The Civilization of Maxwell Bright

The Civilization of Maxwell Bright is an unexpected gem. The film is not only very funny but also surprisingly insightful and endearing. David Beaird has crafted one of the most winning American indie films of recent times with the help of a uniformly great cast.

Maxwell Bright is one of the most despicable anti-heroes to come along in some time. Max is a close-minded misogynist, living a painfully unhappy life in Los Angeles. After breaking up with his girlfriend, Max deems modern women too demanding and decides to buy an Asian mail order bride, hoping to purchase a sex slave and house cleaner in the one subservient package. Needless to say, Max gets more than he bargains for with Mai Ling.

At the core of the film is Max's transformation from a clueless Neanderthal to a reasonably well-rounded human being. This could have been incredibly trite in the wrong hands, but Beaird's acidic writing manages to keep any kind of sentimentality at bay. Beaird's writing can not be praised highly enough. He has crafted a truly hilarious screenplay with hidden depth. My only objection is Mai Ling's Buddhist nun back-story which seems very far fetched and out of place in a film so anchored in reality. The same could probably be said about the scene where Max takes Mai Ling to see a preacher.

Funny dialogue would be useless without the right actors and Beaird has collected a wonderful cast for the film. Patrick Warburton is a revelation as Max. Warburton gives a brave and honest performance, never shying away from the fact that Max is generally a bad person and knows it. This self-knowledge has the counter intuitive effect of making Max strangely endearing. Marie Matiko is good as Mai Ling but is somewhat hampered by the "wise Asian" syndrome, with some of her dialogue veering dangerously close to Grasshopper territory. Luckily Matiko is a good enough actress to imbue her performance with enough grit to be believable.

Eric Roberts almost steals the show as an uncharacteristically sympathetic character. Roberts, so renowned for playing sleazy thugs, is hugely affecting as Max's best friend, Arlis. The scene in which Max ends their friendship was the highlight of the film for me. I love Jennifer Tilly, so it was nice to see her in a small cameo as Max's doctor. The same can be said for the inimitable Missi Pyle, who has a memorable turn as a foul mouthed police woman.

The civilization of Maxwell Bright is a bitterly funny tale of one man's redemption. While I didn't quite buy into Max's "civilization" and found his fate somewhat theatrical, I still enjoyed the film immensely as a fascinating character study of an unpleasant, but very real, human being.

The movie starts out with a long shot of a nun meditating at a temple and a voice-over: "A good Buddhist would be willing to jump into hell to save just one other person." Then it cuts to a picture of a Southern California town with a big caption: "HELL".

I thought this movie was going to be an amusing comedy about a boor who gets his expectations of a submissive, doll-like mail-order bride turned upside down. He does, but rather than being comedic this movie is dramatic and touching. Maxwell Bright starts out as a guy who is self-destructing and losing everything in life - his business, his friends, his house, his self-image. He thinks he can buy a "geisha girl" who will prop up his ego, but what he gets is a quietly strong woman who both makes him realize what humiliating depths he's sunk to, and pulls him out of them.

It seems like a low-budget production because the camera work is a bit choppy and the pacing is terrible - slow bits should be fast and fast bits should be slow - but the writing and acting are great.

Excellent film about misogynist Maxwell Bright (Patrick Warburton) who, fed up with his dating history with American women, decides to get a mail order bride from China. Things go well for him at first as she appears as subservient as advertised, but when he embarrasses her (and himself) in front of his friends at a poker night, he finds that she is much more than just a prim and proper housewife. In fact, the gifts she has may even lead this unlikeable jerk to redemption.

Warburton gets to bust out of his usual monotonous character trappings and shows some serious depth and rage. The changes seen in Maxwell Bright are neither smooth nor immediate. He has a tendency to lash out verbally at any female in the vicinity, and his tirades are alternatively LOL funny and cringe-worthy for their cruelty. Marie Matiko plays the beautiful Mai Ling, Max's bride, with equal amounts dignity and strength. When Max finally makes his turn for the "better", the lessons learned are never preachy, and the story doesn't turn sentimental. Religion is dealt with in a mature manner that is a departure from most movies I've seen that have tread in that area. David Beaird's screenplay treats its characters and the audience with respect.

I went into this film thinking it was just going to be a cute little romantic comedy or fish-out-of-water story, but the plot twists taken are brave and eventually much more satisfying. This is not light-hearted fare. It's worthy of a wider release.

Maxwell Bright hates women, but he hates himself even more. He destroys his business, his credit rating, his home and his friendships. Even his body falls apart, seemingly under the great cosmic weight of his hatred. And yet: this movie isn't about loathing; it's about forgiving. Yes, Maxwell is repulsive. But he holds a paradigmatic, redemptive trump card: somebody loves him. If Mai Ling can forgive him, honor him, love him -- then so can we. And ultimately, so can Maxwell himself -- which is precisely what sets him free.

I enjoyed the naked shakiness of this movie. Performances by Patrick Warburton, Marie Matiko and Eric Roberts were especially textured and compelling. See this movie. It will test your powers of forgiveness, and you'll be better for it.

I wanted my husband to come to the Scottsdale Film festival to see this movie with me, thinking it was going to be a chick flick; hoping he'd see a few images of chauvinistic men seeing the light and then turning themselves around, (I love those gentle reminders). Instead my mother and I went and we rode an emotional roller-coaster during this "enlightening" movie. We Laughed, we cried, we loathed.... the movie was so unpredictable!! (It was a breath of fresh Hollywood air.)

Mai Ling was an inspiration. Her performance was beautiful, as was she. It ended up being me who was reminded of compassion and kindness. Patrick Warburton was fantastic... I hated his character so much initially I wanted him to die, and by the end of the movie my heart did a 180!! Well done David Beaird!!! This was definitely one movie worth the price of admission.