|
THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY Send This Review to a Friend
In the midst of the summer junk comes one of the best American films of the year, “The Anniversary Party,” which was co-written and co-directed by Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh, who also star along with other members of an illustrious cast. They have drawn a knowing bead on narcissistic Hollywood types who feign an outward image of normalcy but are wracked with emotional problems and hang-ups. What starts as a
party celebrating an anniversary of a couple who had parted but are now back together turns into a mess that is often as funny as it is sad.
The film is in the vein of works by such stalwarts of naturalism as John Cassavetes, Robert Altman and Henry Jaglom. It is as if we are also invited to the party and roaming the chic canyon house and eavesdropping on the guests. Voyeurism can be very entertaining, as is the case in this perceptive delving into an assortment of troubled lives.
The anniversary being celebrated is that of Joe, a British novelist about to take a shot at directing a film based on his very personal new book, with Cumming giving a terrific, convincing performance in the role, and Sally (Leigh), an actress who is still attractive but not young enough to be cast in the lead of Joe's film, even though she is insulted at not being its star. Joe and Sally are also trying to have a baby, which is leading to further trauma.
Trouble brews with the news that Joe has invited to the party the young, vivacious actress Skye Davidson (Gwyneth Paltrow), whom he has cast as the lead, and she arrives full of herself, not mean-spirited, but glowing with self-assuredness and effusive in her praise of Joe, along with sexual vibes, and extolling the older Sally as her acting icon. Skye in her way is the nicest one of those we meet, but her youth, success and reputation as a new $4 million hot property sets off bitchiness in the understandably jealous Sally. Leigh gives a strong, multi-layered performance, and as co-director, she knows how to use the camera to bring out the subtleties she shows as an actress.
The entourage includes Kevin Kline as Cal, an actor who is not as young as he wishes, Phoebe Cates as Sophia, his wife (she’s Mrs. Kline in real life), who has given up her acting career for motherhood, and their two children (theirs in real life). Cates is poignant as she confronts Sally with a confession of regret and a somewhat bitchy warning of what motherhood means. There are John C. Reilly as Mac, a director who is making a film with Sally but worrying about the result; Jane Adams as Clair, Mac's wife and a new mother who is a sad but comical bundle of neuroses; Jennifer Beals as Gina, a photographer and probably a former lover of Joe's who tries to take control of his life at a critic moment; Denis O'Hare and Mina Badie as the couple next door, who are angry with Sally and Joe for having a barking dog about whom they have complained nastily; John Benjamin Hickey as the anniversary couple's business manager and Parker Posey as his wife. Levi Panes plays the very funny Michael, Gina's husband and a long-time friend of Sally and Joe. The evening develops as a mix of congratulatory statements, angst, confrontations and revelations.
Skye triggers the action when she brings what she calls “a gift of love” to the celebration--enough pills to speed everyone on a high that lets all hell break loose. It is amazing how self-assured the directors are in this demanding effort. The acting carries the show, but the performers have much to work with given the perceptiveness shown by the screenplay in skewering contemporaries who make up much of today’s Hollywood. But it would be smug to think that such types are confined to that special set. Much that is universal is revealed in this excursion into a world in which everything revolves around self. A Fine Line Features release.
|