ADDICTED TO LOVE
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 7.5 Alternative Scale: *** out of ****
United States, 1997 U.S. Release Date: 5/23/97 (wide) Running Length: 1:41 MPAA Classification: R (Sexual content) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Meg Ryan, Matthew Broderick, Kelly Preston, Tcheky Karyo, Maureen Stapleton, Nesbitt Blaisdell Director: Griffen Dunne Producers: Jeffrey Silver, Bobby Newmyer Screenplay: Robert Gordon Cinematography: Andrew Dunn Music: Rachel Portman U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers
Throughout much of her early motion picture career, the term that perhaps best described Meg Ryan's characters was "the girl next door." You remember WHEN HARRY MET SALLY and SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, her two biggest hits, in which she played a long-haired, sweet, slightly- insecure, easily likable young woman. Lately, however, Ryan has been trying to change her image. To be fair, she has always exhibited more range that she has been given credit for (witness her triple performance in JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO or her gender-bender in PRELUDE TO A KISS), but most directors have been happy to stick her into a formula and let her effervesce. Now, after a dramatic stint in COURAGE UNDER FIRE, Ryan is back in another romantic comedy; however, this is no featherweight boy-meets-girl tale, and her character, Maggie, is no Sally.
Maggie is a bad girl, although not quite as bad as she'd like everyone to believe. She wears her hair short and unkempt, travels around the streets of New York on a motorcycle, and prefers donning anything in black that exposes her navel. She talks tough and her eyes are hard little agates, except when she's alone and a softer side comes to the surface (Ryan does a good job showing this in mostly-subtle ways, such as the set of Maggie's shoulders). Why is she so abrasive? Because her currently mission in life is revenge -- revenge against the ex-fiancee, Anton (Tcheky Karyo), who cast her aside when he found his latest paramour, Linda (Kelly Preston).
Linda happens to have been the lifelong love of small-town astronomer Sam (Matthew Broderick). When ADDICTED TO LOVE opens, we're shown a slice of his idyllic life (complete with a number of irritating technical inaccuracies about the abilities of a telescope) -- how he has a job he loves and a woman he adores. But Linda is restless, and she decides to take a two-month trip to New York City. While there, she meets Anton, falls in love, and moves in with him. When Sam learns the truth via a "Dear John" letter, he gets on the next flight to the Big Apple.
In New York, he sets up home in abandoned building across the street from the apartment shared by Linda and Anton, and constructs a camera obscura to watch their every movement (his voyeurism recalls the likes of REAR WINDOW and STAKEOUT). Soon, Maggie joins him in his "bohemian hellhole," bringing along bugging equipment so they can have sound in addition to video. Together, the two hatch a plan to break apart the new lovers -- Sam, so he can win back Linda, and Maggie, so she can see Anton "in pain, hopeless, and finished off."
Despite some totally unnecessary, minor believability issues (for example, a telescope that can pick out faint stars during daylight hours and a truck that's allowed to ride alongside a plane down a runway), ADDICTED TO LOVE boasts a smart, sassy script that risks showing its protagonists doing some exceptionally nasty things. Some of Sam and Maggie's schemes are vicious, and there are times when we find ourselves feeling sorry for their unfortunate victims.
If there's a sense of Martin Scorsese's AFTER HOURS here, it's no coincidence. The director, Griffin Dunne (working from a script by Robert Gordon), was the star of that film, and he appears at home putting a seemingly-normal man in increasingly-bizarre circumstances. And, while it's obvious to even the most obtuse viewer that Sam and Maggie are going to end up together at the end, there are enough clever turns along the way to keep us interested. Their romance really forms the coda to a deliciously nasty, dark comedy.
Opposite Ryan, Broderick is effective as the average Joe who becomes wrapped up in Maggie's Machiavellian schemes, until he hatches a few gems of his own. And, while Sam and Maggie don't strike too many sparks as a couple, they're both likable, and, together, they develop a nice camaraderie. International star Tcheky Karyo (LA FEMME NIKITA) and Kelly Preston (last seen in JERRY MAGUIRE) are effective, if a little underused, as the film's second pairing. Maureen Stapleton has a supporting turn as Maggie's aunt.
ADDICTED TO LOVE isn't likely to ascend to the lofty box office pinnacle attained by Ryan's WHEN HARRY MET SALLY or SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, but it probably won't fall to the depths of I.Q. or FRENCH KISS. It's kind of fun seeing the actress suppress her usual mannerisms and do the grunge thing, but not nearly as enjoyable as it is immersing oneself in Dunne's bizarre-yet-oddly-engaging romantic comedy about voyeurism, moldy strawberries, and monkeys wearing lipstick. ADDICTED TO LOVE is for those who don't mind a world view that's a little askew, yet who can still accept that love conquers all.
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin
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