First Love, Last Rites

FIRST LOVE, LAST RITES is a movie that I know people will be bored with. It is slow for some tastes. Life is slow. This movie is so true to life and it's pacing seems all too real. It's amazing it's a story not of plot but of documenting time. The story inspired a screenplay that I just finished Belmar. It has such a slow core to it and is so atmospheric. Bottom line THIS IS AN ART FILM. ("A movie simple enough for a child to understand with images strong enought for an adult"-Roger Ebert. Different people will react differently to this movie. It's for the art crowd and for film students. It's not for the average multiplex movie goer unless they get darring and wana try something new. I hope Jesse Perez makes another movie, the actors were great, well I am a huge fan of Natsha Gerson Wagner. It's a very steamy masterpeace that moves with the charactors and the atmosphere. I have no idea why this film didn't make it big. It sure is a discovery on video!

This is an excellent film, marked by nicely nuanced acting brought forth by a splendid first-time director. The screenplay, editing and cinematography are all first-rate. Wagner and Burke, in particular, master their roles. Ian McEwan's symbolism in the original story is nicely transferred to the screen. A strong feeling of tension keeps one fascinated until the ending.

This is a strange movie. The young stars spend a lot of time at home being bored, then they have sex, get bored again, listen to a phonograph, have sex, get bored again, talk, talk and talk. Natasha Gregson Wagner looks and sounds so much like her mother sometimes it is eerie. Slow moving, I think it was meant to be that way, perhaps to get the feeling of swampy Louisiana. Wagner's character is very unappealing, and it really hurts the film, but I liked her performance. Offbeat, and it sure doesn't make you feel warm all over. There didn't seem to be much point to the film. No one in the cast but Wagner stands out and the direction is simply bland.

I watched this one a couple of months ago on video while I spent some time in the USA. I especially liked the performances by Giovanni Ribisi (who is also great in "The Gift") and Natasha Wagner (one of my all-times favorites). Another positive effort is the nice soundtrack and the slick editing.

The main problem of "First Love, Last Rites" is that first-time director Jesse Peretz sometimes slows down the pace a bit too much so that you may need some patience to sit this one through. Nevertheless it´s still worth watching especially if you like Ribisi and Wagner.

By the way: ever since I watched this movie I tried to find out whether or not it has been released on DVD (no matter which country or regional encoding as long as there´s an English-language track on it). So, if anyone who reads this knows where, when or how to get "First Love, Last Rites" on DVD inform me about it, I´d be very pleased!!!

First Love, Last Rites may say it's directed by Jesse Peretz. And Peretz's pedigree as a former member of the Lemonheads (since when is that something Cool?) and as a commercial and video director may get this film its only real notice. And Ian McEwan may get credit for having written the story the film was based on. And Natasha Gregson Wagner and Giovani Ribisi may be the recognizable faces that would make somebody stop when the movie comes on TV. But only Tom Richmond, the director of photography, really deserves to put this film on his highlight reel. First Love, Last Rites is a slow, contemplative film that doesn't develop into anything. It's possible this might work better for some people than others.

Sissel (Gregson Wagner) and Joey (Ribisi) are two kids spending the summer in a one bedroom shack up from the Bayou. They're basically drifting -- Joey from his Brooklyn roots and Sissel from her feuding parents. Basically they listen to records, have sex, and throw garbage around their place. Naturally it smells. Naturally there's a rat in the walls. And naturally they both need outlets. When Joey begins to go into the eeling business with Sissel's father Henry (Robert John Burke), Sissel goes to work at a sugar factory. And things get stressed.

The story, by Ian McEwan is 14 pages long. And it's set in England. Why Peretz thought that moving the story to Louisiana and expanding it to 100 minutes is a bit of a mystery. Thanks to the beautiful colors and images Richmond produces, First Love, Last Rites at least feels like it's set somewhere. The fact that the actors all seem a little adrift is something else.

It isn't just that the writing doesn't give any character depth to anybody. Ribisi gets to deliver a pointlessly Freudian monologue about the first time he was his parents having sex. Gregson Wagner gets to pout a lot. Burke, as the Vietnam vet father, has the most colorful part and his intensity seems both out of place and strangely pleasant. Even if he feels like he's acting in a different movie, his appearances strengthen the film. None of the actors effectly reproduce any kind of accents.

The film that immediately comes to mind after seeing this one is Victor Nuñez's Ruby in Paradise. That, of course, is a better film. Nuñez produces the thing that Peretz most fails at -- authenticity. Ruby features authentic emotions, authentic performances, authentic images, and a plot that grows organically from the surroundings. Gregson Wagner, Ribisi, and Burke are all very sincere in their performances, but no amount of trying can make any of it seem real.

A side note: Another review of the film made note of the preponderance of drowning imagery involving Natasha Gregson Wagner. Now, seeing as how much of her appeal as an actress (an actress, let me emphasize, who's beginning to get much too old to keep playing teenagers and innocents) comes from her similarities to her mother, Natalie Wood, isn't the director who keeps showing her drowning a little bit sick? I think so... Neither here nor there, I guess.

First Love, Last Rites is a film of greens and blues, of sunsets and squirming eels. It's a film of beautiful pictures and minimal story. The photography is very fine, but it's not enough to give this film more than a 5/10.