Cast: Phoebe Cates, Bridget Fonda, Tim Roth, Eric Stoltz
Director: Michael Steinberg
Producers: Allan Mindel, Denise Shaw, and Eric Stoltz
Screenplay: Roger Hedden
Cinematography: Bernd Heinl
Music: Michael Convertino
U.S. Distributor: Fine Line Features
Bodies, Rest & Motion begins with Nick (Tim Roth) announcing to his former girlfriend Carol (Phoebe Cates) that he and his lover Beth (Bridget Fonda) are moving from Enfield, Arizona to Butte, Montana. However, a day before the scheduled move, Nick takes off for an unspecified destination without Beth, saying that he needs to be alone to discover himself. Beth, understandably devastated by the sudden abandonment, finds a measure of solace with Sid (Eric Stoltz), a joint-smoking painter who has arrived to prepare her house for the next tenants. What neither of them counts on is his falling in love with her.
For the most part, Bodies, Rest & Motion confines itself to the often-converging, occasionally-diverging tales of four twenty-something characters over a forty-eight hour span. There is no real beginning -- we're sort of dropped in the middle of a scene and asked to pick things up as we go along -- and there's certainly no end. It's what's often called a "slice of life" motion picture. The characters are the key, with the plot of secondary importance, and the so-called "action" accomplishes little more than to feed us additional information about the protagonists.
Those who like something significant to happen in their movies will find Bodies, Rest & Motion dull and pedantic. It's a small film about people and how they interact. The most momentous thing that happens in the entire film is the theft of a television set. It's a joy to watch the slow evolution of the relationships. Bodies is virtually cliche-free for both dialogue and characters. As far as the audience is concerned, these are real people struggling with the same kind of every-day problems and decisions that many of us face. This is not an escapist film, but one invested with an unusually intelligent and incisive perspective on human motivation. There are several instances when the characters get too psychological in their introspection, uttering implausibly-convoluted lines, but other than that, much of this picture is on-target, at least as far as character insight is concerned.
Bodies has an unusual structure, switching back and forth between characters for no apparent reason. There are a few rather bizarre sequences (such as Nick's stop at the Native American-owned gas station, his trip to his parents' house, and the second meeting with Sid and Beth) which contribute to the atypical tone. The movie isn't extreme enough to be considered weird, but "offbeat" is an accurate description.
Finally, Phoebe Cates gets a chance to play an adult role. After giving respectable performances in films like Gremlins and Drop Dead Fred, Cates has at last been cast as a real, three-dimensional person. In a movie that boasts the names of Stoltz, Fonda, and Roth, Cates outshines her co-stars, investing Carol with energy and life.
I did not like the ending. In general, while a movie doesn't have to neatly wrap up all the loose ends, there should be some indication of completion. Bodies, Rest & Motion has none. The credits come up suddenly, with no warning that the movie is about to end.
Bodies, Rest & Motion is for those who like uncomplicated stories about real-seeming characters. There's a lot of motion (hence, the title), but little happens outside the ongoing self-discovery of the four main characters. In an era when many motion pictures are going for "big", it's nice to see well-known actors in a "small" film like this.
© 1993 James Berardinelli