Merci Docteur Rey
Mill Valley Film Festival
This latest Merchant Ivory offering, by first-time writer-director Andrew Litvack, is an uneasy amalgam of farce and prestige, as if Almodovar's "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" had been produced by, well, Merchant Ivory. Movie-goers may be lured in by the comedic promise of seeing Dianne Wiest as an opera diva (her other diva turn, in "Bullets Over Broadway", deservedly netted her an Oscar), but Litvack's mishmash of a script and too stately pacing probably won't pay off at the boxoffice.
The story hinges on Thomas Beaumont (Stanislas Merhar), the 23-year-old, sexually confused son of renowned opera diva Elizabeth Beaumont (Wiest), who's in town to perform "Turandot". Cruising the Internet, Thomas gets recruited by a much older man to hide in a closet and watch something. It turns out to be the man's (Simon Callow) murder by his younger lover (Karim Saleh). The next day, Thomas is informed by his mother that the father he thought was dead actually left Elizabeth for another man and has been alive the whole time. That is, until last night, when he was murdered. Yup, Thomas has unwittingly witnessed his father's murder.
He runs off in fear to the nearest psychiatrist's office, that of the titular Dr. Rey, who has just expired from a heart attack during a session with neurotic actress Penelope (Jane Birkin, giving a mannered -- as opposed to stylized -- performance). Penelope mostly does dubbing and voice-over work because of severe stage fright. She appears to be rather bad at it, but everyone around her says she's brilliant. (This is just one example of Litvack's failure to provide appropriate context, so we don't know what to take as a joke and what to believe.) Thomas spends the rest of the movie with Penelope, hiding from the police and his mother and calling various rent-boys to find his father's killer.
Litvack is lazy with his jokes, characterizations, motives, and plotting. We never discover Callow's purpose in hiring Thomas. (Did he know he was going to get killed?) There's a batch of hash brownies that should figure in the plot the way the spiked gazpacho did in "Women on the Verge", but all it does is make Mom and the cops giggle. And the comic conspiracy that ends the movie will puzzle viewers: Exactly what is being covered up, and more importantly, why? Litvack also genre hops to no great purpose. His farce morphs to whodunit, then to thriller (with a puzzling homage to Brian De Palma's "Dressed to Kill") and, finally, to caper comedy.
Wiest does her best but can't overcome Litvack's enervated languor. There's no snap to her lines or her performance. Bulle Ogier hangs around as Wiest's confidante and director, but the supposedly comic kinks that Litvack provides her character detract from the performance. The film also has Jerry Hall and Vanessa Redgrave lolling around in some unfunny cameos. Cinematographer Laurent Machuel does light the lovely Parisian locations invitingly, and the film has a handsome glow. But Litvack's farce lacks the requisite fizz. Eventually there's only fizzle.
MERCI DOCTEUR REY
Merchant Ivory Prods.
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Andrew Litvack
Producers: Ismail Merchant, Paul Bradley
Director of photography: Laurent Machuel
Production designer: Jacques Bufnoir
Music: Geoffrey Alexander
Costume designer: Pierre-Yves Gayraud
Editor: Giles Gardner
Cast:
Thomas Beaumont: Stanislas Merhar
Elizabeth Beaumont: Dianne Wiest
Claude: Bulle Ogier
Penelope: Jane Birkin
Murderer: Karim Saleh
Bob: Simon Callow
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
This latest Merchant Ivory offering, by first-time writer-director Andrew Litvack, is an uneasy amalgam of farce and prestige, as if Almodovar's "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" had been produced by, well, Merchant Ivory. Movie-goers may be lured in by the comedic promise of seeing Dianne Wiest as an opera diva (her other diva turn, in "Bullets Over Broadway", deservedly netted her an Oscar), but Litvack's mishmash of a script and too stately pacing probably won't pay off at the boxoffice.
The story hinges on Thomas Beaumont (Stanislas Merhar), the 23-year-old, sexually confused son of renowned opera diva Elizabeth Beaumont (Wiest), who's in town to perform "Turandot". Cruising the Internet, Thomas gets recruited by a much older man to hide in a closet and watch something. It turns out to be the man's (Simon Callow) murder by his younger lover (Karim Saleh). The next day, Thomas is informed by his mother that the father he thought was dead actually left Elizabeth for another man and has been alive the whole time. That is, until last night, when he was murdered. Yup, Thomas has unwittingly witnessed his father's murder.
He runs off in fear to the nearest psychiatrist's office, that of the titular Dr. Rey, who has just expired from a heart attack during a session with neurotic actress Penelope (Jane Birkin, giving a mannered -- as opposed to stylized -- performance). Penelope mostly does dubbing and voice-over work because of severe stage fright. She appears to be rather bad at it, but everyone around her says she's brilliant. (This is just one example of Litvack's failure to provide appropriate context, so we don't know what to take as a joke and what to believe.) Thomas spends the rest of the movie with Penelope, hiding from the police and his mother and calling various rent-boys to find his father's killer.
Litvack is lazy with his jokes, characterizations, motives, and plotting. We never discover Callow's purpose in hiring Thomas. (Did he know he was going to get killed?) There's a batch of hash brownies that should figure in the plot the way the spiked gazpacho did in "Women on the Verge", but all it does is make Mom and the cops giggle. And the comic conspiracy that ends the movie will puzzle viewers: Exactly what is being covered up, and more importantly, why? Litvack also genre hops to no great purpose. His farce morphs to whodunit, then to thriller (with a puzzling homage to Brian De Palma's "Dressed to Kill") and, finally, to caper comedy.
Wiest does her best but can't overcome Litvack's enervated languor. There's no snap to her lines or her performance. Bulle Ogier hangs around as Wiest's confidante and director, but the supposedly comic kinks that Litvack provides her character detract from the performance. The film also has Jerry Hall and Vanessa Redgrave lolling around in some unfunny cameos. Cinematographer Laurent Machuel does light the lovely Parisian locations invitingly, and the film has a handsome glow. But Litvack's farce lacks the requisite fizz. Eventually there's only fizzle.
MERCI DOCTEUR REY
Merchant Ivory Prods.
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Andrew Litvack
Producers: Ismail Merchant, Paul Bradley
Director of photography: Laurent Machuel
Production designer: Jacques Bufnoir
Music: Geoffrey Alexander
Costume designer: Pierre-Yves Gayraud
Editor: Giles Gardner
Cast:
Thomas Beaumont: Stanislas Merhar
Elizabeth Beaumont: Dianne Wiest
Claude: Bulle Ogier
Penelope: Jane Birkin
Murderer: Karim Saleh
Bob: Simon Callow
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/18/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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