The Event Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)July 23rd, 2003
THE EVENT
Reviewed by: Harvey S. Karten
Grade: B+
THINKFilm
Directed by: Thom Fitzgerald
Written by: Tim Marback, Steven Hillyer, Thom Fitzgerald Cast: Parker Posey, Olympia Dukakis, Don McKellar, Sarah Polley, Brent Carver, Jane Leeves, Joanna P. Adler, Rejean J. Coumoyer, Christina Zorich, Richard Latessa, Cynthia Preston Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 7/22/03
The Law is supposed to be the written expression of a people's moral code, but there are exceptions, times we must transcend what's on the statute books to do what we think is right. I've said this in a letter just a few days ago to a local columnist who insists that since there is nothing illegal about pampering his wife with fur coats, the people in organizations like PETA should stop bothering him. There are times that obedience to civic regulations is not only the wrong course but an immoral one.
Thom Fitzgerald's moving film "The Event" is the most honest, the most sincere expression of the way a local ordinance in New York against assisting a suicide is simply wrong and must in many instances be disobeyed. "The Event" is not the only example of a film on the subject. Randal Kleiser's work seven years ago, "It's My Party," deals with a victim of AIDS whose progression has now dimmed his sight to such an extent that he faces blindness in a matter of days. The principal character played by Eric Roberts is determined not to go down fighting as the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay might advise ("Rage, rage against the dying of the light") but as the culmination of a weekend-long party. In that story as in this one, the unfortunate person's decision is accepted albeit with profound regrets by the young man's mother. What makes Fitzgerald's film, scripted by Tim Marback, Steven Hillyer and the director, different is that the office of the district attorney is determined to prosecute those who assist, informing us that even suicide itself is against the law. Not more than twenty minutes pass before the audience becomes aware that enforcing such a statute would make about as much sense as prosecuting homosexuals for consensual sexual activity in their own bedrooms.
Nick, the assistant DA determined to jail the perps, is played against type by Parker Posey, looking better than ever and fitting comfortably in the role of an enforcer who turns to the death of her own father to understand the "crime" that is committed. Matt (Don McKellar), a talented musician who can enthrall a concert audience with his own compositions on the cello, is told that he is no longer responding to the drugs he is taking for AIDS. Tumors in his brain cause frequent seizures. The prognosis is death within weeks or months from a condition that would cause him to lose all control of his bodily functions and make him unable to recognize his best friends. Determined to go out with a blast, he enlists his companion, Brian (Brent Carver), in a scheme to invite his friends and family to a going away party. The imminence of death naturally upsets the crowd, not the least being Matt's mother, Lila (Olympia Dukakis) and sister Dana (Sarah Polley), while Uncle Leo (Richard Latessa), whose legal advice is sought, dispenses Neanderthal commentary as did a Roman Catholic priest in Randal Kleiser's 1996 movie.
The story is told through a succession of flashbacks using a multitude of scenes including the action in a gay bar that features acts by drag queens, the DA's office in Manhattan, the sick man's home, a concert hall, and the home of the assistant DA's mother. While Nick, who is prosecuting the case, seems intent on following the letter of the law, she undergoes a change of opinion not by intellectualizing but by reminding herself about her own father who, in pain, asked Nick to procure enough morphine to put him out of his misery.
Olympia Dukakais's performance is spellbinding, an awards- eligible rendition of a woman confronting the most tragic situation a mother can face. The film is not without considerable humor, particularly a small role by a psychologist-in-training who makes an ass of herself going by the book and a commercial for a vaginal cream effective for yeast infections acted by Sarah Polley. Though "The Event" is filmed partly in Halifax, this is a New York story, the streets of our town serving as backdrop to one of its seven million stories.
Rated R. 112 minutes.(c) 2003 by Harvey Karten at
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