|
STATESIDE Send This Review to a Friend
Love between a rich young man from Connecticut and a schizophrenic singer treads mental territory explored in other situations, but the lovers in "Stateside" are interesting types who are struggling in their own territory. There's poignancy to their efforts and that keeps the film involving as it scans the spectrum of their problems and histories.
Jonathan Tucker as Mark, from a family that's loaded and with Joe Montegna as his demanding but emotionally detached father, gets into trouble in a disastrous auto accident. To keep him out of prison, his dad works a deal that puts him into the Marines instead. I could do without the long stretch of brutal training under the drill of Val Kilmer as the show-no-mercy Marine instructor at the base in North Carolina. But in the drama, written and directed by Reverge Anselmo and said to be based on a true story, the experience is key to turning Mark into a mature, more responsible person.
All of this spins in flashback from Mark's recovering from an injury received in Beirut and trying to get over a love affair. The object of his emotions is Rachael Leigh Cook as Dori, a cute pop star, who is diagnosed as schizophrenic. The more he pursues her with his love and devotion, the worse off she becomes, as a result of her thinking he is the answer to her deeper problems.
Anselmo tosses too much into the emotional stew and it takes a long haul for love to triumph, but the situation is heartfelt and one can get caught up in the impassioned efforts of two people with so much against them struggling to find their way. The cast also includes Agnes Bruckner and Carrie Fisher. A Samuel Goldwyn Films release.
|