some horrific eye accident but has miraculously survived.
This eight minute introduction could easily have people heading for the exits. The stories' validity make them all the more hard to think about. One woman was tired and mistook Superglue for eye drops. Another got a one inch sliver of metal from a lathe trapped in his eye. And you can imagine the possibilities with oven cleaner and fish hooks. You get the idea.
Although this portion of the film diverges from the tradition of featuring Spalding and only Spalding, it effectively sets the stage for the film's topic -- Spalding's macular pucker. If you did not cover pucker in your biology class, don't worry, Spalding quickly turns you into an expert.
The fascinating story revolves around Spalding's attempt to save one of his eyes and to avoid a painful operation by checking into alternative medicines. (He grew up as a Christian Scientist so non-traditional health care comes naturally to him. He even briefly consults the leading Christian Science eye expert, who rebuffs him when Spalding finally admits that he has talked with a medical doctor about his condition. Spalding gets lectured that he must choose since Christian Scientists will not help those who are "duplicitous." Only true believers need apply.)
The best part of the film surrounds the long story of his seeking to be healed by visiting a Native American sweat lodge with a bunch of Swedish looking men and women.
Spalding always manages to find and talk about some of the world's most interesting human beings, and this film is no exception. He relates how he consulted an aging doctor who is the world's most accomplished dietary ophthalmologist, and maybe the only one. When Spalding mimics the doctor's 87 year old receptionist and mother, you can visualize her as perfectly as if he had a hologram of her.
Spalding has had small acting parts in thirty traditional films, but has made only two previous monologue movies. The first, and most successful, was SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA, and the second was MONSTER IN A BOX. Directors do make a difference. SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA was directed by Jonathan Demme (THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and PHILADELPHIA), and Demme understood and appreciated Spalding's unique talents so he resisted the urge to embellish the film.
GRAY'S ANATOMY's director Steven Soderbergh (SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE) has no such respect for Spalding. Soderbergh, lacking confidence in the audience's intelligence, feels that he must jazz up the production with cute camera work and bizarre lighting. Although Soderbergh's madness does have a purpose -- he wants you to feel what it is like to lose you eyesight -- it, nevertheless, only serves to be a tremendous distraction. I want to see Spalding, not a talking shadow or a man blurred with harsh backlight. The cinematography by Elliot Davis deserves one of those "worst of the year" awards.
I was fortunate to see Spalding do MONSTER IN A BOX in a lovely and intimate outdoor setting. This is the way to experience him. He does not need Soderbergh's wizardry. If you cannot see Spalding Gray live, then do see his monologue films. GRAY'S ANATOMY can be infuriating, but Spalding makes it worthwhile.
GRAY'S ANATOMY runs just 1:20. The film is not rated, but would probably be PG-13 for the brief profanity and sexual references. It should be fine for kids say 10 and up. I would not have missed it, so I recommend it to you and give it ** 1/2 for a terribly flawed but intriguing monologue.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: May 4, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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