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Hurlyburly (1998)
Theatre Lives!
It is very much like a stage play, (not surprising since that is where it came from). It is all in the dialogue rather than action; interaction between two or three characters only most of the time, sudden changes of mood and dynamics, more cerebral than visceral. It is more expansive than a stage play though, even though it has that feel about it. The screenplay includes nice cinematic touches like the car phone dialogues where one car over takes the other and he shouts at him as he goes past. A similar thing was done from the balcony of the flat earlier in the film. There are also some qualities of a Michael Mann about it with the use of architecture and music as film elements.
The film grew on me as it went along. One of the things that made it difficult perhaps, was that none of the characters were very likeable, but the acting by all of them was a tour de force. Nice to see Meg Ryan given a chance to do some real acting instead of being just pretty-pretty set decoration. It's a film that is hard to take in one sitting I think, and will bear repeated viewing with more coming out each time.
This film is likely to appeal to people who liked such films as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Glengarry Glen Ross, Le Diner de Cons and others which have a stage play feel about them. Who said that theatre is dead?
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