“Laurel
Canyon” - the latest film by talented writer/director
Lisa Cholodenko (“High Art”) - is a
story about the rekindled relationship between a
wild yet aging record producer, Jane (played vibrantly
by Frances McDormand) and her son, a young rigid
psychologist named Sam (Christian Bale). Sam and
his girlfriend Alex (Kate Beckinsale), who is even
more rigid and antisocial than Sam, move to LA to
live in mom’s Laurel Canyon house.
They
arrive to discover that mom hasn’t quite finished
the record she had been producing there. The stuffy
couple is now forced to share the house with mom
and the ever-partying band as they try to “find
their single.” At this delicate moment of
transition in Sam and Alex’s young life together,
both feel the desire to let their hearts take them
to the unknown. It’s the classic story of
rigidity meets rock and roll and everyone gets naked
in the pool, literally.
One
word best describes this film: stereotypes. Now
in a film stereotypes aren’t always a bad
thing. They can sometimes be used as a tool to reinforce
human truths. But then again, sometimes they can
just be predictable. We had a little of both.The
characters in the film were stereotypical yet seem
to reinforce subtle truths. First we have the rigid
couple, where sex and the airplane version of scrabble
brought the same joy to the relationship. Next there’s
the wild record producer, who smokes more pot than
Willy Nelson and isn’t afraid to fuck up her
life by fucking her son’s girlfriend. Then
we’ve got the English lead singer, who loves
ballads, his motorcycle, and most importantly, himself.
And finally we have the sexy other woman who had
far too much flowing hair to be a doctor. All these
characters appeared to function well because they
seemed truthful in the film’s setting.
And
with the story came the dreaded predictability.
By having stereotypical characters, you give the
audience a good sense of how these people will react
in certain situations. This is where our director
got herself into trouble. In the second half of
the film, the characters started to follow courses
of action simply because it would move, or better
yet, force the story to go where the director wanted
it to. Most of the actions conducted by the characters
in the second half of the picture didn’t seem
to fit the characters themselves. It was almost
as if the shock value of the scenes became more
important than the truthful nature of life.
The
other stereotype was the film’s namesake:
Laurel Canyon. When you name a film after a location
(i.e. “Chinatown” or “The Beach”
for that matter) the location becomes a character
of it’s own. In this instant, the stereotype
rang true. Laurel Canyon, tucked into the Hollywood
hills, is indeed a place full of artists who take
drugs and have night sex in the pool. How can anyone
not love LA?
Other
than the occasional scantily clad shot of Kate Beckensale
and the fact that the casting was excellent, this
film left much (besides the woman next to me) to
be desired.
My
advice, don’t waste your money on the price
of today’s theatre admission. IFC will snatch
this one up and play it about a thousand times.
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