Summer of Sam Review
by Eugene Novikov (lordeugene_98 AT yahoo DOT com)July 5th, 1999
Summer of Sam (1999)
Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
http://www.ultimate-movie.com
Member: Online Film Critics Society
*1/2 out of four
"The 44 Caliber Killer has struck again."
Starring John Leguizamo, Mira Sorvino, Adrian Brody, Jennifer Esposito, Michael Rispoli, Bebe Neuwirth. Rated R.
Summer of Sam will be remembered as a waste of Spike Lee's abilities. Lee is a great filmmaker, often exhibiting kinetic visual flair on par with Brian DePalma and Martin Scorsese and a storytelling ability comparable to Steven Spielberg. But here, he gets himself into a bind. His latest effort is a case of a director pretending he has something to say when in reality there is little of substance to absorb from his work.
The summer of 1977 was an unusual summer in New York City. It was the hottest summer on record. To boot, New York's first serial killer was on the loose: calling himself the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz killed 9 people in the New York area and frightened the whole city population. So it was understandable that when NYC was hit with a citywide blackout, people went berserk, causing billions of dollars in damage to the city.
The movie's focus is on a group of twenty-somethings during that fateful summer: Vinny (John Leguizamo), a club-hopping, adultrous hairdresser, his benevolent wife Dionna (Mira Sorvino, looking young), Ritchie (Adrian Brody), a punk who becomes an outcast as well as a Son of Sam suspect, a gang of small time mobsters and a few more minor characters. We follow them through their roller coaster lives, thrown out of whack even more by the recent killings. Vinny and Dionna have marital problems because Vinny cheats and Dionna tries to please him, make him stay faithful to her. Ritchie gets shunned by his group of friends because he has started to become more and more "eccentric," and has degenerated to the point of dancing in gay night clubs and making porno films with his girlfriend.
Tensions build and conflicts arise as the anniversary night of Son of Sam's first murder looms; the night he promises he will strike again. A local gang with too much time on its hands makes a list detailing all of the people that its members think might be suspects. At the top of the list is Ritchie. Vinny, an unwilling part of the said group, is called upon to set a trap for his friend.
As we watch these proceedings, some of which are painfully graphic, the dreaded "So what?" question springs to mind. From the way this movie is made, I'd have guessed that Spike Lee was trying to tell us something, but as I searched deeper it became clear that there is very little there to find. Lee touches on so much -- the media, the 70's punk scene, the details of the actual killings, as well as the characters' very personal dilemmas -- but he doesn't bring all of his topics together to form a coherent theme or make a discernible statement.
All is not lost if a movie turns out to be hollow; it can be a saving grace for the film to be enjoyable. Too bad Summer of Sam doesn't get any help here. Frankly, it's a bore, a redundant and repetitive two hour and twenty minute film that doesn't entertain beyond its first half hour. There is no suspense because the film refuses to be fully about the murders and little involving drama because the film is too muddled and its focus too vague.
Leguizamo's turn as Vinnie is annoying and whiny. The script makes it clear that we're supposed to believe that his character is flawed, but still a good guy. You'd never guess from his performance. Adrian Brody and especially Mira Sorvino fare better. Sorvino gives a riveting, touching performance in a banal movie (I'm tempted to think that I liked her because nearly everything else around her was inane); her character is affecting and her emotions true-to-heart. Brody, too paints an effective portrait of a young guy desperate for attention who gets a little more than he bargained for.
Summer of Sam has some superficial elements of a good film: it looks great, it has a few notable performances and I suppose it's pretty well directed, in a purely technical way. But it's also empty, pretentious and boring. Like last year's The Thin Red Line, it's a movie by a director who doesn't know what he wants to say but goes ahead and says it anyway.
©1999 Eugene Novikov‰
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