I have trouble with the idea of “guilty pleasure” movies. People just need the courage to admit they like something unabashedly. The reason to like a movie doesn’t have to be logical. It could be tied to a good memory, a formative experience, a narrative conceit that appeals to you, or any number of things. Still, it can be hard to watch a movie that I know has a lot of problems but I’m enjoying it anyway. That in a nutshell is Wicker Park.
My enjoyment of Wicker Park is tied to a narrative conceit I have a weakness for. I like stories that play with perspective. How a story can change depending on who is seeing it. And I appreciate a story that needed a flow chart to write the screenplay. There’s the absolutely awful movie Dorm Daze that I respect the hell out of for going so fucking hard at overlapping stories and escalating misunderstandings. It’s a movie that has no business trying as hard as it does*.
*There is a fine line between contrivance and flow-chart storytelling. Modern Family is a good example of this. I fell off that show eventually because I started noticing the puppet strings too much. They got lazy and I could see them setting up for the punchlines in virtually every episode. A couple times a season though, they’d get ambitious with something like the Las Vegas episode where so much was going on that I had to be impressed. It’s the difference between juggling 2 balls and 10. When it’s two, I can see how the juggler does it. There’s time to pay attention to the few movements the juggler is making. Even though it’s fundamentally the same skill, when it’s 10 balls, even if the juggler looks physically strained doing it, I’m so distracted by all the balls in the air to notice.
I had no idea what Wicker Park was going in. I watched it because I watch Rose Byrne movies. It’s what I do. The poster made me think it was some kind of thrilling romance movie. Like, maybe a story where Josh Harnett and Diane Kruger’s attraction is forbidden in some way. Honestly, I never even registered Rose Byrne in the poster to the side. Early on, I could tell something was off. The movie was really frantic, which I initially assumed was a sign that they had to try and save it in the editing room. They were cutting around people a lot. Like, I noticed early on when Hartnett pushed Byrne to the side in the store. I thought it was weird to cut Byrne like that in a shot. Eventually I realized the game of the movie. There were timelines they were playing with. Different characters had different parts of the story. That’s when the movie started hitting all my pleasure centers. “Yes, add one more complication, please!” And it’s all centered around a romance? Excellent. This is like a more convoluted Serendipity. That’s like giving me my popcorn then telling me there’s a buttering station over there. If I’m already eating empty calories, I might as well go for broke. And Wicker Park really goes for broke.
I do need to be clear. This movie has many, many problems. The story relies on many coincidences and bad timing. There are many plot holes that you may not notice at the time but will once you examine it for 3 seconds. I guess it’s adapted from a French movie which is loosely based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s possible the original film did this more cleanly. The story inconsistency in this will be too much for a lot of people. Also, I hate to say it, but this is a bad Rose Byrne performance. Much of that is the writing, which does a poor job explaining her motivations and distinguishing between when she’s being real from when she’s being calculating. It doesn’t help that this is a movie that thinks it can put Rose Byrne in a lumpy sweater and pretend that she doesn’t look like Rose Byrne. Really, none of the characters get enough shading. The main reason I’m rooting for Josh Hartnett and Diane Kruger to end up together is because I’m a sucker for lost romance, not because I care specifically about that relationship. Oh, and this movie is set in a Chicago that feels like it’s inhabited by about 10 people. It’s a very small world, which to be fair, this movie kind of requires.
Dammit, I liked this movie though. I love seeing how the story unfolds. In the way that some people love discomfort comedy (which I don’t tend to care for), I love seeing two people miss each other because one of them ducks to tie their shoes when the other looks that direction to check the time. And that’s an attractive 2004 cast. There are many technically superior films I’m less likely to rewatch than Wicker Park.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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