The Shape of Things Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)May 13th, 2003
Shape of Things, The
Matinee with Snacks
Neil LaBute, as a write and filmmaker, has never been afraid to show the ugliness which humans are capable of inflicting upon one another. In his movies In The Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors, he forces you to watch, to understand, and even to accept man's inhumanity to man by dressing it up as something too familiar to deny. Nurse Betty (not written by LaBute) was a more lighthearted touch, but still in keeping with his general themes.
Here, in The Shape of Things, LaBute puts his stage play and stage cast on the big screen so we all have the privilege of seeing this small ensemble of four interpret this theme further. As first you can feel the stage play behind the screenplay. The actors know their lines so well, and the visual codes of filmmaking exposition are dropped in favor of just plain dialogue. Rachel Weisz is an enigmatic siren of an art MFA candidate who finds schlumpy Paul Rudd in his the course of their differing agendas about art (she to deface and thereby free, and he to protect). A romance blossoms, and Rudd's character changes in the ways only pure, eager-to-please love can instigate.
Fred Weller, a man so clear and honest and open about his self-centered obnoxiousness that you hate him right off the bat, enters as Rudd's best friend. His fiancée, Gretchen Mol, is so clearly sweet and generous that you love her right off the bat. As in all LaBute works, people are not always who they seem, even when they are. You mean, people are complex? I don't get it. This is a movie!
The ad campaign for this film teases you with the title of the film, alternating between a shot of Rudd and Weisz eyeing a nude statue at crotch level, or the butts of a man and woman, her hand comfortably on his cheek. The film is indeed concerned with the shape of things, but pull your puerile sensibilities together - LaBute, he likes the layers. Wait, layers? It's a MOVIE.
All the actors, having played the role on stage, are very comfortable with their parts, and some of the parts are very uncomfortable. Rudd's character begins as many of us do (and whether we shake those feelings off at 5 or 50 or never is secondary), shy, insecure, easily overwhelmed. Dating Weisz, the man he becomes is who he should have become on his own, but was too afraid, too unsure it was possible, too nice. Weller & Mol create ripples in the otherwise undisturbed pond of Rudd's relationship with fiery, excitingWeisz. It's interesting to look back and recall that no scene really has more people than four in it; even with extras teeming around them, the little emotional world that these people inhabit is tiny but full.
What I liked best about the film was the painfully drawn-out climax - to say more would give you an unfair advantage. At times during the movie you might feel a sense of unreality, or suspicion, but it passes - smoothed over as quickly as it was noticed. By the end it becomes all too clear. I don't want to spoil it for you.
As unflinching in its honesty as it is sharp in its observation, The Shape of Things is not the best date movie, but you should see it with someone you care about.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These reviews (c) 2003 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
More on 'The Shape of Things'...
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
