Gender Reversal

"the brave one" is jodie foster's latest blockbuster breakthru by some art-house director neil jordan with the helpful upstaging thru charismatic terrence howard. so would "the brave one" be a smash hit? obviously, it sells well but would its crucial viewpoint be taken without being midled and over-generalized as another "chic with vengence" rehash, especially from male audience? another sort of chic/woman's flicks about strong woman risen up against all the odds just like 40s "mildred pierce"?

it's a story about a woman and her husband-to-be being almost beaten to death in the central park. she survives but her loved one passes. so angered by the injustice and grievance as well as approaching fright, she purchases a gun for the sense of safety. then some other perilous events drive her into using her lethal pistol into immediate killings which she's obtained great kicks from until she actively sets her path into disposing of the genuine evil men that including her fiancee' murders. therefore, she's become an involuntary vigilante partially forced by circumstance.

"the brave one" is actually a film noir to its essence but inevitably it over-lingers over the sentimentalities of a woman's traumatic pysche after the catastrophe such as the self-inflicted confession over the radio-broadcastings, and those attributes are easily categorized as "feminist refugee" like 90s "thelma and louis".

there're four basic elements of film noirs that this flick's contour could ascribe: 1. the dark side of humanity over sex or violence. 2. anarchistic distrust over the law. 3. a vigilante to perform the justice on his own, usually private dick like philip marlowe. 4. the seedy backset of a metropolitan's shadowy retreat like raymond chandler and james m cain's frequent spots of los angels, grendale, pasadena in southern california or danshiel hammet's san fransisco. and "the brave one" is about human's potential appetite of violence being provoked by grand tragedy, and the woman protagonist's distrust over the law is so severe that she has to buy a gun to feel safe, then bang bang bang! she would do justice on her own, a vigilante! and it's about the dark corners of new york as well as her obsession over this super-metropolitan that's well-channeled by her radio-broadcastings...unfortunately these traits have been neglected by the viewers, does it occur to you that audience cannot deem it as film noir just becuz the vigilante protagonist ain't male despite jodie foster has every believable characteristic of a tough guy inside her? or it's too sentimental to be taken as noirish? or it's becuz the director hasn't toyed enough of cinematography of starkness but chose naturalistic rendering instead?

still, it's very engrossing to put a woman into a spot in this kind of story as gender-reversal. jodie foster has a genuine grit in her and her "tough guy" ain't like uma thurman's cartoonish "kill bill"(a semi-dominatrix vixen in boyish pulp), she conveys real fragility as well as genuine toughness to win the odds. probably she's the only woman actress who could pull off the task of action heroine without taunting her sex appeal. perhaps, a woman in the main spot would bring out some feminine aspects to mellow out such material which is supposed to be harsher, rougher and more expressionistic to be considered noirish. pitifully "the brave one" would still be labelled as "chic flick", "woman's movie" or "feministic refugee".

it's a great parody on maternal love with its contrary perversion. directed by versatile michael curtiz who creates the legend of errol flynn swashbucklers as well as humprey bogart's war romance "casablanca"...this time curtiz bridles the fierce joan crawford to gallope full throttle, and crawford's absolute woman power gets enhanced further by her wide-shouldered mink coat, but backfired by her trampy grasping daughter. as one line eve arden suggests "alligators have the right idea. they eat their young" which would be the most advocative notion after viewing this flick.

crawford plays title character mildred pierce who possess the ironly mettle to perform her maternal duty. after her husband's sudden collapse of career which unfortunately leads to divorce, she stiffens her heart to go thru all sorts of hardship to be a successful businesswoman who could offer her children the best qualities of life. ironically this grandeur female menace is pupeteered by an adolescent brat whose every snobbish comment could induces ripples, sometimes even waves of tides, inside mildred that enslaves her into a unrepetent sucker-alike provider, just like nature's merciless circuit of food chain. worse of all, later her giglo-alike lover joins the league of her daughter on the scheme to drain the last penny of this seemingly powerful woman.

ann blyth plays the highly manipulative daughter who combines sinisterness and childishness into the right dose of objectionability. only eve arden who plays mildred's confidate could almost upstage blyth's bitch-perfect pungency. when blyth remarks "i like you, ida...you're so delightful...for a bitch", she conducts herself with ease.."i like you, too." that means a toast back to fellow-bitch.

the best pleasure of this flick is to witness a bunch of shrews urgently vying for their paranoiaic sense of esteem effortlessly. also crawford's boisterous private family affair of "mommie dearest" might also contrast or complement "mildred pierce" as another page of best exemplified cynicism in old hollywood history.

"possessed" is one of the few flicks in the 40s which allows miss crawford to behave demurely like a lady, and effectively "possessed" has a sympathetic touch of ingrid bergman's "gaslight" with charles boyer as the insidious husband who schemes to trap his wife into insanity for the diamond thivery. here crawford takes the reverse aim to her patterned vixen image and also nullifies her constant dose of glamour that catalyzes her brittleness to fracture into shattered pieces as genuine frailty.

the plot whirls around an inwardly knotted woman named louise whose avidity for the love of a man called david sinks herself into the abysmal disillusion when david gets weary of her clingy affection, then her problematic mental disorder is ripping her off relentlessly with guilt-ridden hallucinations. the script is written on the basis of freudian psychoanalysis of the relieving function of confessions, and the story builds along her narrative descriptions. this applied technique is nothing innovative but stereotyped psychological drama thru the protagonist's gradual sequence of self-revelations.

the psychology of louise would be her fear in the void of love, and she alerts herself with her perennial detachment required in her occupation as a nurse, then once the wall of passion collapses, neediness starts to haunt her in despair. except crawford's accomplished performance of the mentally illed, the rest of the movie is actually stiflingly cliched, even it's arranged with firmly condensed structure but inevitably melodramatic.

the heartthrob who captivates poor louise's heart is played by van heflin whose david is a repellently cynical womanizer who operates upon his careless whim, who has no pity upon louise. he's aware that she suffers from the want of his love and intimacy in the level of sharpeningly errosive agony, but he still refuses to grant just a bit more of tenderness or compassion, worse of all, he chooses to reoccur frequently in her life without a bit merciful avoidance, eventually he even courts her daughter-in-law shamelessly that stimulates her extremity to crack up in slices. the charisma of helfin's david is bewilderingly beyond comprehension, same as louise's possessive infatuation upon him, heflin doesn't look convincingly gorgeous enough like a martini idol, and there's no likability in the character of david who is neglectfully indifferent and playfully ruthless. one particular line he utters "i've done nothing wrong to you except falling out of love with you, and that's man's previledge" is obnoxiously chauvinistic, maybe repulsively sexistic as well.

it resembles olivia de havilland's "snake's pit" with the presence of paternal figure with infinite patience and supportive love: in "snake's pit", miss dehavilland has her nodding husband and her kind-faced doctor; miss crawford only has her willingly awaiting husband who still remains a thread of hope upon her..as dehavilland, crawford also de-glamourizes herself to manifest the deeper scale of her acting talent....is paternal gentility a necessity to heal off female mental perversenes? maybe so, in freud's over-anatomized interpretation of parental fixation.

"a life less ordinary" is danny boyle's primary attempt to hit into american market after his smashing success of countercultural revolt in 1995's junkie cult "transpotting"...it was shot when ewan mcgregor still belonged to the trio of boyle/hodge/mcgregor screen team since "shallow grave", the art-house british channel 4 independent production before boyle sold him out in "the beach" by casting leonardo dicaprio in the role he was supposed to play, long before mcgregor's become commericialized star-war prop..it took place also when cameron diaz still played sassy hard-boiled femme fatale before "something about mary" sweetens and softens her screen persona as romantic lead..

the scenario is goofy. it's about a stupid janitor who kidnaps his boss' daughter in a rage after he's fired and dumped by his live-in girlfriend..then these two fall in love absurdly. of course, even angels in the heaven are their guidances to the journey of celestial bliss despite the course involves mayhem and bloodshed. it's generally a mixed genre of romantic comeday and neo-noir. don't expect rationality and sensible plot-developments because the essence of this movie is a brazen cheer of slacker's hashish daydreaming and mcgregor's presented as a character of proteriat outrage in the oblivion of the generation x, a mutant divergence from his trainspotting persona. he fantasizes about writing a blatant trash-novel to redeem his miserable existence of ephemerality, and his ideal romance is a game-show called "perfect love", favored by a pampered brat who appreciates such weakling demeanors and even aids him to get the ransom from her abrasive father who insists on cutting off her allowances. they pretend they're pop-stars and cabret dancers along the melody of bob darin's "beyond the sea"...in spite of their slacker narcissism, they do have a naively sacred respect over the bond arranged by fate but their deterministic conventionalism's got to be rendered in their deviant imaginations like angels act like noir villains to help the course of destiny, blah blah blah...oh, bank-robbery could be a pleasant stimulus of passionate kiss..

basically "a life less ordinary" is a celebration of "style over substance"..the costumes and location shots are particularly elaborated with a boyle trademark, such as mcgregor's mullet hairdo and floral shirt, diaz's bob-headed siren who high-hats men around..as for the location, i bet it's around the borderline of nevada and california where i've driven for several times while heading for las vegas, or it's around the woods in colorado??(i would be happy if anyone tells me where it's shot)...the valley cabin as the hideaway spot and the desolate driveway within the desert hills are well-selected and they all give you a otherworldly feeling of american universalism due to the unique perspective of a british director shooting america..

audience might neglect it's neo-noir trying to act like romantic comedy, or the other way around, holly hunter and cameron diaz are the neo-femme-fatales who conduct themselves rough and ruthless like avenging fury with a pistol in well-tailored suit..diaz coaches mcgregor how to perform lethal dialogue to ask for ransom while hunter orders delroy lindo to murder mcgregor in the corder of dark woods digging a hole beforehand for the burial...the deliberate gender-reversal's gonna make you giggle..but eventually it's less a romantic comeday than dark farce since our hero only concedes his emotions to our heroine after someone persuades him with words "she's a glamorous pussy in heaven and you're a two-dime worker cleaning floor in hell, why bother to think too much over whether she's your type or not??" this movie has so many colors on its palette that it's too distractive to enjoy..but ain't the life-style of lovelorn slacker so? also, it has one of the coolest soundtracks ever like trainspotting since the soundtracks of danny boyle's movies always have a it chicness before he reached international fame by 28 days and slum millionaire.

(ps) around the same year, alicia silverstone made a stupid comedy about love in the course of kidnapping with benicio del toro, called "excessive baggage"....the sketch of storyline does have a parallel but it's much less creative and much more mundanely melodramtic(should i just say cheesy?)...don't get mistaken by that.