The Shape of Things
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Movie Reviews of The Shape of Things
Movie Review: Rachel Weisz Is Great, The (Awfully Nasty & Stagy) Film Not
Summary: 3 Stars
'The Shape of Things' has gifted acting talents marred by the self-indulgent director. I'm talking about Rachel Weisz and Neil LaBute, and if you love Ms. Weisz, anyway you like the film, no matter what taste it leaves in your mouth. One thing is clear; she can act, but has a straneg penchant for selecting the wrong project.
This film is based on the London stage production (in which Rachel Weisz was in), about four young art college students. Weisz is sexy and independent-thinking Evelyn, who meets an unassuming, slightly geeky boy Adam (Paul Rudd) in a museum. After the surprisingly light, casual conversations exchanged between them, they start to date each other.
Naturally, it is Evelyn who leads the relations between them, and she changes Adam into a more sophisticated, attractive guy. As this metamorphosis is going on, Adam's realtions with other friends (and a couple in love with one another) Jenny and Philip begin to be influenced, not always in a favorable way.
Neil LaBute loves controversial matters and shows it full-scale. I don't discuss the ending, or Evelyn's personality, but the origin of the film is too clear. 'The Shape of Things' is an inverted version of 'My Fair Lady' (to which the film refers briefly), and well, the diretor surely made the point.
But the film cannot hide its too stagy nature, and more damaging thing is, though the film is impressive in revealing the hidden (so he supposes) motives in our relations, more cool, rational thinking would inevitably lead you to the conclusion that the film's characters are just cyphers. If you know, directly or indirectly, someone who acts like Evelyn, please raise your hand. No one?
The good thing, and perhaps the only thing for you to see here, is the acting of Rachel Weisz. Her deft performance makes the character of Evelyn more human than the one found on Mr. LaBute's misguided script, and if you do not believe in the whole 'presentation' (which no college would allow, I am sure), Rachel Weisz barely makes you, giving a realistic touch to the otherwise monsterously incredible character.
Again, I say, Rachel Weisz's great acting is the only reason for you to see the film unless you want to see the 'Truths' about the manipulative relations between humans. No matter how these views in the film are distorted by someone's 'original' visions, her acting talent is a genuine one.
Movie Review: lord henry wotton as a 21st century bohemian art student?
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Shape of Things" is a beautifully acted, 4 person cinema-play that is too intimate to be a film and too in-your-face to be very illuminating or fresh.Adam, a happy, morally-together all-around good guy dork is befriended and ultimately seduced by Evelyn, a gorgeous, slightly-radical thrift-store-shopping art student who walks the fine edge between eccentric and sociopathic.
The Picture of Dorian Grey is a template that LaBute used unabashedly, Evelyn simultaneously taking the roles of Henry Wotton, The Tempter and Corrupter-- and Basil Hallward, The Sensitive Artist Using Life As A Canvas. Adam is quite obviously pre-and-post Dorian Grey, at first youthful innocence, and later a cold, past-salvation work of "Art" with a capital "A". She never cared for Adam, she only saw him as a tool with which to create her Important Statement about how we View Others to the Unenlightened Masses.
Evelyn uses Adam as a canvas to create her masterpiece (Aka her graduate thesis project). In retrospect, it's a madman's bet with his own alter-ego: I bet that I can use all my feminine wiles to take this nice, unique, moral guy and turn him into a mainstream, corrupt toy of my own creation.
Of course, the point is duly made and shoved into audiences faces like one of the experimental performance-art pieces that Evelyn takes Adam to. Adam morphs into a sort of post-modernist Dorian Grey, except it's his face which bears Evelyn's brushstrokes (right down to a nose job), instead of some canvas safely hidden in an old schoolroom.
The 4 (and only 4) actors portray their roles admirably. Especially Rachel Weisz, who is the central force of the entire film and makes you feel uncomfortable, angry, respectful and admiring simultaneously while making her point well enough to make you understand her position, even if you disagree.
Unfortunately, the film suffers from its own pretensions as much as anyone else's, and you start feeling towards the end that the movie itself is playing a trick on you just as Evelyn is-- it has no affection for its audience, and it doesn't really care if it breaks your heart or crushes any ideals. It only cares about being right and being shocking. I'm all for being right, even if it shocks people. But twisting reality to appear truthful just for the pleasure of pushing the limits of Beauty, Art and Truth is never enjoyable. The real bohemians would have disapproved. Oscar Wilde would have been amused.
Movie Review: She loves me (not)
Summary: 3 Stars
Paul Rudd plays a man who has nothing whatsoever that makes him distinguishable from anyone else. One day he meets a graduate art student at the gallery where he works and asks her out. She accepts which is a surprise to him since he's slightly overweight, wears glasses, has never had much success with ladies, and she is--in a word--stunning.
Soon into their relationship things about Rudd's character start to change. He begins working out, dressing better, and starts to consider cosmetic surgery. In direct proportion to how much time he spends with his artistic, creative, and beautiful girlfriend he starts to see more of these qualities in himself. In fact, so much so that he's willing to sacrifice his friendships to become closer to her. Then comes the day that her final art project is revealed and Rudd begins to question the validity of their entire relationship.
This was one of those films that makes you not want to be around people because you can't help but think that everyone might be as unfeeling and uncaring as some of the characters in this film. To put someone else's feelings and wellbeing in jeopardy for the sake of one's own art is incomprehensible to me... and fascinating to watch. The Shape of Things is one of those films that makes you think about things and is therefore, in my opinion, worthwhile. Like Voltaire once said, "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." I hate the message that this film presents. I hate the bleak picture it paints for the state of people's emotions and the way that people can overlook the bounds of common courtesy for their own selfish ends. But that being said, I understand that it happens every day, and this film does a great job of portraying the banality of human thoughtlessness.
I think it's also important to watch the introduction to the film by director Neil LaBute that's included as one of the DVD extras. In it, he talks about the difficulties of bringing this story, which was originally written as a stage play, to the theatre and how it affected the casts' performances.
Movie Review: Rachel Weisz's performance is great but the movie is not.
Summary: 3 Stars
The Shape of Things is a decent movie but it feels awkward in a lot of places, and most of the dialog is a bit stiff. Rachel Weisz is probably one of the best actresses we have in our generation and she does carry this film on her back and for her performance alone, this movie gets three stars from me. The movie as a whole does not cut it in the reality department, and the whole process of Paul Rudd becoming a man was a bit ridiculous, and a bit hard to swallow because it was obvious from the get go on what she was trying to do and if he did not see what was coming, then he is much more at fault than she was because he let happen.
Like I said before, Rachel Weisz is the only reason I give this film 3 stars but the movie really needed to pull itself together in order for me to take it seriously.
Movie Review: Well, I'd do what Evelyn said too!
Summary: 3 Stars
Actually, I found this to be rather pointed. An MFA student (Evelyn) who reminded me of many pomo chicks I have known, decides to see how completely she can get a guy (Adam) to change for her- from his image to his friends. This was as drastic as it was because he had no idea they didn't have a real relationship and that she was doing everything she was doing in order to document it and then put it on display- but really it was just illustrating the nature of many relationships hyperbolically. The actress made a really good sociopath.. woooo. And c'mon, the guy did look better later- but his "before" photo was like one of those from a magazine makeover where they mess up their hair first and put them against a paste-colored background so Evelyn kinda cheated