Chapter Zero

Chapter Zero is a witty and intelligent comedy from new filmmaker Aaron Mendelsohn. The film takes the viewer through a journey from self-pity to self-discovery in a humorous introspective analysis. Adam Lazarus is forced to examine his relationship with his girlfriend and the direction of his life when a disappointing manuscript cripples his ambition. Adam proceeds to isolate himself from the world, dictating every event of his life, starting with his birth, to a video camera that passes no judgments. However, his usually supportive girlfriend becomes frustrated when Adam disconnects from the world. Don't miss this thought-provoking gem of an independent film that will keep you laughing.

Adam (Dylan Walsh) has aspired to be a writer on the level of his idol, Hemingway, since he was in grade school. To the joy of his beautiful live-in girlfriend, Jane (Laurel Holloman) he is almost finished with a novel. In the meanwhile, Jane is taking classes on the art of film documentary while Adam works in publishing for a femme fatale of a boss (Penelope Ann Miller). Frankly, Adam has some hangups, as he is forever comparing himself to his older brother, who is married, has two kids, a great house, and a wonderful job he loves. When his own boss rejects his novel in the worst way, Adam goes into a tailspin. He quits his job and stops helping around the house, Jane has to go work for Hooters and doesn't know how to help her guy. Could the story of his so-called lame life be a best seller? Or could writing it create tons more problems? This film, an indie, has some cute ideas and clever lines. One of the best ideas and performances is Adam's father, who is a cross-dressing successful painter. Another line I loved was Adam saying he was having a midlife crises and he hadn't even made it through a third of his life. Walsh, too, is fine as is the rest of the cast including Lee Majors as an old codger out to save a canal from pollution. Sets and costumes are good, too. But, the pace is so slow and the direction so haphazard that not too many viewers will be able to make it to the end. Therefore, watch only if you are a fan of the cast or have plenty of time to kill.

Opening action for this comedrama utilises a voice-over from Adam Lazaras (Dylan Walsh), a 30 year-old writer who states that "This is a story about a story", referring to his first novel, and it is, in reality, a narrative dealing with a work in progress, congruous in the event, for a film that seems correspondingly incomplete, since it provides a good deal more of background detail than it does a coherent plot. The opening credits are backdropped by a montage of home movies taken of Walsh during his early years, a device that has become a particularly stale cinematic cliché, and a portent to viewers that bromides may abound midst the scenario and this indeed becomes so, as the plotted behaviour of the various principal characters is often somewhat less than convincing. Lazaras is employed as a copy editor and ghostwriter at a prominent publishing house ("Larabee") that is managed by the daughter of the company's owner, Cassandra (Penelope Ann Miller) who rejects Adam's manuscript, thereby thrusting him into a state of depression, underlined when he destroys the fateful manuscript in addition to a laptop computer upon which he had created it, therewith frustrating any possible attempt to restore a text that is clearly a far from engaging tale of romantic love: "Cold Summer", curiously set in 1900 Saskatchewan. Torn between vainglory and abnegation, Adam borrows his patient live-in girlfriend Jane's video camera (she is studying to be a cinema documentarian), visually recording his primary personal revelations, rampant with guilt and regret over sundry shortcomings, then later writing this grim material (with pencil) in the form of another full-length manuscript that he again destroys to thwart his somehow being published. However, Jane (Laurel Holloman) loyally believes in his ability as a novelist and, having surreptitiously copied this second opus, submits it to a small publisher for consideration, without Adam's knowledge. This independent firm agrees to publish the piece, an action that brings a reaction from Cassandra, who now also wants it for the Larabee catalogue, positing that a writer's most marketable output results from anguish, and that Adam's relentlessly dreary and boring journal that records his blunders will undoubtedly be the "voice of his generation". The novel includes unsavoury details concerning his immediate family that Adam, much to the delight of publicity canny Cassandra, refuses to ignore, such as crossdressing proclivities of his father and adopted brother. It additionally reveals the low self-esteem of Adam as he ridicules his brother's bourgeois material success. Jane, meanwhile, plainly wishes to regain possession of her video camera, necessary to complete her film school project, a narrative depicting a local ecological activist (Lee Majors) as he wages a solitary battle against human generated canal pollution in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where the film's action is shot. This venue, home base for the picture's producer, home builder Tony DiTocco, is one of the few original aspects of an essentially lightweight film that provides few inventive touches, offering instead a surfeit of low-level attempts at humour, notably jejune essays at slapstick. Among these latter are such grotesquerie as an embarrassing Miller misfire essay at a parody of the 1962 Marilyn Monroe "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" performance, with some quaint casting for the crossdressing/transvestite roles that simply become examples of tawdriness in action. Despite this work's showcasing of an overdrawn, self-pitying novelist and the commented upon challenge to a viewer's taste threshold, there is a well scripted character, Jane, who is nonetheless defeated by the scenario's plague of contradictions. The film has been released upon an MTI DVD that provides fine video and audio quality. Unfortunately, also on display is a bit of bungling in its packaging. Although Lazaras is so identified upon his manuscript a well as in the closing credits, the name is spelled as "Lazarus" on a DVD case that also lists an extra feature of a director's commentary that does not exist. Among actual features are a useless (with no sense of entertainment) wandering videocam tour, conducted by the director of his crew at work, that catches no feeling of a film in the making, and a gallery of still photographs. The movie is available in full screen format only.

'Chapter Zero' starts out as a promising comedy, but quickly descends into a drama. The movie seems to plod through the middle stages as our main star tries to cope with what could be a mid-life crisis at the age of 29 (turning 30).

It seems that our writer/director uses all his comedic material at the start of the film and then wonders how he can further develop his characters without the witty and funny comments. Don't get me wrong I am a fan of quality drama and comedy, however after the strong beginning I suppose I was expecting a little more.

The acting was adequate throughout and it was great to see Laurel Holloman again. I am becoming quite a fan of hers. It was also good to see the writer/director not end the movie in the predictable way and actually throw up some surprises.

I recommend this movie to people who enjoy a comedy/drama and can put up with a slow middle section. It is worth sitting through and you will get quite a few laughs. Just don't expect a laugh riot. I know I will never look at turtle wax in the same way again.

7/10