because you can't have too much entertainment... May 2001

Dangerous Liaisons
With a Friend Like Harry Dir: Dominick Moll Starring: Sergi Lopez & Laurent Lucas.
Center of the World Dir: Wayne Wang Starring: Molly Parker & Peter Sarsgaard.

No matter how advanced CG technology gets, no matter how many supernatural or prehistorical creatures find their way onto the movie screens this summer, there's never going to be a special effect as thrilling as fine acting. The greatest special effect in movies will remain human. If the summer action blockbuster isn't your cup of tea you might want to check out one of these films playing at finer theaters near you.

With a Friend Like Harry
When we first meet the title character, Harold Ballastero, he is standing quietly in a men's bathroom. With wrists limp and fingers dripping at the sink, he grins stupidly and expectantly at another man for an agonizing length of time. What does he want from this man, why does he begin torturing him with inane questions, and what, pray tell, is his trip exactly? It's a beaut of a character intro. Spanish wonder Sergi Lopez (who was fantastic last year in Une Liaison Pornographique) handles it expertly. For the remainder of the film's running time he keeps you glued to the screen.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Michel, the other man in the bathroom, is a frustrated husband and exhausted father. Harry is an old acquaintance who remembers things about Michel that even Michel himself doesn't seem to know anymore. Michel, you see, used to harbor a desire to write...but the artistic life he let go of in the casual way people toss their dreams in favor of everyday realities. Harry uses this knowledge of Michel's past to insinuate himself ever deeper into Michel's relationships, family, and mind. Michel is probably too naive by half to not see where Harry is going with his constant meddling and obsessive interest in Michel's writing. But maybe, just maybe, Michel really wants Harry there. The true strength of this new French thriller is how the duet plays out between these two men. The true shock of the film is how casually perverse the underlying message becomes. Maybe Michel needs to be invaded. Maybe he needs his life violently disrupted. Maybe he could be all Harry sees him as, all he once possibly wished to be, if only his family were gone. Trust the French to put the psychological back into the psychological thriller.

This unsettlingly film, directed by Dominik Moll, was originally called Harry, Qui Un Ami Vous Veut Du Bien (Harry, a Friend Who Wishes You Well), then retitled Harry, He is Here to Help. It comes to America finally as With a Friend Like Harry with numerous accolades (including 9 Cesar nominations), best actor awards for Lopez's fine star turn, and substantial European popularity. By any name Harry is worth meeting.

The Center of the World
Like With a Friend Like Harry, Wayne Wang's latest film is basically a duet. Both films feature two minimally written but fascinating characters who dangerously collide into each other with potentially liberating effect.

The set up for Wang's film is a fairly straightforward. Richard is a computer whiz millionaire. Florence is a stripper he lusts after. Richard invites Florence to Vegas for a weekend and she sets up strict ground rules for the trip. Is this relationship deeper than the commercial transaction from which it springs? Will Florence break her rules? Will Richard connect emotionally? That's it. There's not much plot to speak of.

But the film, gorgeously shot on digital video (a new cinematographic high for the medium) is simplistic only on the surface. Wang benefits enormously in his casting. Molly Parker (Kissed & The Five Senses) and Peter Sarsgaard (Boys Don't Cry) are both very strong in the film and complement the underwritten quality of their characters nicely with enormously flexible interpretations. It's easy to imagine a group of friends coming away from this movie feeling as if they all saw a different film. And I mean that as a compliment.

The dramatic push and pull of Richard and Florence's budding and doomed (?) relationship is not terribly original in and of itself -but in its ambiguities the movie soars. Far more troubling than any of the numerous hot button issues raised on screen (the commerce of relationships, sexual obsession, fantasy vs. reality) are the unspoken ones. Could it be that what's really troubling both parties is not their lack of connection to each other but their failure to connect to themselves?

When Richard bottoms out, lost in the dull pornography of his memories, desperate for some connection to Florence he becomes accusatory. Why doesn't she feel anything?, he rages. But the truth of his despair is probably a matter of projection. Why does he feel so little? Why is he so unable to connect with himself or others in a real way?

Florence is equally lost. She harbors dreams of a music career but shows little passion for it. The few scenes of her that touch on that portion of her life are troubling. They have a dead quality. That far away look in her eyes... she's playing the music -but is she really emotionally there? Indeed, it seems possible that she derives more meaning and pleasure from her night job than from her day dream. But she can't admit this. There are also hints of her disconnection in a climactic and superbly acted scene where the couples' erotic entanglings are interrupted by Florence's old friend, Jerri (a revelatory Carla Gugino). Florence eventually lashes out at Jerri, but why? Does Florence see her true self in Jerri -and run immediately away?

What is the center of the world? Richard says it's his computer. Florence, perhaps in jest, suggests it to be the vagina. The movie wisely leaves the metaphoric title touched but undiscovered. Wherever their center may be, Richard and Florence haven't found it. They spin unknowingly in its orbit.

-Nathaniel

Missed some reviews or commentary? Go here
Related Articles: Underrated Films *