Cast: Blair Underwood, Julia Roberts, David Hyde Pierce, Catherine Keener, Mary McCormack, Enrico Colantoni
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Producers: Gregory Jacobs, Scott Kramer
Screenplay: Coleman Hough
Cinematography: Steven Soderbergh
Music: Jacques Davidovici
U.S. Distributor: Miramax Films
In 1989, director Steven Soderbergh exploded into the world spotlight with the release of his debut feature, sex, lies and videotape. The film, which garnered nominations and awards and brought in a healthy box office return, became the poster child for the burgeoning American independent film movement. It is also credited for turning the Sundance Film Festival into a high-profile launching pad for small-budget features.
In the wake of sex, lies and videotape, Soderbergh spent the better part of a decade toiling in relative obscurity, with well-made films like King of the Hill and The Underneath reaching only a small audience. Even Soderbergh's first larger budget effort, Out of Sight (starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez), fizzled during its theatrical run. Then came 2000 and Soderbergh's one-two punch of Erin Brockovich and Traffic. Suddenly, with a shiny Oscar on his mantelpiece, the director was in demand. Full Frontal represents an attempt by Soderbergh to return to his low-budget idie roots. Sandwiched between his remakes of Ocean's 11 and Solaris, this project has been targeted at the audience Soderbergh enraptured 13 years ago with his first movie. Quality-wise, however, there's a big drop off from sex, lies and videotape to Full Frontal.
Like sex, lies and videotape, Full Frontal has a title that's more suggestive and racy than its subject matter. There is no full-frontal nudity in the film (in fact, there isn't nudity of any kind, unless you count a brief view of a corpse), nor is there anything surprising or controversial about the subject matter. The film's initial title, How to Survive a Hotel Room Fire was changed to The Art of Negotiating a Turn in the wake of 9/11/01. Soon after, it became Full Frontal. At various times during its production history, the movie was rumored to be a "sequel of sorts" to sex, lies and videotape, but, aside from some minor ideological similarities, the films have nothing in common.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing about Full Frontal is its thematic deficiencies. With a movie of this sort, one expects it to be plot-light and character-heavy (which it is), but it should be about something interesting. Full Frontal addresses two issues, neither of which is original or compelling. The first, that the rich and powerful people in the film industry are just as troubled as everyone else, is trite. The second, which toys with the line between what's real and what isn't, might have been interesting ten years ago, but these days it seems like every other independent picture ventures into this territory, and Soderbergh doesn't do anything that causes Full Frontal to stand out.
Soderbergh's style is openly self-indulgent, and arguably even a little smug. For much of the movie, I felt as if there was a neon sign above the screen that read: "Look! I can still make arty, low-budget movies!" Full Frontal feels more like a calculated endeavor than an expression of creativity. The presence of Julia Roberts, the world's most popular female star, validates this. No matter how well Roberts and Soderbergh work together, why put her in a little movie unless the hope is for some sort of return at the box office?
From a visual standpoint, Soderbergh does some irritating things. Much of the film was shot on video to achieve a pseudo-documentary/cinema verité effect. However, the quality of the video is much worse than what I can achieve using a store bought camcorder. There are times when the grain is so bad that it's difficult to see the characters clearly. This kind of pretentious extremism is exactly what I dislike about Oliver Stone and Michael Mann. When there's a reason, almost any kind of visual device can be justified. Too often in Full Frontal, Soderbergh does things just because he can. He's showing that Hollywood hasn't spoiled him and he is still capable of making art.
At least the characters, and, to a degree, their circumstances, are interesting. While it's never possible to become really involved in the movie (Soderbergh's approach is distancing), Full Frontal follows a group of people who have the virtue of not leading boring lives. We get to hear their thoughts and opinions as they "narrate" this "documentary" of their existences. We are also given the opportunity to see scenes from the movie Rendezvous, the production with which all of the characters have some sort of connection. Soderbergh apparently shot Rendezvous pretty much straight. It has decent production values, is not overly campy, and represents the only time when Full Frontal switches to a clear, non-grainy picture.
The film traces the lives of six major characters (and an assortment of lesser ones) over a 24-hour period in Los Angeles. Movie stars Calvin (Blair Underwood) and Francesca (Julia Roberts) are given far less screen time than their Rendezvous alter-egos, Nicholas and Catherine. One of the screenwriters, Carl (David Hyde Pierce), has just been fired from his day job and is afraid that his wife finds him uninteresting and might leave him. Lee (Catherine Keener), Carl's spouse, is planning to do just that, but the emptiness of her life - a flat marriage, an unfulfilling job, a lack of meaningful friends - is beginning to eat away at her. Meanwhile, Lee's sister, Linda (Mary McCormack), is planning a short trip to Tucson, Arizona, to meet someone she has been "dating" over the Internet. That man happens to be Ed (Enrico Colantoni), Carl's Rendezvous co-writer and the director of a small live-theater production called "The Sound and the Fuhrer". (Nicky Katt has a hilarious turn as "Hitler" in that play.)
The acting by the principals is uniformly solid, with special mention going to Catherine Keener, who lights up the screen and shines through the muddy visuals with the strength and charisma of her performance. Julia Roberts is merely okay. Her performances is competent, but there's nothing of her "star quality" evident in this turn. There are also a number of notable cameos. Brad Pitt and David Fincher play themselves (as the star and director of a movie within Rendezvous- that's right, a movie-within-a-movie-within-a-movie). Terrence Stamp reprises his role from The Limey. David Duchovny has a short scene wearing a towel draped over his (prosthetic) penis. And Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein gets to sate his ego by mugging for the camera.
Soderbergh's recent commercial success and the presence of Julia Roberts in the cast will probably result in a larger than expected box office return on Miramax's investment, but I think most viewers will be disappointed by what the film has to offer. Even those who are used to art house films will likely be underwhelmed by the bareness of Full Frontal's menu. Soderbergh owes his characters more than this paper-thin plot clothed with a lot of artistic pretentiousness.
© 2002 James Berardinelli