Directors Index: Soderbergh, Steven

Here is an omnibus film from three of our greatest living filmmakers that fails to live up to its full potential. The idea is to explore eroticism in many forms, and what we have here then is one story that is sexy but enigmatic, another story that is humorous and not really erotic at all, and finally, a blatant depiction of the misguided belief that nudity and sex in graphic detail equals a good time. Wong Kar-Wai, from Hong Kong, is known for his hyperkinetic, luridly stylistic portraits of romantic souls, occasionally involved in the criminal underworld ("Chungking Express"), sometimes not ("In the Mood for Love" and its follow-up "2046"). With "The Hand," Wong has created a short story that is as hot as it is perplexing. Miss Hua (Gong Li) is a prostitute who hires Zhang (Chang Chen), a tailor, to design her dresses. She's at the top of her gang, but is fading little by little. When he first meets her, he hears loud, vigorous sex through the wall of her room. He's intrigued, but shy. She engages him in a vigorous encounter he won't soon forget. Steven Soderbergh's "Equilibrium" stars Robert Downey Jr. as Nick Penrose, a neurotic ad man who has come to therapist Dr. Pearl (Alan Arkin) to report of an adulterous fantasy dream he's been having about a mysterious woman in a hotel room. The running gag is that Pearl is distracted the entire time by an unseen figure (we assume, a woman), who he clearly is attracted to and who is enflaming his own imagination. He lets Nick drone on and on about his fantastical dream, all the while trying to prolong the description from his patient so he can get a better look at the girl out the window. Finally, the legendary Michaelangelo Antonioni ("L'Avventurra," "Blow-Up") who, I hear, instigated this project, brings us "The Dangerous Thread of Things" - a title both enigmatic and fortuitous. This is a long, boring slog through a couple's relationship troubles resulting in the female partner encouraging a sexual fling with a girl the guy finds intriguing on a beach. The couple, played by Christopher Buchholz and Regina Nemni, is about as bland as a piece of blank paper against a white wall. The woman (Luisa Ranieri) is a piece of work. The film, based on a novel by Antonioni, is perplexing for one reason - how could this material inspire a short film, let along a novel? So, to sum up: Wong Kar-Wai has created a haunting and effectively erotic film that is also mysterious and beautifully shot by longtime cinematographer Christopher Doyle. Soderbergh, who wrote, directed and (pseudonymously) photographed his tale, pulls the rug out from under his own story at least one two many times. And Antonioni, a once great filmmaker, is reduced to vague recollections of what once was. See the first two stories and then subtly allow yourself to doze off...or turn it off, or walk out or something.