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House of D, David Duchovny's
directorial debut is certainly not a perfect movie, but damn
it, if it doesn't manage to tell a terrific story, hit every
emotional chord, make some brave decisions and show some
things that other filmmakers might have been afraid to show.
I wanted to see this as soon as I heard Duchovny was making
this because I was a huge fan of his work on The X-Files
(until Chris Carter fell off his surfboard or whatever
happened and dropped every single ball he was juggling), and
in particular had really enjoyed the three episodes he
directed. D is a coming-of-age story,
a dangerous genre for a first timer to attempt, because it
is a genre inherently sentimental, and a genre within which
it is very hard to separate the sentimental from the
sentiment. Personally, however, as a human, I don't
mind a little sentimentality sneaking its way into my
coming-of-age cinema, because I do believe it's hard to look
back and not be sentimental. I wonder if we would like
coming-of-age cinema anywhere near as much if it didn't have
just a little of that in it. Does he ever cross the
line. Occasionally, but, and I guess I'm the only one
who thinks so, forgivably. The script has weak spots
like stretching the vehicle for the story a bit and such,
and Duchovny's performance stutters at times, particularly
in the beginning, but I was willing to forgo all this, as
this is his first produced script and first time directing
himself in such a massive venture. The end result, as
a result, was an honest, and extremely successful , attempt
to tell a story that HASN'T BEEN TOLD BEFORE, a rarity in
American cinema right now, and a film that truly made me
feel, deeply a character's life. In a world
where movies like Pay It Forward get all kinds of attention,
I can't even begin to imagine how House of D could go by the
wayside trashed, with no one standing up for it. I
gave the movie a Solid rating, but this is an extremely
Solid, in my book. It's not a perfect film, I have
issues with some plot issues, and this stops it from being a
Super, but I ended the movie and realized I'd had some
combination of happy and sad tears in my eyes for the last
hour of the film, rather consistently, and that
I'd enjoyed the emotions I'd felt. To me a sappy film
is a film that wants to make the audience cry by giving them
characters crying and being sad all the time. Duchovny
doesn't do this with House of D. Instead he
gives us characters in bad situations, doing there best to
make them okay, and the sadness comes form the persistence,
the same place where the joy of human success comes from.
There is only one crying scene in the entire film, and it
comes from a 13 year old boy who probably should have done
it a long time ago, but finally breaks down. It's done
briefly and it's done well, and Erykah Badu manages to
balance it perfectly by making it stop. And therein
lies the power. And speaking of Badu, let me
take this moment to say, that I have missed both her
previous performances, don't know too much about her music,
except that I like what I've heard, and was truly impressed
with her performance. She does a great job pulling a
personality from a very limited character story and plays a
great guru/parent-figure/Yoda/give-it-a-name character to
Anton's confused and overwhelmed child. The scene
where she makes a major self-sacrifice to get Tommy to do
what he has to do to survive, while maybe not the perfect
advice, the best she could come up with at the moment,
brings tears to my eyes every time mostly due to Badu's
wonderful acting and Anton's incredible emotion. Well played, Badu. Everyone does a fine job in the movies.
I won't take the time to talk about Robin Williams, as he
doesn't impress us much any more because we have become used
to him being so damn good, and again, he is very good.
Tea Leone, is, well, Tea Leone, and I don't have much more
to say about that. She's always kinda her, and here
she's her as a depressive mom, and she does a fine job.
Actually, I do have more to say about that: My
favorite scene of hers is when she's playing basketball with
her son in the apartment. I thought this was one of
the most honest and statement-filled moments of the movie.
Anton Yelchin is terrific and has a huge future ahead of him
if he keeps acting. He is obviously a natural and does
a great job. Duchovny, permanently a tad uncomfortable
in his own skin, a sort of good looking Woody Allen, does a
good job, but doesn't really shine till his return to New
York when he can honestly be Duchovny, and he's wonderful
then as always. My one real regret is the necessary
but unfortunate limited use of Frank Langella who is great
as the funny Reverend at the school. What a character
he created in how little space. An addendum:
Something that bothers me very much is Duchovny's complete
ignoring of Zelda Williams, the girl who plays Sweet
Melissa, Tommy's first "love" and true step into manhood in
his director's commentary. Zelda Williams happens to
be Robin Williams daughter (last seen very, very, very young
in Hugh Grant's Nine and a Half Months, a movie I bought
tickets to after I'd seen it because I was afraid that
having them "comped" by a friend made me think I had stolen
- but I digress), and does what I think is a wonderful,
powerful performance as what might be every young boy's
dream girl. Throughout the commentary he obviously
avoids talking about her, so much so that at the last minute
being forced to refer to her, he call her "the girl".
I don't know what the reasoning is here, but it's very
intentional. I wonder if it was a request by Robin
Williams, not to publicize her too much, or if the deal was
that to get Robin he needed to cast his daughter and
Duchovny was annoyed... though I doubt that. But she
does a terrific job and should get more credit. House of D
is a terrific film, a wonderful trip down someone else's
memory lane, an emotional film, that while not perfect,
still left me thinking, Damn that was good. And it
was. Great job, David. This fan still believes. |
