Big Time

This picture was recommended to me by Netflix. It was listed as a made-for-tv movie in full screen. Knowing nothing about the DVD, I rented it. I was pleasantly surprised. It was made for PBS when they had guts (a pair of nipples are shown and the "F-word" is spoken) and it is in anamorphic widescreen.

The basic theme has to do with fidelity. But this film is more about style than substance. It's framework is about art - performing, performance, visual, literary and cinematic. In fact the amount of referencing sometimes gets in the way of the film. This is especially true in the cinematic references. Is that Bergan...Welles...Peter Greenway. The number of films referenced (both visually and orally) is staggering. Sometimes, it is overkill. Animation, music video, grainy black & white, deep focus, split focus; it goes on and on. Sometimes, the director tries to be too clever.

You could get carried away in its themes if you take it to seriously. Metamorphous, change, fidelity, superficiality... But that is over kill. And some times this film gets close to over kill. Artistically there are moments when everything is thrown in including the proverbial kitchen sink.

Still, you will enjoy it. It is an extraordinary little film that does most things right. I highly recommend it.

For Mia Sara admirers, this movie is the best exhibition of her beauty and talents of anything she's done. Her lead role gives her plenty of screen time and acting range, and you'll actually feel as if you've gotten to know her a little. In the DVD featurette, director Egleson explains this interesting little made-for-TV pic about a love triangle set in Manhattan in the late 80's: 1.)It was made for PBS's "American Playhouse" series 2.) It was based on a play by Keith Reddin 3.)It draws heavily from Jean Luc Godard's "Contempt" (1963). Ms. Sara plays a beautiful young fashion model/actress who gradually gains her own sense of identity in the tumult of TWO more or less abusive relationships. Adrian Pasdar and Dennis Boutsikaris are fine as the two boyfriends, more insecure than they are bad. Among the many surprising things about this movie are a haunting orchestral music score by (apparently) Pat Metheny, and the appearance of the artist Jean Michel Basquiat as a homeless graffiti artist. Some may find the privileged characters superficial, but overall I highly recommend this earnest film - it deals with fidelity, impermanence, the making of film, the meaning of art, political commitment, and much else that you wouldn't expect to find from the Netflix blurb! And Ms. Sara's stirring beauty and fine acting leave you a bit wistful, wishing she had done more like this....