The Human Contract Review
by Michael Dequina (themoviereport AT gmail DOT com)December 21st, 2008
_The_Human_Contract_ (R) *** (out of ****)
A successful executive on the verge of
even greater professional heights meets a woman
of mystery, upending their own lives and causing
ripple effects in others'. It's not a set-up
that has not been done before (in fact, it was
pretty much done to death in the erotic thriller
heyday of the early-to-mid-1990s), but in her
debut as screenwriter and director, Jada Pinkett
Smith has far more on her mind than prurient
surface thrills, making a complex, difficult,
intriguing film that digs deeper than outward appearances.
The latter extends to the casting, and
Pinkett Smith's choice of the relatively unknown
Jason Clarke as the lead, Julian Wright, proves
to be especially canny. Without any existing
star baggage, Clarke is not only a relatable
Everyman entry point for the viewer, but he also
well serves Pinkett Smith's larger concerns. Not
only is he adept at conveying the personal demons
and simmering impulses behind Julian's cool
exterior, his rather anonymous appearance drives
home what is ultimately the pervading issue that
inspires the film's title. Julian is the very
pre-packaged, non-individual picture of what most
people would want out of life--good looking,
well-off, securely employed, upwardly mobile, and
still fairly young--or is it what he truly wants,
or what society has trained him and people in general to equate with happiness?
Julian comes to question that after
meeting the mysterious Michael Reed (Paz
Vega). Their initial encounter is simply
fleeting small talk, but when he comes across her
again by sheer chance, he feels compelled to
pursue her--and, in what is an early example of
how Pinkett Smith continually subverts
conventional genre expectations, seemingly
straight-arrow Julian quickly shows himself to be
the more volatile half of the two. Michael and
Julian nonetheless do fall into a relationship,
one that has increasingly dramatic repercussions
both in their own lives and in those of the people close to them.
As suggested by that latter point,
_The_Human_Contract_ does follow a traditional
erotic thriller trajectory, but that's just the
accessible genre framework upon which Pinkett
Smith hangs deeper, more pertinent issues. Both
Michael and Julian have been scarred, literally
and figuratively, from their youths, and it is
clear they are opposite sides of the same coin:
she the model of carefree moral abandon, and he
the picture of cool control. But what exactly
that means is the real question: who is happy,
who is healthy, who is truly at peace, who is
doing the "right" thing--and what exactly is
"right" anyway, and by whose standards? Pinkett
Smith wisely doesn't attempt to know the answers,
but through not only Julian's relationship with
Michael but also his and her relations with
others, she calls into thought-provoking question
the idea of the various "contracts" one has in
life--not only with other people but with
societal norms and expectations, and how the
pursuit of such "order" and hence conformity can
not only be stifling, but potentially destructive.
That sounds highfalutin and pretentious,
but Pinkett Smith packages such themes in an
accessible and absorbing manner, most notably
through her actors. Clarke deftly handles the
tensions brewing within his character, and he
makes his flaws and frustration real and
painfully relatable. He shares sizzling
chemistry with the always-striking Vega, who has
finally found an English language film that
really allows her enchanting mix of beauty,
sensuality, vulnerability, and dramatic
depth. The supporting cast--including Idris
Elba, Ted Danson, Steven Brand, Joanna Cassidy,
and Pinkett Smith herself--may not have quite as
much to work with as the leads, but as is often
the case in films helmed by actors, Pinkett Smith
coaxes effective work. But her careful attention
to all cinematic aspects further underscore and
support her larger ideas, such the striking
contrasts between Julian and Michael's worlds in
Carlos Barbosa's production design, handsomely
captured by Darren Genet's cinematography.
Pinkett Smith does fall into some
first-time writer-director traps, such as making
certain things a bit too on-the-nose (for
example, there are some troubling secrets
literally kept under lock and key--and in a
darkroom, no less), but all too rarely does one
come across a film as both polished, thoughtful,
and go-for-broke ambitious from even the most veteran of filmmakers.
(c)2008 Michael Dequina
Michael Dequina
mrbrown@iname.com
The Movie Report/Mr. Brown's Movie Site: www.themoviereport.com www.quickstopentertainment.com | www.cinemareview.com | www.aalbc.com www.johnsingletonfilms.com | on ICQ: #25289934 | on AOL/Y! IM: mrbrown23
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