Monogamy

A small Tribeca Film Fest entry, Monogamy has a nice and respectable performance at its heart (Rashida Jones -- The Social Network, I Love You Man, "Parks and Recreation"); but the story boggles itself down with a delirious subtext of obsession that I found distracting and overly time-consuming.

The story is about a young NYC couple a few months away from their upcoming marriage -- Jones and Chris Messina (Julie & Julia, Devil, Away We Go) -- who come upon a rough spot in their relationship. A wedding photographer by day who has grown bored with the monotony and routine of it all, Theo (Messina) starts up a side job which has clients contact him to take voyeuristic photographs of them (in secret).

Theo quickly becomes obsessed with his latest client known as "Subgirl" and, well, his obsession takes over not only his life and relationship but the film as well. It became too consuming for this viewer because (at the film's beginning) Monogamy appeared to be about the couple (equally!). Unfortunately and frustratingly (for us), about thirty minutes into the film there are longs spells with NO Jones (she disappears!) ... and this hurts the film (just as it would a relationship).

The story is a decent one -- one about fidelity and devotion -- but it takes some spills with Theo's perplexed mind. While the story is realistic and the relationship at its core doesn't appear to be "acted" (well done by both Messina and Jones); I think the film took too many strolls from the narrative thread that mattered and in doing-so relegated Jones to a minor character (again ... a drastic error!).

That the film isn't consistent would be my biggest complaint of Monogamy. I liked what I saw until what I saw didn't matter (such as Jones taking the backseat in her own movie) ... and that is about a third of the film while Theo is busy being a voyeur.

That -- itself -- is kind of strange/ironic as voyeurism is "watching" and those scenes were the least-watchable ones in Monogamy. This film isn't ALWAYS pleasant and happy and that is as it should be. It is a realistic depiction of a crumbling and strained relationship that is faced with questions that those involved might not want to answer and/or face. I do know that if Rashida Jones hadn't basically been written-out of half of the film, Monogamy would have been better than it is.

2/14/18. i watched this because I like Rashida Jones. But, even with all her star power she could not save this from cinematic mediocrity. So, Messina plays a bored photographer. Sadly, he's not the only one who's bored. And, playing a voyeuristic photog makes him even more of a snake than he was to begin watch. In the end it really makes you wonder what she ever saw in him.

I enjoyed the beginning and very end of this film, but in the middle where the engaged photographer gets lost while his fiancée is in the hospital I really felt like quitting. If you can endure him getting a ukulele in the gift shop, you've got way more grit than I. And his inability to come up with even one good line to explain why his beautiful girl should stay with him? Aw, come on! How can he be that stupid?! I just couldn't believe anyone could be so entirely clueless as our hero in the aimless witless wandering inner 30 minutes of this film. Maybe if you've got a fast-forward that could allow you to watch the loser less closely—as you'd speed-read or skim through some scenes you can't enjoy in an otherwise good book—then you could rate this much higher than I can for the way it sags in its excruciatingly dimwitted longueurs. I know theoretically I shouldn't hold it against the film itself that its hero is such a sap; but he's such an incredibly stupid jerk for such a while, I just can't forgive the movie for making me share his bad company!

Monogamy (2010) was co-written and directed by Dana Adam Shapiro. The basic concept of the film is interesting. A photographer--Theo, played by Chris Messina--moonlights as "Gumshoot." Gumshoot is hired by people to take candid shots of themselves. It's an interesting thought--what do we look like when we're being photographed, but we aren't posing.

The problem begins when Theo starts to photograph a striking blonde woman with whose life he becomes obsessed. This obsession begins to control him and eventually begins to cause a split between Theo and his fiancé Nat (Rashida Jones). I can't identify with a guy who doesn't have all that much going for him, and yet puts a wonderful relationship in jeopardy in order to follow his obsession. Of course, that's the point of the movie--if the obsession made sense, it wouldn't really be an obsession. If you can see things from Theo's point of view, you'll enjoy the movie. If not, probably not.

We saw this film, at the Rochester 360-365 Film Festival. (Dumb name, but good festival.) It will work better on a large screen than a small screen, because part of the enjoyment comes from seeing the Brooklyn and Manhattan locations. In my opinion, not a film worth seeking out, but probably worth a look, especially if you're from NYC.

A photographer in Brooklyn named Theo, who normally snaps traditional wedding photos, recently started a service called "gumshoot." Participants are shot while they go about a scheduled activity of their choice while he hides in the shadows to capture something more genuine and then later gives the resulting photos in person. After about a dozen or so clients, he thinks he's got a pretty good impression of what to expect, such as an older gentleman carrying about a carefree day in the city with no scandal or malice involved. Though after getting contacted by the mysterious "Subgirl," for what's supposed to be a regular day on the tennis courts, he gets sucked into something more voyeuristic and naughty when she touches herself and only he can see it. She eludes meeting face to face and lets him choose the photos to send to an anonymous PO box, which not only builds up intrigue but places the rest of his life into a tailspin.

This essentially films the last stages of Theo (Chris Messina) just before he plans on getting married in drawn out and slow sequences. For those not familiar with such deliberately paced films, the key word is "natural": loose hand-held shots to make it more edgy, fractured dialogue that comes with enough stammering to compete with "The King's Speech," and casual humor that's so dry you could spark a brushfire. There are a few hints dropped to what it was like in the past with his fiancé Nat (Rashida Jones), though this tried to show a breakdown in only a short duration by having him question himself and lose all perspective just from his fiancé not giving him any, to the perverse new client Subgirl, as well as his two buddies--one bossed around in marriage and the other separated but happy in single life. They frequently attempt to have the camera do the talking and the main actor capture subtle emotion on his face for what he's contemplating and going through. However a proper outline of the past wasn't entirely established and the scenarios at present--despite being extensively shot--don't seem detrimental enough to sabotage what he has going for himself on a whim. It's hard to relate or reason with almost anything he's doing except to say he feels trapped and is using this as a long and fanciful way out.

"Monogamy" tried to be purely emotion as a share of Theo's motivations are based on raw feelings rather than life experiences or even logic. Eventually it makes you want slap the character up side the head because he's so catered to one side and tell him to just make a decision instead of acting like an immature 30-something adult who still uses passive aggressive behavior like a teenager. Theo starts to sulk, become erratic and sheltered from those around him. This isn't afraid to show him in a negative light, as he turns into a corner dweller, binge drinker, pot smoker, mask wearer, snooper, restroom masturbator, semi-cross dresser and in his self-destruction pushes his nice and pretty fiancé away because monogamy is terrifying and how he's behaving apparently isn't to himself but some kind of screwball way of coping till a magic solution pops up. It's ridiculous that someone who lives in a bustling city and with access to thousands upon thousands of websites that show pornographic videos and images nowadays would be so naive and sheltered that this Subgirl woman would be cause enough to throw off his entire outlook from taking snap shots of her on only the second occasion. I mean this isn't some small town yokel or even young enough to be believably impressionable like Kyle MacLachlan's character in the film "Blue Velvet." He turns into an amateur detective to find out more about Subgirl, though the movie moves at such a lethargic pacing that the final secret about how to make it work in a monogamist relationship--while dissimilar to the usual material a la "Unfaithful"--is pretty evident by the halfway mark.

There's some potential here. The gumshoot concept that involves sneaking around to naturally capture someone was an intriguing idea. Just imagine how many people's vacation photos you might accidentally be in that are probably more natural than all those posed ones. It shows that not all relationships have to go the conventional route to work. It's nice to see a movie that at least makes an attempt at growth with characters, though I'd like to think "Monogamy" could have improved with some more back-story, possibly a younger cast or a smaller setting to make it more convincing towards their behavior, or some tighter edits in other areas where nothing substantial was going on besides the camera just rolling to get lucky and stumble upon something. (Also submitted on http://fromblacktoredfilmreviews.blogspot.com/)