R.V.

LINKS:
— Overview
— Cast and Crew
— Photo Pages

I just returned from a screening of the newest Robin Williams film: R.V.

It is an excellent movie, if lighthearted comic farces can be excellent. What did I like about it, you may ask? Well for starters, let’s look at the cast. The troupe includes Robin Williams as Bob Munro, and Cheryl Hines as Jamie Munro. The Munro kids are played by music prodigy Jo Jo and Josh Hutcherson. Jeff Daniels appears as Travis Gornicke, and Kristen Chenoweth as Marie Jo Gornicke. A very talented cast indeed. Just the type you’d expect to make a good movie. And you’d be right!

Robin Williams has a way of portraying a dad that makes you feel good about being a dad. He is funny (funnier than most dads), clever, smart but still vulnerable and endearing. He also seems to love his children. My wife and I discussed whether Robin Williams might see something missing in the American family that he wants to address. Unlike the movie Hook, in which he plays a father who ignores his family to maintain his career, in this movie he still is trying to save his career but actually wants to be with his kids. His kids on the other hand have grown to hate him and consider him a good-for-nothing jerk. Perhaps he’s not been there for them when it mattered, but right now he is trying his best. His career is on the rocks (he’s being ousted by younger, cheaper MBAs) but the company can’t let him go yet because he really is the only guy who can sell. So he has to cancel a family trip to Hawaii to make a “last� sales call to convince a Mom and Pop soda company to go national by allowing his blowhard boss to buy them.

The fun begins when Bob tries to fool his family into an RV trip to Colorado instead of a planned dream trip to Hawaii. He can’t bring himself to tell his family the real reason the Hawaii trip is cancelled. His ruse is to sneak off to the meeting without telling his family—and they should be none the wiser.

Right.

R.V. is a lot of fun. RV trips are supposed to be the answer for those who want to see the country on their own terms. But judging by the few RV-themed movies I’ve seen in the past, RV trips are fraught with disaster and near-death experiences.

R.V. portrays two families. Two intact families, I might add. The Munros are LA’s finest, the perfect example of human suburban blight as it is manifest in the chic, hip and sophisticated, bored character of today’s middle class. They have so much to do that most of the time they are in sensory overload and can’t seem to think any creative thoughts. Other than smirks of course. Then there is the stereotypical RV family, the Gorlickes. When we and the Munros meet them, they come across as stupid, lower class, ignorant and way too happy to be a real family. They sing together, travel around the country and home school their kids (child abuse!). Of course we are initially led to think that these kids’ learning is the equivalent of chewing gum so they can work in the mines like their dad probably did.

Delightfully, we learn otherwise of the Gorlickes. We also learn otherwise of the Munros. Through the trauma of the RV trip, the Munros grow together, the Gorlickes stay together, and the big bad company that Bob works for shows its true colors and all is well. Except Bob no longer has a job. See the movie for how this happens as well as a sermon in the most modern religious movement in America: Environmentalism.

Now let me explain. Everything about this movie is tasteful, funny, clever and thoughtful. The Munros have funny things happen and they say funny things. The Gorlickes sail through life unmolested and they also say funny things. The soda pop company is exactly the type of company we’d all love to work for. The environmentalism is not preachy or over-emphasized. In fewer words: Everything in this film works.

You may be expecting a tired vacation flick with all the same old sight gags and slapstick humor. You don’t get it. You get a story and dialogue that, despite some horrific occurrences and several "now wait just a minute" moments, are still clever. The families turn out not to be stereotypical, nor are they derogatorily played. The kids turn out to all be very intelligent. The Munros’ daughter Cissy wants to go to Stanford—apparently, because a lot of upper middle class kids can afford to go. She doesn’t appear to have any real talent, just the expectation that money provides. On the other hand, the Gorlickes’ kids we find later are studying for college entrance exams at 15 and 13. They’ve both worked ahead in their home schooling so that they are ready to go to college. Academically ready to go, not because they can afford it.

One of the refreshing things about this story is that it rightly portrays that many home schoolers really do excel in school, probably because of the environment and focus on studies. Not to mention private tutoring. And, many middle class kids go to college who aren’t academically ready but still have the money to go.

The bottom line? R.V. is a funny film because it portrays so many of us truthfully. I mentioned farce and it is that. So it has some exaggerated situations. But if you’ve ever had to empty the waste water out of an uncooperative RV sump, you’ll think it’s a tame portrayal. R.V. doesn’t judge us, or try to pick at us. It doesn’t demean family culture. It actually empathizes. We get to see ourselves in believable and normal situations. And we are funny.

CONTINUE:
— Overview
— Cast and Crew
— Photo Pages

Writer and Star: Hard Candy

I recently had the unusual chance to “talk to the stars� of Hard Candy: screenwriter Brian Nelson and Ellen Page, a brilliant young actress.

I first found that there is much thought that goes into the writing of a screenplay. Nelson talked about the themes of the movie, the backstory, the history and the future of his characters as though they actually existed. And in one sense they do, in his mind. That is not a slam on his work or his mental state.

A well-developed story is crucial when you write a screenplay, as screen time is limited. The scope of the story is correspondingly limited; the dialogue and plot must say a lot in a compressed timeline. So a lot must be known before you can write the first line. Nelson explained these things to me in the way only a master storyteller can tell them. I was mesmerized. I gleaned these tidbits of insight from a formidable yet humble man who was patient with my greenhorn questions.

I asked: “You’ve written stage plays, teleplays for episodic television, and several screenplays; what makes the writing of a screenplay different, if it is?� (See how green I am?)

“I’ve written a handful of plays,� Nelson replied, “but my formal training is as a director of theatre. Some stories shouldn’t be written as a play. Some ideas should be political cartoons. It’s important to know what should and shouldn’t be a movie. This story needed what director David Slade did so brilliantly: In your face immediacy of film.�

Nelson defers any praise for this movie to Slade. Issues of color, scale, and shot placement are not always the writer’s input. Slade wanted color to be a character in this film. It was.

I also asked, “What is it like to put your work out there and have people like us get it? It must be gratifying. We understand this is what you do, but it must feel good to hit a home run, so to speak.�

“This is a very satisfying time right now,� admitted Nelson. “I’ve been, as a writer, as fortunate as you can be. A project like this can often go awry. But the director, the music and everything about this film came together so well. The right people came into play. I want my work as a writer to be so much more than just my work. That’s why I work in a collaborative field. The final product is greater than the sum of its parts.�

This is a truly humble attitude that I was surprised to hear. I commend Nelson for his graciousness and unselfish promotion of those with whom he collaborates. TV preachers could learn a lot from this sort of self-deprecation. Actually, if Christians would be more willing to give credit where it is due—to Jesus—the world would be a much better place.

I commented to Ellen Page that I’ve always been fascinated about the motivation of the artists in a show. Artists don’t necessarily do a story for the money, I assume. Page agreed. I asked what drew her to this role. “The story astounded me,� she said. “It blew my mind and was unbelievably engrossing. It was completely and utterly refreshing to read a role for a teenager that had such passion and intelligence and honesty. That seldom comes along in a career. I’m grateful that I got to be the one to do it.�

Ellen Page is an extremely intelligent and talented actress. She is the exact opposite of what you may picture as a 16-year-old aspiring actress. Though she admits to having gotten a “career� role in Hard Candy, how many young actors could perform with the passion and energy that Page exhibited as Haylie? But she is not pretentious; she is not a giddy, silly young girl with dreams of stardom. She has the grace and maturity of someone many years older than she is.

Page mentions the support of her parents for her acting career and it is obvious to me as a veteran parent (I now have grandkids) that they have done an excellent job of raising their daughter. When I asked her what she did with herself after this demanding role, she replied that she took some vacation time, finished high school and went back to being teenager. A wise move in this day and age. It’s important to take a break occasionally. Even when you are young, you can begin the burnout process, which soon affects your work and your psyche. She is thoughtfully considering what she will do next.

I may sound like a sycophant, but I’m not. Both Ellen Page and Brian Nelson displayed to me grace, acceptance and tremendous appreciation for the lives they’ve been given. I found that I care about them. But they were equally interested in me. They talked about their work with passion but also with familiarity. They like themselves. What they do is who they are. They are comfortable in their skin. They don’t need to promote themselves. Granted, I have nothing to offer them. But I learned a good lesson. I may never achieve the level of success or professional completion these two will no doubt reach. But all of us are important to God, regardless of our status. Be yourself. You do fit in.

Hard Candy

Hard candy? Really hard!

The inspiration for Hard Candy was a wave of real-life attacks that took place in Japan. Producer David Higgins read about cases of schoolgirls ambushing real pedophiles to pay them their just desserts for predatory dating tactics.

Hard Candy starts out kind of slow, disarmingly so. Hayley (Ellen Page) and Jeff (Patrick Wilson) have been chatting over the Internet for some time. We meet them the day Hayley decides to hook up. Jeff is a 32-year-old photographer (of young girls, among other things). Hayley is—whoa, how lucky for Jeff?—a young girl.

I sensed the tension from the very beginning. Both have agendas about how this first meeting will go. Judging from the outcome of the story, the adult was more surprised! Jeff is a very charming and beguiling individual. Hayley is a way-too-smart and excessively-informed 14 years old. They should not be meeting. If either character lived in the real world and had his or her eye completely on the ball, the movie would have been over right then. We should be grateful to David Slade’s directing and Brian Wilson’s screenwriting that a deeper lesson is imminent. Moreover, the obvious does not happen.

As the day wears on, we witness one of the weirdest, scariest, and most sadistic but duly-earned encounters imaginable; and it’s credibly penned by Brian Wilson. The story delighted me. I know every movie needs to have a story line, but this is unusually powerful story-telling indeed.

Patrick Wilson should receive an Oscar nod for his role. His performance is arguably one of the best I’ve seen this year. I’m a generally pretty phlegmatic film viewer, but I really felt the pain Jeff was going through. He ached, both physically and emotionally. Actually, most of his pain was probably psychological. You see, Jeff has a secret.

This secret is going to demand a price. Enter a 90-pound 5-foot-tall conscience, Hayley Stark--aka thongrrrrl14. Hayley mercilessly torments, teases, tortures, and pretty much destroys Jeff’s ability to keep his secret to himself.

There are some implausibilities in this film. How can Hayley lift an unconscious 180-pound man onto a table top and tie him down there, with a seemingly endless supply of used nylon rope? How does Hayley know so much about Jeff and who he chats with? Why does Jeff chat on numerous different sites under the same alias? Why does Jeff use a date that almost anyone could figure out as the combination for his safe?

But I digress. This story is not about the implausibility of the situation. It is a story about the human condition. Its strength is the tension between Jeff’s desperate present and his so-far undisclosed past. What is important to note is this: Jeff is so distracted by his guilt that he is a willing accomplice to his own demise. He follows Hayley’s every suggestion. He could easily change his predicament but he has to protect his secrets. He fights to protect his past from exposure to the sacrifice of his own safety.

Jeff is a predatory stalker. Hayley is a vigilante. Both can be seen in symbolic terms: we are Jeff, Hayley is our conscience. You can never escape your conscience. It tracks you down, grabs you, and never gives you a moment’s peace. My Mom used to always say, “Your sins will find you out.� She was right of course. She always found out. Later in life I figured out she had the help of a nosey neighbor lady. (Our own Holy Spirit in the flesh lived in our neighborhood.) How else could she have found out what I was doing in secret? On the other hand, my mom was actually right about the evil I did: it followed me around and would not relent. There was no escaping what I had done, despite my best efforts to ignore or otherwise shed my guilt for whatever mischief I had committed.

Anyway, Jeff is a pedophile. Hayley knows it and is self-appointed to make sure Jeff does not perpetrate again. She represents the pressure of hidden sin, after too much suppression. I’ve carried much hidden sin and it is not pleasant. It began to consume me. Jeff has his sin locked away in a safe, but it still haunts him. The fact that Jeff doesn’t try to escape is perhaps the most compelling piece of the film. If he were innocent, he could simply go away or call the police to rescue him and have Hayley put in juvie. But, discovery is his real nemesis. That simply cannot happen. Jeff has no interest in changing his ways. He fights hard to protect his secrets. Hayley is making him face them. He is shamed by his past. The girl he still longs for can never find out and he takes great pains to be certain she does not.

This story could be about any one of us. Hayley could be inside anyone’s head. Though I could never commit the atrocities of child molestation, I am still no better than a pedophile because of my own “dirt.� Hard Candy makes such a good photoplay of how disgusting our sin is. What is missing, of course, is the forgiveness that we can all have. We don’t have to be consumed by sin. As bad as Jeff’s life has been, he could still find forgiveness in Christ.

There is such value in a story like this. You see, we all need to come clean with what we do. Fortunately, I have a supportive group of loving friends and family that I can go to if I need to discuss my “stuff.� Jeff doesn’t have that, of course. An appropriate image comes from Psalm 32:3-4.

When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day
long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained
away as with the fever heat of summer.